On the jacket flap of Digby Smith's Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book we mention the fact that Digby Smith used to write under the nom de plume of Otto von Pivka. The linkage needs a little explanation and this can now be provided as Digby has sent us Otto's biography and the interesting history of his use of that name. In 1972, Digby's first book, The Black Brunswickers in the Osprey Men at Arms Series, was about to come out. As Digby was then a major in the British Army it was appropriate to have a nom de plume and, because he was serving in Germany and working on German subjects, he settled upon Otto von Pivka. Otto was based upon a Prussian drum major (Piefka) who, to the Austrians, had typified all that was hateful and overbearing about Prussia. Digby then gave Otto a fictional, tongue-in-cheek biography, which he developed over several books, keeping Otto's age and war record deliberately vague, to keep people off the scent of the linkage with a serving officer of the British Army. A comparison of the colour photo on the jacket flap of the Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book with that on the flap of Napoleonic Armies (David and Charles, 1979) shows that Otto and Digby were one and the same person. Now Digby has retired from the military, Otto is no longer needed and has since been pensioned off. Digby is now using his real name and will continue to do so. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 84 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by Greenhill Books 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