THE PENINSULAR WAR: THE SPANISH PERSPECTIVE

◗ J.J. Herrero Giminez ◗ Frontline Books (2023) ◗ £28.00 ◗ 256 pages (hardback) ◗ ISBN:9781399047852 ◗ pen-and-sword.co.uk

British wargamers are often accused of adopting an unduly Anglocentric attitude towards the Peninsular War by focussing, not unnaturally, on the campaigns of Moore and Wellesley and largely ignoring the significant contributions made by the Spanish armies which, despite suffering numerous defeats at the hands of the French, remained a force in being that prevented Napoleon’s troops from pacifying the kingdom, and the irregular warfare conducted by the guerrilleros. This book claims to present a Spanish perspective by offering concise accounts of twenty-five battles and sieges, together with some other material.

The account of each battle is prefaced by a small – approximately 5 cm square – outline of Spain, showing its provinces but no other detail, upon which the site of battle is marked by a black dot. The text begins with the Orders of Battle of the opposing armies, offering an overall total, but not separate strengths for infantry and cavalry nor the numbers of artillery pieces. These are followed by a Background, describing the strategic situation and the events preceding the battle or siege. Finally, there is a short narrative of the battle or siege itself, usually occupying between one and five pages. Endnotes are provided after each battle narrative.

Colour maps are provided for only eight of the battles – Bailen, Espinosa de los Monteros, Tudela, Ucles, Medellin, Almonacid, Ocana and Alba de Tormes

– bound together in the last third of the book. There is little detail on them of the terrain; only rivers are shown. Spanish formations are shown in red; French in blue. The traditional way of distinguishing cavalry from infantry is not used, instead mounted troops are indicated by filling the box with narrow diagonal stripes, and the size of named formations is not indicated. Arrows show the troop movements and each map is accompanied by a paragraph describing the battle. No scales are given, so these maps would really be of little use for wargamers wishing to recreate the battlefields on the tabletop.

Other topics include The 2 May Uprising; The Asturian Army of 1808; the Creation of an Army; The Indomitable Guerrillas: the 7th Army; The Military Prisoners; The Navy at War, and The Afrancesados and the Spanish Army of King Joseph.

Sixteen pages, bound into the first third of the book, contain black and white reproductions of portraits, paintings of battles, scenes from Goya’s Disasters of War, most of which will be familiar to readers from other books on the period, and some photographs of monuments and one of Spanish medals.

An eight-page Bibliography and a nine-page index conclude the book.

Frankly, one can find more helpful battle maps and perfectly satisfactory accounts of these battles on the internet. Wargamers who wish to recreate the campaigns and battles of the Spanish armies may find this book a useful starting point for their researches, but no more than that.