Bushidan – Game play

By Pauli Kidd

Bushidan simulates the small scale warfare between samurai clans, warrior groups, warrior alliances and regional collections of ikki, bandits and pirates. It also covered battles in regions where Japanese pirates, mercenaries and invaders operated outside of Japan (EG. Korea, Siam, the Ryuku kingdom, the Philippines).

A player’s force is referred toas their ‘bushidan’ – their warrior group. This can be the forces of a small clan or warrior family, a regional alliance, a pirate on bandit band, a temple army or a regional ‘ikki’ (covenant).

The game is an element based system. A single base will hold 3 cavalry or 4 infantry figures, and each of these figures represents 5 or 6 men. A base therefore is about 20 infantry or 15 cavalry. All basing and figure numbers are merely suggestions. Players can freely use miniatures based for other systems.

Units (kumi) are created by gathering up to 8 bases together. The bases of a kumi move together and fight together. Kumi are usually made from troops all of the same equipment and training (though variations can be tried!)

All distances are measured in “Distance Units” (one standard base depth). This allows players to use movement and firing distances adapted to the scale of miniatures they have on the table.

Troop equipment and training

The game takes place at a period of rapid evolution in arms, armour and tactics. Fir3earms have become widespread, and have begun to dominate the battlefield. As heavier armour and bulletproof pavises were developed, firearms adapted to become larger calibre, heavier and more powerful. This is couples with  the adoption of shock tactics by cavalry and spear-armed infantry, creating amies that  balanced firepower, shock and mobility.

Japanese military practice varied widely form region to region, clan to clam, with many competing ideas and ‘secret techniques’. This is reflected in the rules system.

Each bushidan designs its ‘ryu’ – its combat style/school. This is done by splitting points up between the different elements:

Ferocity/Fire

Prudence/Wood

Discipline/Earth

Speed/Wind

Cunning/Water

Endurance/Metal

An army receives order chits each turn for each of its values in the first five elements. Random chits are drawn each turn, and can be placed beside units to give them a special ’element based’ order. Different troop types have different types of specialised order.

Armies can also keep some order chits in hand. Therse are used for emergency orders, rallies and the like.

Elemental orders can be extremely effective. However, some elements trump other elements (EG water trumps fire). This can have a serios effect on combat. Players can tailor their orders to try and counter the type of enemy action that is expected.

During play, the players will alternate making unit activations (firing or moving).

Reserved order chits can be used to reactivate the movement of units that have been halted due to enemy fire.

Missile fire

Missile fire and melee combat use 6 sided dice to determine outcomes.

In missile combat, attackers roll a number of dice for each base in their firing unit that is able to fire. Hit scores are determined by the training level of the troops.

The target unit then rolls ‘saving dice’ to resist the effects of the fire. Saving dice are gained for casualties in the firing unit, disorder in the firing unit, from cover, and for having armour that is effective against the incoming weapons fire. Successful saving throws negate enemy hits from missile fire.

Suffering heavy enemy fire can disrupt and halt a unit’s movement.

Units that take casualties become disordered, which effects their combat efficiency.

Melee

Melee occurs when 2 enemy units come into contact. In this case, both sides will be rolling attack dice. Bases gain extra dice if they have heavier armour than their opponent, better training than their opponent, or if they have a melee weapon superiority over their enemy in a given terrain (EG yari in open terrain vs other weapons)

Some elements trump each other. A unit that is under an order chit of an element that trumps the defenders chit gain extra dice in melee.

Both sides roll. The side with the highest number of hits wins the melee. Casualties are determined by the number of hits scored on the opponents dice.

Reserved order chits can be used to rally faltering troops and restore the damage caused by casualties.

Characters

The actions of individual heroes has a great effect upon the battle at the scale of engagement. Leaders and characters can join with units to bolster them in melee. They may also seek out and combat one another. Units with heroes attached to them can have separate duels fought between th4e heroes before the results of the main combat are adjudicated.

Winning a single combat gains an additional victory chit for the player’s army.

Victory

Each player begins the game with a store of ‘victory chits’. This store of chits is based upon the size of their force, and by the ‘metal’ element of their ryu.

As units lose melees or rout off the board, the army will lose victory chits. When all victory chits are gone, the army must flee the field.

Campaigns

The rules have a campaign system designed for group play. This operates off an abstracted map. Players keep track of their relationship with neighbouring bushidan, and can move from states of alliance, to hostilities, to superiority, and finally conquest.

Players will control their realms, deciding to raid their enemies, remain in place to guard their territory, or conduct attacks. Battles generated by the campaign care fought out on the tabletop, and the results move the relationship track between the bushidan.

The aim of the game is to gain glory. Campaigns end when one bushidan has achieved a set glory target.

Foreign forces

The game can bel played with non Japanese ‘bushidan’ controlled by players. Lists are provided that show players the equipment and characteristics of nationalities such as Joseon Koreans, Ming Chinese, Siamese, Ryukans, and even the Spanish in the Philippines.

Colour and background

The rules book includes a great deal of colour and notes on the period – including poems and tactical advice from the great Daimyo. Notes on unusual samurai, female or non binary combatants, Christian Daimyo and notes on armour, banners and symbols will hopefully give modellers and players some inspiration to make colourful units of their own.

I hope that you enjoy the rules!

Scenario one: A day at the beach

Somewhere out in the inland sea, the a clan of sea marauders have established a base upon an island. Their rivals, the Ise, have decided to conduct a seaborn assault upon the island.

The defenders have managed to catch sight of the approaching fleet, and have hastily armed themselves and are racing into defence positions.

The attackers are arriving by ships, which can land on any of the island’s beaches,

The fight is on!

Attackers – the Umejima

The invaders can land on any beach. The invading troops can begin deployed in formations 2 bases wide by 2 deep from each ship. The attacker may elect to land in waves over the first three turns.

Each ship carries 4 infantry bases. Characters can arrive on any boat that suits them , and more than one character can be present per vessel.

The player can design their own ryu, or may take the te one below:

Ferocity/Fire 3

Prudence/Wood 0

Discipline/Earth 2

Speed/Wind 3

Cunning/Water 2

Endurance/Metal 2

Forces

I C in C

I leader

1 champion

1 champion with O-zutsu

13 ships

16 bases of foot samurai –  training 3, heavy armour (bullet proof), yari

16 bases of  lancers – training 2, light armour, yari

8 bases of gunners – training 2, light armour, ban-zutsu

8 bases of archers – training 2, light armour, bow

4 bases of pirates – training 3, light armour, heavy melee weapons.

Defenders: The Iga pirate clan

The defenders begin the game occupying the island. They may set up 4 DUs away from any shoreline, or can place themselves anywhere else on the island.

I C in C

I leader

2 champions

Forces

16 bases of foot samurai –  training 3, heavy armour, yari

8 bases of  lancers – training 2, light armour, yari

8 bases of gunners – training 2, light armour, ban-zutsu – half of the bases have pavise

12 bases of archers – training 2, light armour, bow – half of the bases with pavise

4 bases of armed wakou – training 2, no armour, heavy melee weapons.

4 bases of armed brigands – training 1, no armour, yari.

Scenario 2: Midnight at the riverbanks

Hostilities have been escalating between two clans. Allied bushidan are mobilising to join the main forces.

The defenders consist of two bushidan who have been collecting their troops at a village beside a wide estuary. Each group has camped separately. More troops are expected to arrive over the next few days. Once the troops have amassed, the army will move northward upstream to unite with allied forces for a larger campaign. At the moment, the defenders believe they are well protected by the river. They ae far from known enemies, and are not expecting an attack,

The second clan – the attackers – have secretly approached on the far side of the river.

Unknown to the defenders, the river estuary at this season becomes extremely shallow at the low point of the tide. An enemy force has gathered with great stealth on the far side of the river, and is ready to attack at lowest ebb.

Terrain

The shallow river is currently ‘difficult footing’ for infantry – but not for cavalry.

The action takes place at night, but the moonlight allows for some minimal visibility. There can, however, be errors made! The incoming attach has comeout of thewe darkened east

Troops armed with firearms can be seen at any range due to their glowing slow match, except for infantry forces in the attacking force, who carry their match hidden inside baskets. Once they fire, they may been seen at any range.

The camp and the village are well marked out (and illuminated within its bounds) by fires.

The defending forces:

There are two separate bushidan currently encamped in the region of the river.

The defenders begin the game encamped.

First force – The Sano clan

The Sano are a small, vigorous family that hopes to make a name for itself as an ally to more powerful clans to the north. As a force of c. 150 points, they have a ryu based upon 7 points rather than the usual 12.

Ferocity/Fire 1

Prudence/Wood 2

Discipline/Earth 2

Speed/Wind 0

Cunning/Water 0

Endurance/Metal 2

The Sano forces are all encamped in the supposedly peaceful open ground to the west of the river. Their camp is surrounded by a light barricade of bamboo frames, against which mantlets and bundles bound brushwood and bamboo have been places. These count as palisades, though they are flimsy, and can be destroyed by any unopposed enemy unit that begins a turn in contact with them (the palisade is destroyed with no penalty to movement). The camp gate is blocked by carts, and only counts as ‘difficult footing’ – although the Sano may elect to open the gates and make the gateways clear road terrain. The interior of the camp is open terrain.

The Sano initially have only two small units that are ‘standing to arms” and on duty. The first is a 2 base unit of spears that is holding a barricade at the north road. The second is a 2 base unit of spears at their camp itself, deployed at the northern gate. One leader is currently deployed with the unit at the camp gate.

Pickets

2 bases of infantry lancers – infantry, training level 2, light armour, yari.

1 leader on foot.

There are some small 1 or 2 man picket posts along the riverside roads. These sound the alarm once an enemy force reaches the riverbank (They see the enemy approaching a little way out into the river – but it takes a moment for conches to be blown!)

The camp

The remainder of the Sano forces are all peacefully in camp.

This camp is wide enough to fit all of the defender’s bases, and will be bounded by a light barrier of bamboo poles with occasional sections covered by mantlets. There are ‘gateways’ that are loosely blocked by carts, and count as difficult footing for attackers.

Undefended sections of palisade and gateways can be utterly demolished by any attacking troops that are in contact with them after movement.

Place the remaining Sano troop units within the camp as desired. These troops are currently in quarters, unarmoured. When the alarm is sounded, they will take 1 turn to become active. They will, however be disordered and unarmoured.

Troops may arm themselves with light armour if they spend 2 turns stationary, doing nothing else.

Firearms troops must spend 1 turn unmoving in order to light their slow match before they can fire.

Cavalry will be unable to mount until they  have spent 4 turns stationary finding their mounts and saddling up.

1x champion

2 bases – Hatamoto – elite cavalry, training level 3, heavy armour, yari (but can only deploy as light armoured)

2 bases – Cavalry – cavalry, training level 3, heavy armour, yari (but can only deploy as light armoured)

2 bases – Samurai lancers – training level 3, heavy armour, yari (but can only deply as light armoured)

4 bases – Lancers – training level 2, light armour, yari

2 bases – Samurai gunners – training level 3, heavy armour, samurai-zutsu (but can only deply as light armoured)

2 bases – Gunners – training level 2, light armour, ban-zutsu (cannot fire until slow-match is lit)

2 bases – Archers – training level 2, light armour, bow

The second force – The Ichi-Ikki

This force is more chaotic than the Sano, consisting of regional ikki troops with a high level of ferocity and religious zeal, but minimal hard discipline. As a smaller force, it has a ryu made with 7 points rather than the usual 12.

Ferocity/Fire 3

Prudence/Wood 0

Discipline/Earth 0

Speed/Wind 0

Cunning/Water 2

Endurance/Metal 2

The Ikki troops are all rather haphazardly and raucously encamped in and around the village. Place the units inside village bounds.

The Ikki are disorganised (and some have been drinking). They take 2 turns to don armour and grab their main weapons.

C in C (mounted)

2x champions

2 bases of Temple cavalry – cavalry, training level 3, heavy armour, yari (will deploy with light armour)

4 bases of Temple contingent – training level 3, elite, heavy melee weapons, light armour

8 bases of Ikiki warriors – training level 2, light armour, yari

8 bases of ikki followers – training level 2, no armour, yari

8 Bases of archers – training level 2, light armour, bow

Attackers – The Hoko

The Hoko bushidan has gathered cavalry from many allied families. Their force for this midnight assault is entirely mounted. Supporting infantry are being piggy-backed with the cavalry (riding double), or are mounted upon pack horses and nags.

Any units that carry piggy-backed infantry, or who ride pack horses are automatically disordered if in combat (and the piggy-backed troops do not join in the fighting). These infantry troops may freely dismount at the start of any turn, and then move normally

Ferocity/Fire 3

Prudence/Wood 0

Discipline/Earth 0

Speed/Wind 3

Cunning/Water 3

Endurance/Metal 3

C in C (mounted)

Leader (mounted)

3 Champions (mounted)

2 bases of Hatamoto cavalry – training level 3, elite, heavy armour, yari

12 bases of Samurai cavalry – training level 3, heavy armour, yari

4 bases of Samurai horse archers – training level 3, heavy armour, bow

8 bases of gunners riding double with samurai – training level 2, light armour, ban-zutsu

4 bases of lancers mounted on pack horses – training level 2, light armour, yari, pack horse

2 bases of Stampeding cattle

All attackers deploy in the river anywhere on the eastern side of the table.

Stampeding cattle are represented upon the table as any cavalry troops the attacker desires. They are only revealed to be cattle when they come within two DU of an enemy unit. Stampeding cattle can be made to contact an enemy force. This disordered the enemy but removes the cattle bases that are in contact. A stampeding cattle base in contact with palisades will destroy both the cattle and the palisades.

The attackers are all mounted. Each unit of cavalry carries a unit of infantry ‘doubling up’ riding behind the riders. The infantry will dismount for free once reaching  the western bank of the river.

Scenario 3: The 6 ½ Samurai

A village in a valley has been regular prey to a large force of bandits. This year, however, the peasants have a surprise in store for the marauders. They have managed to secure the assistance of several samurai heroes, who have organised the villagers to battle the invaders!

This is a ‘small scale’ fight, with forces of 150 points or less each.

Terrain:

The villagers have created barricades to protect their village. These offer cover from missile fire. They may elect to open the barricades at any road area, allowing troops during that turn to treat the road zone as clear terrain.

The hills to the north and south are extremely steep. They are impassable to horses.

Bandit forces:

The bandit player may design their own ryu, or they may take the default ryu as listed (7 points):

Ferocity/Fire 2

Prudence/Wood 0

Discipline/Earth 0

Speed/Wind 2

Cunning/Water 1,

Endurance/Metal 2

Forces:

1x bandit leader (C in C) – mounted

1x leader – mounted

1x Character O-zutsu

1 x character

2 bases of bandit armoured cavalry – cavalry with yari, heavy armour, training level 3

4 bases of bandit rabble cavalry – cavalry with yari, light armour, training level 2

16 bases of bandits – infantry with light armour, training level 2

8 bases of bandits – infantry with no armour, training level 2

2 bases of bandits with firearms – infantry with light armour, ban-zutsu, training level 2

Defenders:

The defending player may design their own ryu, or they may take the default ryu as listed (7 points):

Note – the defending force adds +1 to its “endurance/metal” as long as the commander in chief is alive.

Ferocity/Fire 2

Prudence/Wood 1

Discipline/Earth 2

Speed/Wind0

Cunning/Water 0

Endurance/Metal 3

Forces:

1x commander in chief

2x leaders

3x champions

20 bases of peasant spearmen – training 1, no armour, yari

4 bases of peasant archers – training 1, no armour, bow

4 bases of enraged women and youths – training 1, no armour, heavy melee weapons

All characters of the defender’s army roll one extra dice during any duel with an enemy character.

Research and Inspiration for the Bushidan Wargames Rules

By Pauli Kidd

Far back in my childhood days in the 60’s, I developed a fascination for Japanese history. “Shintaro the Samurai” was on TV, ad the strange world I saw there fascinated me. Japanese history has remained a lifelong fascination for me. I have also dedicated many long decades to studying the Japanese weapons arts – both kobudo (the ancient schools), and the full-contact fighting arts for sword, spear, naginata, short sword, knife and bayonet.

So yes – a ‘slight fixation’! But a joyous one.

Bushidan is written to cover a very specific period of Japanese history. It is set during the final eras on the ‘Sengoku’ – the “age of War”. Specifically, it cover the part of this period where shock cavalry have arrived, and firearms are becoming a dominant presence of the battlefield. The period runs from roughly the 1560’s through to perhaps the 1620’s, when the age of the civil wars came at last to its end.

Although this era has several major battles, the bulk of warfare was conducted on a smaller scale, with small garrisons, small clans and regional forces clashing. Therse forces might range from a few hundred to a few thousand strong – and the tactics and battle philosophies of these groups could vary widely from region to region, school to school.

A characteristic of this period is the combination of melee shock troops – cavalry and infantry lancers’ – with the new firepower of musketry.

The spear was the dominant melee weapon on the battlefield. Swords were of use only when the spear has broken. The yari was a deadly tool – it is lightning fast in the attack, and spear men can be used in closer formations than those used by men wielding the naginata.  The yari transformed Japanese battles from conflicts of skirmishing hore archery and loose order infantry into fast moving clahes of troops who were equipped for shock action.

The Japanese first encountered firearms when they met the Portuguese early in the 16^th century on the island of Tanegashima. Skilled Japanese artisan immediately made their own versions of the Portuguese arquebus, and these weapons were called “Tanegashina”, after their original place of creation. But the Japanese did not merely copy. Armour and forearms were swiftly locked into an arms race. Heavier armours were developed in order to offer troops better protection from firearms. But Japanese gunsmiths developed longer barrelled, heavier calibre weapons that could in turn defeat these heavier armours. There were also finely made ‘Samurai-Tanegashima’ that gave samurai troops expensive weapons of higher quality and accuracy than those issued to the rank and file. Most spectacularly of all, a family of monstrous ‘hand cannons’ gained popularity amongst some celebrated samurai heroes. Sophisticated firing drills swiftly made Japanese Tanegashima troops the dominant force on the battlefield.

This, then, is the military technological environment of the late Sengoku.

Studying with a kobudo school is extremely interesting (and exacting). These schools preserve techniques designed for fighting combatants who are in full armour. There are hidden, ‘secret’ techniques, and even books of military theory and magical spells. My particular dedication for a couple of decades was the “Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu” (“Transmitted Directly From Heaven, Katori Shinto Shrine Style”. This style one of the oldest schools still in existence, having been founded during the Onin wars. It’s core curricula involves sword, short sword, naginata, staff, and the 12 foot spear (as well as knife throwing, unarmed combat and other sundries). The school is under the guardianship of the Buddhist deity Marici-ten. As a wargamer, Iwas delighted to discover that the school preserved written treatises on military theory. – field fortification, horse training, troops deployment and logistics. Searching further afield showed that other kobudo had their own material – often very different in approach.

Some kobudo (the ancient schools of martial arts) retain some very interesting skills. Jodo – a art with an immense galaxy of associated schools and katas – has some katas that very much seem to simulate using a firearm as a melee weapon against an attacker armed with a sword. Most fascinating of all is the Satsuma Heki Ryu – an archery school that preserves battlefield drills. These are performed in open fields with the students wearing full armour and carrying full poundage bows. Some research into the school showed that the school had adapted ni dan kamae firearms drills once used by the troops of Oda Nobunaga. There are drills for skirmishing, for cooperating with spear armed troops, and for formations firing while performing introduction and extroduction (advancing or retiring while firing). This school fires form a low kneeling and reloads in a prone position, presenting a small a target as possible. Meanwhile, other battlefield archery schools had very different drills with  groups running forward team by team, making a more fluid like. It was obvious that small unit tactics form the later Sengoku period took many different forms.

The core of the Bushidan rules took this to heart. The Japanese magic systems expressed in Onmyojido revolve around several ‘elements: wood, water, earth, air, metal, fire, and also ‘void’. This thought found its way into martial arts, and directly into military thinking. The furinkazan banners of the Takeda clan are a fine example (“as swift as wind, as gentle as forest, as fierce as fire, as unshakable as mountain.”).

So – why not do some wargames rules that reflect this tactical sense – that are based around what the people in the field at the time believes was happening?

The game allows a players’ forces – their ‘Bushidan’ (warrior group) to create its own ‘school’ by splitting values amongst these different elements. Each element signifies concentration on a p[articular aspect – speed, ferocious abandon, steadfast formation, fluid envelopment and feigned retreats, etc. Players can custom make their own clan’s martial philosophy, tinkering with it to achieve the flavour and feeling that they desire. Do you love the idea of ferocious Takeda cavalry sweeping across the battlefield? Then emphasis air and fire (swiftness and ferocity). Different types of element have different tactical effects on various troop types.

Troops are given orders that emphasise a specific element – but some elements trump one another in battle, gaining advantages. It is therefore worthwhile having some flexibility in hand.

Historical research turned up immense flavour and variety in this period of Japan’s history.

This was an intriguingly diverse period of Japanese history. Japan was part of trade networks that linked it to the outer world. Research swiftly reveals samurai of Ming Chinese and Joseon Korean origins – some of these becoming founders of martial arts school, and even mighty ‘Robin Hood” styler ninja clans who later battled the sinister Koga Ninja (for those of you who are fans of the old “Shintaro the Samurai” TV series, those names will be familiar!) There were also famous foreign samurai from Africa – even a European or two.

There were Christian samurai, and entire Christian domains – some of which fought ferocious wars to stamp out Buddhist and Shino temples and impose Christianity upon surrounding lands.

It was a period of great acceptance and diversity for gender presentation and sexual preferences. Every warlord of the period had same-sex lovers, as well as often those who we now would call transgendered. Women also played far more of a role in military matters that the Meiji period editing of Japanese history once had us believe.  Not only were there many famous female military leaders, but there were also entire battlefield units of women warriors (including a force of female musketeers who gained high renown). Modern archaeology is starting to turn up a considerable percentage of female skeletons in battlefield burial sites from this era.

For the modeller and wargamer, this all gives fabulous opportunities for creating some spectacular champions, units and armies. Add into this the forces of foreign nations that the Jaspanese battles with at the time (Koreans, Ming Chinese, the Spanish in the Philippines, and even Burmese troops for Samurai acting as mercenaries serving the kings of Siam), and we have some colourful armies we can create!

In any case – this was the inspiration for the Bushidan rules. I do hope that you all enjoy them!

For those interested in further research into the period, I can highly recommend relaxing back with an armload of Kurosawa movies and a decent Japanese plum wine. For those interested in the physical arts: The British kendo renmei preserves many older techniques that have vanished form mainstream kendo. The haga dojo in Japan likewise has a pre-war style of kendo that includes trips, throws, twin weapons and other painful delights. Jukendo – bayonet fencing in armour – preserves many skills carried over form spear fighting. But be prepared to be covered in bruises!

Cheers!

War in Ukraine

By Wen Jian Chung

My main motivation in writing these books was a certain dissatisfaction with existing English literature on Soviet, Russian, and Ukrainian tanks, especially post-2014. While a lot of information has surfaced over the past 30 years, most English literature on Cold War Soviet tanks seems content with rehashing the same tropes that existed in the 1980s, especially when it comes to the misunderstood T-64. Post-1991 Russian tank development has generally received significant attention in the West due to Russia’s perceived geopolitical importance, but Ukrainian tank development has been almost completely ignored. Yet, by looking at how the Ukrainians have rethought their priorities in tank development and changed the way they trained, one can see a little bit of how the Armed Forces of Ukraine were transformed from the ill-prepared force of 2014 to one that held the line and ultimately humiliated the Russian military’s failed attempt at regime change in 2022.

I also wanted to talk about some of the aspects of these tanks that are not so easily appreciated by simply looking at the specification tables that usually form the base for comparison when talking about them. Things like the fire control or communications systems, or its ability to handle mud. I also tried to put each tank in the context of the Russo–Ukrainian War, and how these and other qualities may have influenced the successes or failures that either side has experienced, at least up to the time of writing in June 2023. I do not wish to claim in any sense to have written the definitive account of Russian and Ukrainian tanks, but I hope that these books will encourage greater interest in the role the tank has played in this war since 2014, especially on the Ukrainian side.

You can buy War in Ukraine Volume 4: Main Battle Tanks of Russia and Ukraine, 2014-2023: Soviet Legacy and Post-Soviet Russian MBTs here.

You can buy War in Ukraine Volume 5: Main Battle Tanks of Russia and Ukraine, 2014-2023: Post-Soviet Ukrainian MBTs and Combat Experience here.

Airborne to Arnhem, Volumes 1-3

By Grant R. Newell

The three volumes of ‘Airborne to Arnhem’ evolved from interviews and correspondence carried out over forty years of study of Operation Market from the perspective of the British 1st Airborne Division.

My fascination with the Battle Arnhem began after reading the book ‘Arnhem’ by Major General Roy Urquhart in 1973. Fortunately, when I began my research in the late 70’s, many of the participants were still alive and able to recall their experiences with great detail.

The plan for the operation in September 1944 was a bold one, which totally captured my imagination. At the time I commenced my research there were few books written on the subject, especially from the perspective of the participants themselves. With that in mind, I actively began to contact veterans with a view to recording their personal stories.  I now find myself at the same age that many of those men had reached when I interviewed them. 

I think that the content of the personal accounts will provide readers with a greater insight into the mindset of the airborne soldier and the hardships they had to endure as the battle progressed. Particularly when the plan was for XXX Corps relief forces to arrive within 48 hours. The north end of Arnhem bridge was effectively held from the evening of Sunday 17th September until the early hours of the 21st September 1944. The subsequent perimeter formed at Oosterbeek held out for nine days.  With over 150 personal accounts of the battle, including not only airborne, but RAF aircrew and members of XXX Corps, it provides one of the most comprehensive set of personal accounts with a wide range of experiences. 

What is of interest, is the honesty of many of the veterans, expressing opinions formulated after sufficient time to reflect on the event itself and how the battle unfolded. Some accounts were written soon after the war, with memories fresh of recent events.  Many veterans accounts were highly critical of the planning, preparation and implementation of the operation and were not afraid to criticise or praise leadership where they considered it due. All of them however, expressed their pride in being part of not only their individual Regiment or Corps, but of the British 1st Airborne Division.

In many respects it is a collection of human experiences, both good and bad. The men themselves were a reflection of the extremes of human nature, ranging from acts of exemplary bravery on the battlefield which often went unrecorded, and, although far fewer, mention of those that chose to let others do the fighting and remain in cellars. Regimental histories tend to concentrate on the more general aspects, whilst personal eyewitness accounts do not gloss over the less glorious deeds. The overwhelming majority of participants simply did the job to the best of their ability, for which they were trained. Despite a core element of experienced veterans of action in North Africa, Sicily and Italy, for many, Arnhem was their first taste of action.

It is hoped that the three volumes will provide the serious student of the battle detailed information in the form of logistics, load and Lift allocations on a daily basis. Whilst at the same time providing the general military reader and student a broad day by day analysis of the units involved, including RAF resupply and limited ground support, the reasons for which are covered in depth. The majority of each volume concentrates on the large number of personal accounts of the various unit participants. Of particular interest are details of the role of XXX Corps artillery support which became available from the 21st September onwards. Without doubt, the artillery of XXX Corps provided fire support which enabled the perimeter at Oosterbeek to hold on as long as it did, as well as covering the eventual evacuation. 

There are aspects of the battle and opinions which contradict established and perpetuated views that have been repeated from one book to another on the subject. On the basis of fresh interviews obtained, I have offered alternative views and insight which may go against that which has been historically accepted.

Background to Operation Market Garden

‘Garden’ refers to the land forces, ‘Market’ refers to the airborne aspect.

After the ‘D Day’ landings in Normandy in June 1944 the allied armies fought a long hard battle to breakout through the German forces opposing them. Eventually, in August the breakout occurred, resulting in a pursuit of the enemy forces across France and into Belgium.

 Liberating Brussels in early September, the general situation presented Field Marshall Montgomery with the opportunity of launching a combined US and British/Polish airborne operation to secure a series of bridges from Grave to Arnhem in a drive to the Ijsselmeer. This would enable his 2nd Army to advance in a single thrust through Belgium and the Netherlands linking up with the airborne troops along the way. After reaching the British and Polish airborne at Arnhem, the plan was to turn right and strike into the heart of the German Ruhr.

A number of factors, (covered in Volume 3), contributed to the failure of 2nd Army reaching the 1st Airborne Division in 48 hours, nevertheless, the Northern end of Arnhem bridge was held by a small mixed force for longer than planned. The remainder of the 1st Airborne Division made determined but unsuccessful attempts at breaking through to the bridge but were forced to form a perimeter at Oosterbeek until they were evacuated across the Rhine on the night of the 25th/26th September. The battle would go down in British military history as one of the famous battles of the war.

6th September 1944. Photo Reconnaissance Spitfire RM644, of 541 Squadron RAF, based at RAF Benson, flown by Flight Lieutenant L J Scargill, RAF,  took a series of low level oblique photographs in preparation for Operation Comet, later to be replaced by Operation Market. (Photo Courtesy Gelders Archief)

Botha, Smuts and the Great War

By Professor Ian Van Der Waag

Botha, Smuts and the Great War is the result of painstaking research
conducted in South Africa and the United Kingdom. The result is this, first-of-a-kind
volume on the wartime roles of South African prime minister, General Louis Botha and
his deputy General Jan Smuts. They were very different men and they appealed to
different audiences. Botha’s nuance and emotional intelligence complemented Smuts’s
directness and intellectualism. Thrown into a world conflagration in August 1914 and
facing internal rebellion and the threat posed by German troops on the borders, they led
South Africa’s Union Defence Force. Under their command, the UDF – benefiting from
wartime training, sometimes in the field – gained resilience, experience, and battle-
hardiness.

Although lionised during the war by a British public hungry for heroes, there is a
different side to Botha and Smuts. Shunned by Afrikaner nationalists at the time, they
have remained divisive figures. Responsible for the enactment of the Land Act of 1913,
which shaped South Africa’s socio-economic and political landscape, Botha’s statues in
Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria were vandalised on a number of occasions between
2015 and 2022, and there were recent calls for Smuts’s statues to be removed. Behind
Botha’s charming, attractive façade, and Smuts’s stoic machine, were two very human,
imperfect, and quite probably inconsiderate, men. Together they provide a wonderful
lens through which to examine the potent forces of the early twentieth-century world
and the country they hoped to forge. Myopic compatriots had constrained their plans;
but it was the outbreak of war in 1914 that offered the most significant opportunities and
brought the most adverse challenges. They fought insurmountable odds, and achieved
great victories, at home and abroad, but also made startling errors and, ultimately, in
classical fashion risked being crushed by the weight of the world they tried to create.

The British Army of the Late Eighteenth Century

By R.N.W. Thomas

Curiosity led my group of friends and I to examine three large cardboard boxes kept in a corner of our history classroom at school. Closer inspection revealed they contained wargaming figures representing the protagonists in the English Civil War, but how they came to be there and who owned them remained a mystery, even to the school authorities. These small armies of Roundheads and Cavaliers provided us with endless hours of entertainment until, eventually, we succumbed to the siren call of ‘Napoleonics’ with its dazzling array of brightly coloured uniforms, big personalities and the chance to recreate the cataclysmic encounters at Borodino, Wagram, Aspern-Essling and, of course, Waterloo.

Recruits, by Henry William Bunbury. (Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection)

So began my interest in the generational conflict known as the ‘French Wars’ (1793-1815). As all wargamers know, the opportunity to use your newly acquired figures in action is not only an excuse to spend vast quantities of time and treasure buying books on uniforms, but is also an easy entrée into deeper investigations regarding the battles, tactics, strategy and even the diplomatic background of the period. In my case, the more I immersed myself in matters Napoleonic, the more I became aware of the almost complete dearth of material on the wars of the First Coalition, and especially Britain’s involvement in them. This spurred me to investigate.

British Army baggage wagon and escort, by Thomas Rowlandson. (Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection)

But, where to start? I was already reading volume four of Fortescue’s ‘History of the British Army’, covering the Duke of York’s ill-fated expedition to Flanders in 1793-1795, complete with the author’s flowery language and abundant use of superlatives, when my chum Professor Charles Esdaile (then Wellington Papers Research Fellow at the University of Southampton) kindly agreed to let me present a paper at the first Wellington Conference on ‘Wellington in the Low Countries, 1794-1795’. Research for this focussed my efforts and, sufficiently encouraged by its publication in the International History Review in 1989, I embarked on researching various aspects of the British involvement in Flanders, giving papers at the Consortium on Revolutionary Europe between 1991-1993. I was keen to pursue this further, but time was now the major problem. I had left academia after completing my PhD and by the late 1990s much more of my time was taken up by work travel, which meant I was usually spending weekends either overseas or catching up at home rather than sitting in the archives.

And so we come to COVID. Being grounded meant making a fortune out of necessity, and I now had time to pull out my notes from 30 years before to see if I could put together a series of chapters on how a late eighteenth-century British expeditionary force was structured and went about its business. I had already assembled a reasonable amount of material on the commissariat and medical departments of the Duke of York’s headquarters, even writing them up all those years ago which, in my innocence, I thought would be a quick and easy job to convert into something long enough for a book – such is a fool’s paradise. I also discovered that much work had been published on medical affairs in the long eighteenth century during the interval since I last looked at this subject, so some effort was required to cover the new literature.

Having knocked out the two easiest chapters in terms of work required (always good for the morale), I then started on a chapter discussing the Duke of York’s staff using a goodly pile of notes assembled back in the late ‘90s. Work had taken over by then, leaving me no chance to write anything up, and the interval of time meant I had to re-learn my thoughts from all those years ago (at this point, I reckoned it would be a lot easier to start from scratch rather than re-start something part finished).

The two chapters on the fighting arms were a bit different, since my previous work had scarcely touched on them and I was more or less able to write with a clean sheet. I had previously read all the published regimental histories, but these proved of rather limited use since most were written in the nineteenth or early twentieth centuries and suffered greatly from their authors’ lack of archival work and the general absence of material on 1793-1795 published in English. I must admit I approached the final analysis chapter on ‘The Ordnance’ with marked trepidation. Very little has been written on this vast subject as far as the eighteenth century is concerned, so getting handy pointers regarding which document series to look at in the archives was strictly limited. I have a theory that most potential researchers have been put off by the gargantuan extent of the various Ordnance holdings in The National Archives, and the relatively poor catalogue descriptions of them. Whoever ventures forth to investigate will be richly rewarded, assuming they don’t get lost in the meantime.

Having completed ‘No Want of Courage’, I am very aware that each of its chapters could easily be expanded to form a book of its own, so little has been the work done on the British Army of the late eighteenth century. The period is sandwiched between the American War of Independence, which continues to receive substantial attention, especially in North America, and the ever-popular exploits of Lord Wellington in the Peninsular. The British Army was a very different beast by 1814-1815 than it had been in 1793-1795, though I would argue that only by looking at where it started is it possible to appreciate the full extent of its achievements at the end of the French Wars.

Ciphers & codes in the First Civil War

By Peter Leadbetter

Author of The Perfect Militia, The Stuart Trained Bands of England and Wales, 1603-1642, Peter Leadbetter writes about some research he is currently undertaking on cyphers and codes used during the British Civil Wars.

In days before electronic communications, the written word reigned supreme.  One problem in the Civil War was getting that written word from the sender to the recipient, safely.  Then as now, communications were being intercepted and read by the other side, something which neither side could prevent.  Methods to improve the arrival rate were used, multiple letters being sent, carried by different messengers being one.  The main problem was that if a letter fell into enemy hands they could read what had been written.  A number of solutions were used to prevent or slow down this compromising situation were used.  Invisible ink was one where an innocent letter would be written in ordinary ink and a secret one written between the lines using lemon juice or similar fluid, literally, “reading between the lines”.  The most common method used however was ciphers and codes, the more common of these being ciphers.

To use a cipher, the people concerned had first to ensure that the recipient had a copy of the cipher, there is at least one case where, post Naseby, King Charles had to borrow a cipher because he did not have one that the recipient could use.  That done the letter could be written and then enciphered.  Usually only parts of the letter would be in cipher, it is rare for a whole letter to be enciphered.  One problem I have encountered with these letters is mistakes made when the letter was being enciphered.  Usually it’s a simple case of looking at the decipherment table and looking at cells either side or above or below to get the correct value.

If or when these letters were intercepted, it was a case of how long would it take to decipher them.  In some cases the answer is never, other cases, a few weeks and some, the next day.  The time taken depended on the complexity of the cipher used and the amount of enciphered material that was available, the more the better.  The problem at this point was whether the contents were worth the effort in deciphering them.  Imagine spending 2 weeks deciphering a letter to find out that it concerned events that had already taken place during those 2 weeks.  The question to ask is, did anything useful come out of that effort.  The answer is yes.  If a cipher has been broken, it means that the next time it is used a letter can be deciphered in a very short space of time.  A particular cipher was usually used by a very small group of people, that group could be identified from their use of that particular cipher, another useful outcome.

So what did the ciphers look like?  The most common form was the use of dinomes, 1 or 2 figures representing a single letter, actual numbers were spelt out and not enciphered.  One oddity here is that the alphabet used was often shorter than the official alphabet.  The letters i and j were basically interchangeable and so usually only the letter i was used, the same applied to the letters u and v and finally the letter z was rarely used and so was sometimes not included..  This meant that the alphabet used was often only 23 letters long and not 26.  Please note the use of the words usually, often and rarely.  Usually the numbers 1 to 90 were used for the letters with letters being assigned 2, 3 or 4 values to make the system more secure.  Two other forms were often seen, these were digraphs, a letter and a number and trinomes, 3 numbers.  The digraphs usually represented a short word, at, is and was, or a syllable, ing, ly or pre for example.  The trinomes would be used for longer words, nouns, places or people.  A cipher system could use 1, 2 or all 3 of these forms.

Codes, as mentioned, were also used.  These were far more complex and involved replacing each word or a number of words in a document with another word.  So for example, King Charles could be referred to as Mr Smith, Prince Rupert, Mr Brown, London could be France and Oxford could be Germany.  Codes are far more complex than the ciphers which were used.

In my research I have been focussing on reconstructing the cipher tables and to date have 31 useable tables which I am adding to as my research continues.  I am using these to re-examine the deciphered documents held in various archives and as well as gaining more data I am also, in a number of cases, correcting the original decryptions.  I am also looking at the documents that were not decrypted during the Civil War.  There are not many of these.

Finally, I am also be looking at the men who did this work at the time.  Many of these men are unknown to us today and yet their contributions to the war efforts of whichever of the parties that they worked for needs to be made known.

Disputed frontiers in early 19th Century South Africa: considerations of a recent author

By Hugh Driver

My name is Hugh Driver, and I am the author of the new book Controlling the Frontier: Southern Africa 1806-1828, the Cape Frontier Wars and the Fetcani Alarm, published in the Helion From Musket to Maxim series. 

The first thing to note is that, as with all historical studies on this subject, one must be aware of the continuing sensitivities involved.  Some of the language, nomenclature, and views expressed by persons quoted in the text will by their nature likely be offensive to modern readers.  Therefore while, as a matter of historical integrity, they may be presented in quotations from contemporary sources, they must be clearly identified as such and should only be used in that manner.  In the main text demoded usages must not be employed.

Portrait of a Xhosa chief, ascribed to a dragoon officer in the force under Graham’s command, 1812

Hottentot (Khoikhoi) bugle boy, Cape Regiment, sketched by ensign R.H. Dingley, October 1816

Fortunately, this is second nature to me, for while I gained an MA in War Studies from King’s College London and a DPhil in modern history at Oriel College, Oxford (Cecil Rhodes’ old college), my wife is from Zambia, and we have a farm and family there.

The book takes as its starting point the British occupation of the Cape Colony in 1806 and examines the inherited and, in the colonial administration’s envisaged terms, ultimately unsuccessful struggle to determine and stabilize the complex and contentious multi-racial eastern frontier. 

Much ground is covered, but in this, the first of a projected 3 volumes (not necessarily to be published by Helion), I would draw particular attention to the analysis of Colonel John Graham’s controversial method of frontier control, implemented in the wake of the Fourth Cape Frontier War of 1811-1812, and the inter-Xhosa Battle of Amalinde in October 1818, which is carefully delineated from contemporary sources.  The latter, so little known today, was christened at the time by the influential missionary William James Shrewsbury (whose journal and letters constitute an unrivalled source) ‘the Waterloo’ of the Xhosa.  Inspired by the millenarian vision of the Xhosa prophet, Nxele, it led directly to the Battle of Grahamstown and the Fifth Cape Frontier War of 1819.

Boer Commando, sketch by coppersmith, engraver and pioneer photographer, William Syme

But that events were never wholly in the administration’s control was seen most starkly in the reluctant deployment of colonial forces beyond the frontier in the aftermath of the war.  This forms the final and perhaps most significant chapter of the book.  Far from being part of some nefarious initiative, the deployment of forces into the Thembu and Mpondo regions to the north-east was piecemeal and in response to the little understood events of the so-called ‘Fetcani alarm’.  The alarm, as it transpired, was essentially how the Cape Colony experienced the Zulu-generated Mfecane, and it culminated in a British campaign on the Umtata and the highly contentious and much misunderstood Battle of Mbolompo in August 1828, where a British force and its Boer and African allies fought Matiwane’s Ngwane in the mistaken belief that they were Shaka’s Zulus.  It thus forms a direct bridge to events in Natal. 

‘Steerage of a Transport’ (troop ship), bound for the Cape, 1819

Crossing the Kei (Baines)

Controlling the Frontier is a concise, easy to read, and well-illustrated book, both self-contained, but at the same time providing a useful foundation for understanding what subsequently became known as The Great Trek, together with the later frontier and trans-colonial wars.  My next volume will incorporate elements of these, whilst encompassing surveying, warfare and trading in south-east Africa more widely from 1821 to 1833.  Being well on the way to completion, it includes a central section on Shaka and the early European Natal pioneers; while work also continues on the third and final volume of the projected trilogy, covering The Great Trek period up to the British military occupation of Port Natal in 1842. 

As a preliminary to this I have already published a revised and updated translation from Afrikaans of Professor B.J. Liebenberg’s ground-breaking 1977 monograph, Andries Pretorius, Voortrekker Leader in Natal, Blood River to Congella (Barksdale Books, 2020).  I would recommend anyone interested in the subject to refer to that title.  They would be well rewarded. 

Living with the Hundred Years War

By Peter Hoskins

The Battle of Castillon, 1453, The Death Knell of English France, is the second book author Peter Hoskins has written for Helion. Peter, who lives in France, has written extensively on the Hundred Years War. In this new blog, he discusses the attraction of the period.

When I first came to live in south-west France, I was immediately struck by how the mediaeval history of our two countries remained evident in so many ways. A couple of miles from where I lived was a small chateau which had belonged to a Frenchman who had been a counsellor to Edward III in the 1360s. Local towns spoke of their history during the period of La Domination Anglaise (a misleading term for a relationship which was by and large based on mutual interests for the Gascons and English – but that’s another story) and street names such as the Rue du Prince Noir and Rue des Plantagenets abounded. When in 2005 I started to research my first book, In the Steps of the Black Prince, The Road to Poitiers 1355-56, more subtle evidence of the lasting English influence in Aquitaine became apparent. Two examples were language and attitudes, all the more striking when one recalls that the English were finally expelled from the region more than five-and-a-half centuries ago. The French word for river, rivière, strictly speaking applies to a tributary, and a river that flows into the sea is a fleuve. The rivers Garonne and Dordogne which converge to form the Gironde are therefore rivières and the latter a fleuve. However, for many French people in the region they are all still rivers, dating back to the English, or perhaps more accurately Anglo-Norman, language influence and reflecting English rather than French usage. Much of my research involved following the campaign routes on foot and interviewing local historians. On one occasion I was staying in a bed and breakfast and some fellow guests asked what I was doing and where I had come from. On hearing that I had started from Bordeaux they said, ‘Oh dear, the people of Bordeaux are so boring and uninteresting, they have no sense of fun. It is their English heritage.’ A little later I was close to Toulouse and asked the historian with whom I was talking whether he was from Toulouse. ‘Good heavens no! The Toulousains are vulgar, they have no culture, and they think of nothing but partying. We Bordelais are sober, cultivated, and well-educated. Its our English heritage you know.’ Perhaps all caricatures have an element of truth in them, but what amazed me was that after so long people could attribute these perceived characteristics to events so long ago.

As I travelled on my research, I continued to find evidence of the lasting nature of the English presence in Aquitaine. Many bastide towns were founded by English Kings in their capacity as Dukes of Aquitaine. The town of La Réole had a plaque in a square recording how the town owed its wealth to the English presence in the Middle Ages. I now live in the town of Saintes on the river Charente. The boundaries of English Aquitaine changed frequently with the ebb and flow of fortunes of war, but for a period the river was the frontier between English held and French territory with the English town on the left bank where I live. The cathedral bears an inscription recording Louis IX’s victory over Henry III outside the walls of the town in 1242 in one of the many Anglo-French conflicts which pre-figured the Hundred Years War. A few miles away is the town and castle of Taillebourg. Eleanor of Aquitaine and her first husband Louis VII stayed here on the night of their marriage, and after her second marriage to Henry Plantagenet her son Richard the Lionheart captured the castle in 1179. It also figured in the war between Louis IX and Henry III in 1242-43, and in 1351 it was Charles VII’s headquarters during the first of his campaigns to drive the English from Aquitaine. Two years later the Earl of Kendal was imprisoned here following his capture after the Battle of Castillon. With this as background, my next book, The Battle of Castillon 1453, The Death Knell for English France, was a natural subject for me. Having written extensively on the Hundred Years War, in addition to the local interest, I wanted to have a look at this little known and final battle of the Hundred Years War. The battle is of interest not only because it triggered the surrender of Bordeaux and the end of three centuries of English presence, but because for the first time artillery had a decisive influence on the battlefield.  As part of my research, I visited the battlefield. There are two monuments in the vicinity. One erected in 1888, at a time when Anglo-French relations were at a low ebb, commemorates the French commanders and their victory. A second, on the spot where  the commander of the Anglo-Gascon army, John Talbot, First Earl of Shrewsbury, was said to have been buried after the battle was raised in 1953 to commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the battle – not to celebrate the French victory, but to remember the bravery of Talbot who rode into battle unarmed and without armour to respect his oath, given on his release from captivity in 1450, never again to take up arms against Charles VII. The English heritage runs deep indeed in this part of France.

Taillebourg

Taillebourg castle was closely associated with Anglo-French rivalry. In July 1242 the army of Henry III was driven off by Louis IX before the French victory outside Saintes two days later.  It was used by Charles VII as his headquarters in the summer of 1451 after the fall of Bordeaux to plan the capture of Bayonne. The castle was rebuilt in 1423; the only structure remaining from this period is a tower.

Talbot Monument Castillon. ‘In this place died General J. Talbot’

Century of the Soldier and From Retinue to Regiment Series Forthcoming Releases

By Charles Singleton

It is almost the end of September now and the Early Modern editorial team are
stepping up a gear to get new books to print ahead of Christmas.

In October, the Century of the Soldier series will see the publication of Soldiers and Civilians, Transport and Provisions: Early modern military logistics and supply systems during the British Civil Wars, 1638–1653 by Glenn Price. This new book examines the British Civil Wars within the context of the logistics and supply systems. How the military logistics and supply systems of the period functioned is revealed, including what methods of supply were used, what decisions
and events these systems impacted, and how these related to strategic and tactical
outcomes of the wars.

Many questions that have bedevilled previous historiography—and some that remain
contentious even today—are likewise explored through this new perspective. This
includes, but is not limited to, countering the simple narrative that Royalist armies
were terribly supplied in comparison to Parliament, placing the Royalists’ Gloucester
campaign in its correct strategic context, highlighting Catholic recruitment to
Cromwell’s forces in Ireland, and providing a reasonable and informed explanation
for Prince Rupert’s decision to fight at Marston Moor—all through the lens of logistics
and supply. It emphasises the absolute necessity of interactions between civil and
military authority across multiple levels to supply early modern forces, providing a
more nuanced history of civilian and military interactions than the popular view of
soldiers imposing their will on a suffering population.

The author, Glenn, lives in Shropshire, and is a professional researcher who has a
passion for military history. He started his academic career as a mature student,
gaining a BA in History and International Relations, before going on to read for a
MRes in Medieval Military and Political History and a Doctorate in Military Logistics.
Glenn will be giving a paper at the Century of the Soldier Conference on 11th May
2024 at the Midland Institute Birmingham.

From Retinue to Regiment also has a new October release. The Battle of Castillon, The
Death Knell of English France by Peter Hoskins. Castillon, fought on the 17th July
1453, was the last of the major battles of the Hundred Years War. The battle was a
catastrophic defeat for the English and saw the rapid collapse of their control in
south- west France. Bordeaux, the capital of Gascony fell to the French just three
months later, leaving just the region around Calais under English control.
The battle also marked an important step in the development of warfare. The
victorious French army had undergone many reforms. It was a professional standing
army that made extensive use of gunpowder weapons. The book gives context to the battle by examining the French military reforms and the course of the Hundred Years
War up to Castillon.

John Talbot, who died in the battle, had a long and successful military career, and
was one of the few English commanders to emerge from the final years of the 100
Years War with his reputation intact. He fought during the reconquest of Normandy
and, as the commander of the English army attempting to stem the French tide in
Gascony, was a key figure in the later years of the war. His military career is
described and the book then recounts in detail the campaigns in Normandy in 1449-
50 and in Gascony in 1451 and 1452-3. The battle of Castillon, the decisive action in
the final French reconquest of Gascony, is described in detail. The book concludes
with an account of the aftermath of the battle and the final expulsion of the English
after the surrender of Bordeaux three months to the day after the defeat of John
Talbot at Castillon.

The author, Peter Hoskins, lives in France and has written extensively on the
Hundred Years War. This is his second book for Helion, he is currently researching a
forthcoming title on the English Army of the Hundred Years War.