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Summerville (and Petre) on Polish Campaign
https://www.wargame.ch/board/nwc/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7839		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  D.S. Walter [ Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:39 am ]
Post subject:  Summerville (and Petre) on Polish Campaign
I also completed "Napoleon's Polish Gamble" by Christopher Summerville (Harlow: Pen & Sword, 2005). A brief 150 pages in chronological order of events with ample illustrations (maps, prints, paintings--all b/w though), but in the most part merely a compilation of quotes from contemporary sources or secondary books (he relies heavily on Petre's earlier work, among other things, including the maps). I would say that the author's own text is less than 50% of the length of the book, the rest being quotes. Personally I find such books (Britten-Austin's are similar) hard to read because on every other paragraph I need to get used to yet another person's writing style, at the expense of an overall narrative. Nevertheless, as a first overview of the campaign, it serves.

Afterwards I started Petre's classic volume on the same campaign, and I must say I find it more enlightening so far. We have just crossed the Vistula and no battles have yet occurred, but the operational situation has become much clearer to me from Petre's few pages so far than from Summerville's whole book.

Now back to attacking Rich White's Russians at Golymin. [;)]

<center>
D.S. "Green Horse" Walter, Maréchal d'Empire
Duc des Pyramides, Comte de Normandie
Commandant la [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3e Division Bavaroise[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/EdM_start.htm"]L'Ecole de Mars[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant la Brigade de Grenadiers de la Moyenne Garde
Image</center>
Author:  Bill Peters [ Mon Feb 20, 2006 3:22 pm ]
Post subject: 
Its a shame that this campaign and 1806 havent generated more works.

I just got this book in the mail this week. While I dont mind footnotes, quotes, sidebars I do prefer more original writing as a whole.

Coddington's book on the Battle of Gettysburg is a fine read if you havent read it yet. Knowing your interest in detail I am sure you would enjoy the book. The book is 1/4 bibliography and notes! Thus if you want to read footnotes you can find them at the back of the text but if you just want to read the narrative you can do that too.

I have about 12 books on the Napoleonic wars to read. I dont read them as fast as I used to. Or as fast as I read WW2 for instance.

You must have a book inhaler you use! [:D]

Bill Peters
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram)

[url="http://www.fireandmelee.net"]Fire and Melee Wargame site[/url]
Author:  D.S. Walter [ Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:05 pm ]
Post subject: 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="3" face="book antiqua" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Bill Peters</i>
You must have a book inhaler you use! [:D]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Well, afterall reading is my profession. [:D]
Or at least a large part of it.

I finished Petre's book this weekend and liked it throughout. He does a great job relating the movement of armies to geography, logistics and national borders (which play a large role in the strange attempt to cross three rivers at once around Warsaw in late 1806, an aspect that's oddly missing from most other accounts I have seen). With him, the movement of armies does not happen on a chess board. Petre portrays the secondary fronts as well and thus makes clear how much armies of the time relied on geography to cover as much ground as possible at least with detachments so to achieve a nearly continuous front to protect their flanks and rear. Where most other works concentrate on the main bodies and their movements and thus give the impression that they more or less could go where they pleased without caring much for other considerations than hitting the enemy main body. Also Petre's spelling of strange place names is on average much better than everyone else's, even though he too often manages to confuse <i>berg</i> with <i>burg</i> and vice versa. And the maps are much superior to most others as the place names mentioned in the text are actually on them. [:)]

For the first time I have understood what the Polish campaign was really about. Now off to reading his book on the Prussian campaign of fall 1806. [8D]

<center>
D.S. "Green Horse" Walter, Maréchal d'Empire
Duc des Pyramides, Comte de Normandie
Commandant la [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/3_VI_AdR_Home.htm"]3e Division Bavaroise[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant [url="http://home.arcor.de/dierk_Walter/NWC/EdM_start.htm"]L'Ecole de Mars[/url], L'Armée du Rhin
Commandant la Brigade de Grenadiers de la Moyenne Garde
Image</center>
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