For hundreds of years, battles have raged over the area of Northern France and Belgium known as the 'fatal avenue'. In War Walks, renowned military historian Richard Holmes explores six of the region's most intriguing battlefields, vividly recreating the atmosphere of their bloody history.
Using his expert knowledge of weapons and warfare, Richard
Holmes provides a clear picture of the events which led up to each battle, the
conflicts themselves, and the men who fought them. Men such as the archers at
Agincourt, who were so ill that many discarded their breeches and fought
half-naked; the British commander who, in the middle of a bitter fight during
the Waterloo campaign, promised his men punishment for stealing fruit from an
orchard; and the German officer who, when facing British rifle-fire at Mons,
shared a bottle of champagne with his troops before giving the order to
advance.
Holmes, using practical 'views of the field', journeys
through the battlefields as they lie today, pointing out their places of
interest, paying tribute to the men who fought there, and bringing history to
life.
- the triumph of the English longbow.
- the allied defeat of Napoleon.
- the opening battles of the First World War.
- a costly First World War offensive.
- a British attack on advancing German Panzer divisions.
- a British battle in the break-out from Normandy.