Reviews for Legends and Romances of Brittany

The average rating for Legends and Romances of Brittany based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-03-29 00:00:00 Allan Dwyer Osprey produces a variety of series of books on military matters. One series is "Campaign." This volume examines Napoleon's victory--a close affair--at Marengo, in Italy, in 1800. Immediately before his Italian campaign, fought against Austria, he had been thwarted in Egypt. This volume, as others in the "Campaign" series, examines several issues--the leaders, their armies, opposing plans and maneuvers, the order of battle, and the culminating battle (or battles). Austrian leaders are described with a mini-biography (e.g., General Melas, Kaim, Zach, Batorkez,and Futak). French leaders? Napoloeon Bonaparte himself, as well as Generals Berthier, Lannes, Victor, Massena, and Desaix. The story of Marengo begins with the siege of Genoa, in which the Austrians besieged a force led by Massena, who ultimately surrendered before French forces could relieve him (the order of battle for the siege is depicted on page 29). A poor start to the campaign. . . . The story also tells of Napoleon's forces moving forward against the Austrians. The preliminary battle was at Casteggio-Montebello (order of battle on page 50 and a useable map of the conflict on pages 42-43). The French were roughly handled and defeated in this fight presaging Marengo. Marengo began with the Austrians trying to take the initiative and--again--handling the French forces roughly (order of battle on pages 62-64; maps of different phases of the battle on pages 55, 70, and 74-75. To buy time to avoid defeat, Napoleon sacrificed his Guard. Pages 86-87 and page 91 outline Napoleon's last gasp counterattack--which succeeded. In the end, a sanguinary victory for the French, when ther battle could easily have gone the other way. A couple interesting pieces to this book at the end: wargaming Marengo and how the battlefield stands today. All in all, a nice addition to the Osprey Campaign series.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-07-12 00:00:00 Kenneth Rose The book contains an excellent summation of the campaign leading up to the battle. The narrative of the battle itself is very detailed, so much so that it'd all be a bit confusing, unless you're willing to constantly reference the many maps in order to keep track of the action. Luckily, the maps are excellent.