Greenhill Books sent the following press release--RL.

The current issue of THE SPECTATOR (London) carries a long, two-page review of 1815: THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN - Wellington, His German Allies and the Battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras by Peter Hofschroer. The review is by Alan Mallinson and he disagrees strongly with the author. To quote portions of the review:

"In the preface to his offensive and deeply flawed book he states, 'Every historian has an axe to grind.' His admission that he himself is no exception is one of the book's few indisputable claims. ... the brash certainty and extent of Hofschroer's claims are singular ... Modern British accounts he writes off as shallow, superficial works that repeat and embellish selected myths without bothering to refer to the better accounts [presumably German] of the campaign.

These strictures are at best disingenuous. Of modern books he omits to mention, for instance, David Hamilton-Williams's fine WATERLOO, NEW PERSPECTIVES (1993)

... Whether on discovering, in the Duke's own words, that Bonaparte had 'humbugged' him, Wellington sought to conceal his 'tardy' deployment is - at most - conjectural: all the documents that Hofschroer cites are open to interpretation.

...One of Hofschroer's problems seems to be that he does not have any understanding - or feel - for the dynamics of a large-scale military operation and for what Clausewitz called friction.

The Duke had his faults. He was Fabius Maximus Cunctator to the French's Hannibal. But the weight of military responsibility he carried at that moment was enormous (Hofschroer at least concedes, 'There was probably only one commander in Europe who could make something out of this seething bundle of contradictions and frictions'). On Wellington's decision when and where to deploy the Anglo-Dutch-German army rested the outcome of the campaign, and the point needs constantly reinforcing. Herr Hofschroer has spoiled what could have been a useful account of the part played by the Prussians in the Waterloo campaign by indulging in hindsight while grinding an axe."

NOTE: Peter Hofschroer is writing to THE SPECTATOR in response to this review, and if his letter is printed we will circulate it.

Hofschroer Rebuttal

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