Fortresses of the Peninsular War 1808–14

Osprey Fortress #12

by Ian Fletcher, Chris Taylor (Illustrator)

In the course of the Peninsular War, Wellington's army fought several hard battles and smaller actions, but it was the bloody sieges that troubled him more than anything else. Indeed, the performance of his army during the sieges was probably the most disappointing aspect of what was otherwise an extremely successful campaign. Taking 1808 as its starting point, this title deals with the fortress sieges that involved Wellington's Anglo­Portuguese army, and concentrates on four key sites in particular (Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Burgos and San Sebastián). All of these played a vital role in the war due to their strategically important positions. It documents both the sieges and the storming of the fortresses, as well as the general role of the fortresses in Spain and the impact they had on the thinking of the commanders and strategies of the armies involved.

Genres: Military History, History

64 pages, Paperback

First published November 21, 2003

Reviews

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fine Osprey book that I'm very glad to have read. Mr. Fletcher done a pretty decent job giving a thorough accounting of the British sieges of French fortresses in Spain. A tremendous amount of detail combined with some very nice pictures and artwork left me feeling very up to speed on the actions taken by the British.

I deduct a star for some very heavy partisanship, somewhat expected, and a complete lack of any detail on the French sieges of British and allied held fortresses. They are barely mentioned and zero effort was given to describe French methods of handling such warfare. One cannot have a well rounded book on this topic and not at least give some pages to British defenses and French attack methods.

I deducted a second star for two pages of absolute drival... harsh words I know. Mr. Fletcher tries to excuse and bless off the horrible war crimes committed by British forces after overwhelming Badajoz and San Sebastian (pp45-47). He actually called the sackings and murders of prisoners and civilians "Rights" of the besiegers. No, just no. I am sure he was not advocating for these crimes, but spent considerable effort writing to try and clear this stain from the British troops involved. It's war, and things happen... I get it. Calling these crimes "rights" and justifiable, even acceptable because Wellington himself thought it was ok, is simply partisanship in extremis.

As you can see, I ended up rating this a 4 Star book, because in reality I final graded it 3.5 and rounded up. The excellent drawings and photos compensate some for the "Union Jack" colored glasses. I do recommend this for folks interested in the Peninsula War and fortress warfare as done by the British.

[Rob Markley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've long ago stopped expecting much from any of the Osprey series - in fact only one, Terence Wises' Artillery Equipments of the Napoleonic Wars, really stands out. Surely the idea of short format, heavily illustrated series is to pack as much information in as possible and to be as comprehensive as possible? But no!

Ian Fletcher may possibly have some personal insight from fieldwork and research, which I am unable to judge not having read Jones's Journal of the Sieges, which is the main source; but otherwise his conclusions and general interpretations seem out of kilter with most sources including Oman. Surely the Osprey format is not the place to indulge private theories? Yet too much text is devoted to fresh theories rationalising the outrages following the capture of Badajoz and San Sebastian. Another one is the argument that Ciudad Rodrigo fell so easily due to inherent weakness (although true) and to inaction by Barrie, rather than the better conclusion that this was the best planned, prepared and executed of Wellington's sieges. That Ciudad Rodrigo had held out so well against Ney belies at least half Fletcher's argument.

Unfortunately belying the book's title, this covers only the big four sieges of Wellington, completely disregarding the many other fortresses besieged and otherwise of both sides. Even for these there is comparatively little said about the actual fortresses except for example, to point out multiple times that the Upper Tescon was higher than the walls of Ciudad Rodrigo, but inconsistently sometimes claiming by 13' and sometimes 16'. Such sloppiness unfortunately is typical of a rather loose and unorganised writing. The theoretical workings of fortification in this era is largely ignored, yet there is a lot of jargon and terminology used - only some of which is explained in the glossary such that beginners (surely the Osprey market) would hardly make head nor tail of much of what is written. Even without these issues the text is poorly organised and lacks interest. Such a shame as it could have been done so much better.

However all said and done, you buy an Osprey as much for the pictures and here there are some positives. Fletcher's own photos are excellent, albeit that their precise orientation to the fortress plans needed to be documented. There are two marvelous aerial photos of modern Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo the likes of which I have never seen before. Jones's maps are good and Chris Taylor's 3D CAD models of the fortresses (although not perfect) are a huge step up on the normal shaded sketch plans - however this is mitigated by what must surely be a printing error in that the diagrams get progressively darker though the book becoming ascetically most unpleasing and unusable. Most of the rest of the illustrations are uninformative, and could have done with considerably better captioning.

Overall I got what I expected - some good stuff, but bemoan the lost opportunity. Get Christopher Duffy's Fire and Stone for fortresses, and any good Peninsular historian for the sieges.