Featured battle : The Battle of The Aisne

Part of First World War

Date : 13 September 1914 - 28 September 1914

After the Allied victory of the Marne, their pursuit was slow, due to exhaustion, giving the Germans plenty of time to build defences along the heights overlooking the Aisne River. Once they arrived on the 13th, the Allies launched frontal attacks across the river which were initially successful, but counter-attacks beat them back almost to the start line. Fierce fighting then ensued along the line eventually descending into artillery duals, and convincing both sides of the futility of frontal assaults against prepared positions and modern weapons. The Allies thus decided to try a set of flanking movements in the direction of the coast which became known as the 'Race to the Sea'.

Napoleon and the Art of Leadership

William Nester
When I first saw this book I was fearful that it was just another biography of Napoleon. But part of the title ‘the art of leadership’ intrigued me. I was pleased to find that the author stuck faithfully to his brief for at least the first three-quarters of the book. The focus was very clearly on the leadership actions and thinking of Napoleon himself and includes on the way the large amount of advice on leadership he gave to others. The final quarter reverts to more of a biography which perhaps reflects the absence of fresh thinking on Napoleon’s part.
Almost incidentally to the main theme we end up with a rather good biography of this ‘flawed genius’. We see the initial energy and drive of the genius become more and more egocentric until the flaws take over. This narrative flows through the book and beautifully draws out the increasing mismatch between what Napoleon said/wrote and what he did.
It is quite a large book as befits the subject with 395 pages of well written text and with over a hundred further pages of supporting notes.
We highly recommend this book to those who only want a good read about the life of a ‘flawed genius’ and those who want more will get more.

Frontline Books, 2020