Masters of the Battlefield - The World's Greatest Military Commanders and their Battles, from Alexander the Great to Norman Schwarzkopf

by Julian Thompson

Major General Julian Thompson expertly analyzes the key movements of some of the most important battles in history, from Cannae and Blenheim to the Anzio Breakout and Operation Desert Storm, to uncover the individual genius of each commander. Their most celebrated victory is described in detail and illustrated by a unique, full color, pull-out map which has been specially produced for this book by an experienced military cartographer, Julius Caesar’s stunning victory against the Gauls at the Siege of Alesia Washington’s brilliant defeat of the British at Yorktown Wellington’s closest-run battle at Assaye in India Napoleon’s ingenious plan to defeat the Austrians and Russians at Austerlitz Patton’s destruction of the German forces at Ardennes Collins’s masterful control of Operation Cobra

Genres: History, Military History, Military Fiction

64 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Major General Julian Harold Atherdean Thompson, CB, OBE is a military historian and former Royal Marines officer who as a brigadier commanded 3 Commando Brigade during the Falklands war.

Thompson, who was British commander on the islands during the final phase of the conflict has written extensively on the Falklands conflict and British military history. He is also a visiting professor at the department of War Studies, King's College, University of London.

Reviews

[Blake Pilling]

Excellent high level overview of some of history’s most successful battlefield commanders. I really liked the combination of maps, key battles, pictures, and historical information about the individuals. I think that the commanders were well-chosen and represent many of the finest commanders in history. I do think that the selection is slightly biased towards western military history and leaves some impeccable Asian and African commanders out.
The editing left a little to be desired (I found about a dozen mistakes or strangely worded sentences. The battlefield maps and descriptions were also a little hard to view due to being split across multiple pages.

[PottWab Regional Library]

SM

[15655 Stockton]

A very interesting book for people who are intrigued by the art of war. It starts with Alexander the great and goes all the way to the Iraq war and desert storm. I also like this book because it has a map for one of the greatest battle of that general. This book has a lot more information than what you will need for a history project.

[Zbehn]

awesome book but I like learning about war, new things learned about the strategies and ones that could still work today