Product Description

By 1810 Viscount Wellington had been forced onto the defensive. Napoleon was not about to give up and ordered a third massive invasion of Portugal. Wellington was now faced by 80,000 men of the Army of Portugal under Marshal Massena. At Bussaco on 27 September the British/Portuguese force offered battle. They had taken up a strong defensive position on high ground. Massena was perhaps too confident; the determined attacks of the French were all repulsed with the loss of 4500 French casualties against less than 1300 for the Anglo-Portuguese. This title shows how Bussaco was both a stinging defeat for the French army, and a demonstration of the courage and quality of the newly reorganized Portuguese army. It includes coverage of the construction of the defence lines around Lisbon - a masterpiece of military engineering.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #378325 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-16
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

About the Author
Rene Chartrand was born in Montreal and educated in Canada, the United States and the Bahamas. A senior curator with Canada's National Historic Sites for nearly three decades, he is now a freelance writer and historical consultant. He has written numerous articles and books including almost 20 Osprey titles and the first two volumes of Canadian Military Heritage. He lives in Hull, Quebec, with his wife and two sons. Patrice Courcelle, born in northern France in 1950, has been a professional illustrator for some 20 years. His previous work for Osprey includes MAA 328 and 335 Emigre & Foreign Troops in British Service Vols. 1 and 2, Campaign 76 Ticonderoga 1758 and Campaign 79 Louisbourg 1758.

Customer Reviews

A very good book with horribly bad colour plates
This was the first book I read about Massena's offensive against Portugal in 1810 and I found it excellent. Very well written, with good maps, clearly describing the events and explaining the reasons behind every next move of both armies - this is a very good read. Sadly, the quality of the text was not extended to the colour plates. There is three of them, but frankly, they do not add anything to the book - details are lacking and execution is poor. Also, the style is deliberately "childish" - the plates could be as well made by a kid. May be it is for that reason that the only plate acceptable is the one describing the great explosion in Almeida, which is basically just one big "Kaabooom!". So, only four stars. In fact, if there was more plates like that, I would take off two stars from the rating.