Featured battle : Almeida

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 04 April 1811 - 11 May 1811

The fortress was garrisoned by 1,400 French troops under General Brennier. The investing force varied but was in the region of 13,000 men. Massena's attempt to lift the siege resulted in his defeat at the battle of Fuentes de Oñoro. The British did not take the fortress because the French garrison threaded its way through the British lines on the night of the 10/11 May leaving fuses burning so that the fortress was blown up. Wellington was extremely angry at the stupidity of the investing forces.

Luck of a Lancaster

Thorburn, Gordon
Now this is an excellent book. It is ostensibly the career of one Lancaster bomber – W4964 J-Johnny – which managed to survive the war but in fact it is a testament to the lives (and more often deaths) of the RAF heavy bomber crews. It introduces different crews who flew WS-J at different times for No.9 squadron and, through their particular missions and experiences, tells the story of all such crews including the shocking and saddening toll.

While W4964 made it through to VE Day, 103 of the 244 men who flew in her at one time did not. The book covers the experience of downed aircrew escaping from France when some former ‘J’ crew are shot down in another bomber. It details the Battle of Berlin in 1943 when the RAF attempted use cunning and technology to reach their targets and quotes the German night-fighter pilots trying to shoot them down. It even covers the hunt for the Tirpitz that W4964 took part in, carrying a Tallboy bomb to try to sink the battleship. Funny, thrilling, fascinating, shocking, sobering and above all, well written. Read this book.
Pen and Sword Aviation, 2013