by Peter A. Hofschroer, Napoleonic Association & the Author, London, 1980 This is the most recent of the series of booklets issued by the British Napoleonic Associations a society which encompasses within its ranks members of various re-enactment regiments, wargamers, and historians. The Association has about 400 members worldwide. They are the publishers of two series of booklets on a variety of Napoleonic armies and troop types, as well as a quarterly Journal of the Napoleonic Association. I think that I can safely say of this book that it is one which Jean Lochet would like very much. In the 129 pages, the longest section of running text is the section on uniforms. The bulk of the rest consists of short sections of texts supported by lengthy lists of states and orders of battle, plus a number of helpful maps and some full page illustrations that have come out rather well, for all that they are photocopied black and white. Hofschroer presents his subject matter in chronological order, beginning with the first Landwehr levy in 1813, and then proceeding to the additional units raised in 1814 and in 1815. Within a given year he discusses the units by province. He concludes this section with a complete list of the Landwehr in 1815. Each section includes a list of the battalions by the original brigade system# giving battalion commanders and the original numbering scheme . Following this the formation of the regimental system is given, along with the later permutations of the battalions, including mergings, transfers, and re-raisings. The first half of the book is concluded with a sketch of the participation of the Landwehr in the campaigns of 1813 - 1815, a long section on uniforming, and some notes on the Landsturm. In his introductions Hofschroer apologizes for the defects of the book, as he sees them. These are identified as a failure to consult primary source material and the list-like nature of the text. The first of the defects will be more apparent to those who, like the authors are engaged in the formal study of history (Hofschroer is taking a degree in German & History). The rest of us will be simply satisfied with an account based on secondary sources, if it is light years ahead of anything else available in English, as this one is. The second defeat is probably most evident in the section of the book just-described, which passes too quickly for the satisfaction of the interested reader! We have now reached page 71 of the book. 'The next 20 odd pages consist of three detailed states of the Landwehr, for August and December of 1813 and for June 1815. The level of detail is infantry battalion (mostly) and cavalry regiments with reserve squadrons separate. For each unit are distinguished the numbers of officers, NCOs, musicians, privates, surgeons, train soldiers, horses, officers, sick, and men sick. The horse category is still further subdivided in the case of cavalry regiments. The next ten pages after this are devoted to a complete order of battle of the Prussian Army circa the 10th of August 1813. The book ends with a series of appendices for wargamers, lists of abbreviations, notes on translation and orthography, glossaries, and bibliographies. Landwehr & Landsturm is 11.75 x 8.25 inches, 129 pp., illustrated in black and white. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 1 No. 48 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1980 by Jean Lochet This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com