British Napoleonic Infantry Tactics 1792–1815 (Elite)

18th Century infantry tactics, with their close order drill on the battlefield, must seem as remote as the moon to the general reader used to the dispersed, high-tech battlefields of the 21st century. Yet Napoleonic era infantry tactics were the basis for years of warfare in Europe, and the British infantry, under commanders such as the Duke of Wellington, rightly established a reputation for steadiness and lethality in battle.This Osprey Elite Series book "British Napoleonic Infantry Tactics 1792-1815", by veteran historian Philip Haythornwaite, provides a fascinating introduction to the topic. In a brisk 64 pages, Haythornwaite provides an introduction to the era, a discussion of what became the standard "system", and a narrative of how it was applied. There is consideration of some special circumstances such as light infantry and the movement of larger units. There is a competent summary of the "line versus column" confrontations that often seemed to decide battles, for example at Maida and in the Peninsular War. Illustrator Steve Noon's well-done color plates give a good sense of what various formations and tactics might have looked like on the battlefield."British Napoleonic Infantry Tactics" is too short to provide a complete picture of a complex topic, but it is highly recommended to the general reader as a good introduction.

Standard Osprey book that is actually more interesting than its French counterpart (French Napoleonic Infantry Tactics). Text is better written and more to the point.As the data is well articulated and well presented, the book attempts to show how battles were fought by the British Infantry. All is nice and good, however a more critical approach of the "ever victorious" troopers would have made for a more interesting read. As always with the Osprey format, there will never be enough room to let the reader fully satisfied with the content and density of information and the author has to make shortcuts on less known aspects that could be actually very interesting (e.g naval landings).a honest hardly mandatory book.

Good General overview of the tactics used. Covers the British Army tactics of the period rather well. Well illustrated formations. Not a book on uniforms. Recommended.

I love all these Osprey books.They give an easy to read and yet enough depth to understand basic military actions or historical facts.the pictures are great if you want to paint figures or just help in explaining the information shown.tony

Good

Generally, it was the best all round introductory book on British Napoleonic infantry tactics you could have.It was inclusive, yet waste no words on overly technical matters.Great for Napoleonic war lovers.

A+

fine and interesting

I really enjoyed this book. Like its 'companion' volume by Paddy Griffith on French Napoleonic Infantry tactics, this book is very well illustrated (It's worth buying both as I did as they compliment each other well). Good illustrations are a serious advantage for what can be a complicated subject on occasion with a picture being worth a thousand words as they say.Haythornthwaite writes in a very informative and engaging style, which is invaluable when trying to explain complicated military manoeuvres. I found the explanations of the famous reverse slope tactic to be particularly good, especially when accompanied by illustrations of the tactic at different stages. Haythornthwaite also gives a good description of light infantry skirmishing tactics. Having been aware of the influence of Sir John Moore on British tactics, I was pleased to see an examination of the contribution from lesser known figures such as Dundas in this book as well.Although I've read studies that go into this subject in greater depth, this provides a great introduction to British Infantry tactics for the period. It proved to be a timely reminder for me about certain concepts and aided my understanding of some of the more difficult to comprehend manoeuvres. This is an excellent book.

Auch dieser Band der bewährten Elite-Reihe vom Osprey Verlag überzeugt inhaltlich. Überraschend ist nur die Druckqualität der Abbildungen. Sie zeigt Probleme, die in letzter Zeit häufig bei gedruckten Ausgaben zu beobachten sind. Während die erste Auflage (2008) gute Auflösungsqualität und Farbigkeit der Abbildungen zeigt, sind bei dieser Auflage im digitalen Druckverfahren "on demand" unscharfe SW-Abbildungen oder auch viel zu helle Farbabbildungen zu beklagen. Es erinnert an eine Kopie der Kopie der Kopie...schade! Vielleicht sollte zukünftig eher auf Printversionen in dieser Form verzichtet und allein auf E-Book Publikationen gesetzt werden. Auch wenn ich es persönlich bedauern würde...

Booklet of 64 pages, but up to the standards of Osprey Elite Series. 8 color plates showings parts of the tactics used. Numerous drawings and paintings. Interesting read. Well researched. Large Bibliography. Recommended, well done.

This book is an easy read, but readers will get few new insights. The first part is a fairly detailed review of drill, as developed by Dundas. This is quite interesting, but it doesn't have all that much to do with tactics. There is too much detail on some issues (the many moves possible only on the parade ground), but perhaps not enough on others (the issues around moving by files, and so on, that so heavily influenced French methods). The book then moves onto tactics proper. The author displays his entensive knowledge and reading, but, like so much writing about the Napoleonic era, it drops quickly into analysis by anecdote, when the main insights are likely to come from taking a fresh analytical look at the various battles. Paddy Griffiths's volume on French tactics is much better in this repect. It would have been interesting, for example, to contrast the tactical successes with the (small number) of failures (like Cole at Salamanca), as well as putting a bit more context around the quotations (didn't the British cavalry have a lot do do with the success of Leith's attack in the same battle, used as an illustration?).The pictures are a delight - trying to show how things might have looked in real life, with aerial views of formations and combats. If you are used to wargaming with miniatures this is a wonderful corrective. There is a silly mistake on the picture of an oblong-square, which unfortunately makes it onto the front cover, though. The sides should be much more equal (there were 2 companies on front and back faces, and 3 to each flank, not the 1 to 4 shown). There is an interesting depiction of a reverse slope defence - but this is not taken from any particular battle, and I'm very suspicious of anything this abstracted - it tends to perpetuate myths (again the companion on French tactics is much better here).British Napoleonic tactics are covered in a dense mythology that started in contemporary accounts and has evolved since. It's a pity that so few writers are interested in unravelling it. Mr Haythornthwaite writes fluently, but he does not attempt to take this on.