Featured battle : Raab

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 14 June 1809

Prince Eugene de Beauharnais commanded a French force of 43,000 detached from Napoleon's main army in order to hinder the Austrians under Archduke John. Leading a strike force of just 24,000 Beauharnais caught the Austrians near the town of Raab. He first used his cavalry against the left wing of the Austrians then switched it to attack Austrian cavalry. His infantry pushed forward and quickly gained success on the Austrian left but their centre held until more of the French came to the battlefield. Archduke John withdrew northwards. Beauharnais was able to join Napoleon for the battle of Wagram whereas Archduke John could only come up as far as Pressburg over 30 miles away.

Man of War

Anthony Sullivan
Having very recently read about the development of the supply system for the Baltic fleet [see Transformation of British Naval Strategy review on this site] I developed an interest in the career of Admiral Saumarez. Quite fortuitously I found Anthony Sullivan's new book on the life of the man himself. The book covers the whole of his life and, as one would expect from the title, gives a lot of information about his naval career. The ships he served on, the ships he commanded, the squadrons and fleets he eventually led, as well as the actions he was in are all there. Saumarez did not fight in the battle of Trafalgar and, to the authors credit, that battle gets only a paragraph in passing. The author has done his research and does not need to pad out the narrative. The book is without illustrations but has a sufficient number of maps and battle plans to support the text.
Saumarez was a remarkable fighter, a true naval hero, a family man and a man of his time who was not free of some minor blemishes this I know from reading this excellent book.
Frontline Books. Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2017