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Napoleon'S Admirals - Flag Officers of the ARC De Triomphe, 1789-1815 (Hardcover)
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Napoleon'S Admirals - Flag Officers of the ARC De Triomphe, 1789-1815 (Hardcover)
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On the four sides of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, serried tablets
display the names of 660 honoured commanders of the Revolutionary
and Napoleonic Wars. Most are those of generals and marshals of the
French Army - but 26 are the names of admirals, commanders of the
fleets of Republican and Napoleonic France. In Napoleon's Admirals,
Richard Humble presents not only their individual stories, but an
entirely new appraisal of the Anglo-French naval war of 1793-1814:
the longest sea war in modern history, exploding many myths along
the way. The aristocratic officers of the French Navy did not
emigrate en masse when the Revolution came, leaving the Navy
leaderless and doomed to repeated defeats at sea. Of the 26
'Admirals of the Arc,' 23 had learned their trade in the French
royal and merchant navies of the Ancien Regime. Republican France
could call on a wide range of seasoned combat veterans from the
American Revolutionary War (1778-83), whose stories are a
revelation in themselves. These former King's officers stayed, and
loyally tried to serve their country as the Revolution pursued its
wasteful and unpredictable course. Three of them paid for their
loyalty under the guillotine. Contrary to popular British belief,
the naval war did not end with Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in
October 1805. Thanks to an energetic warship-building program, the
French Navy recovered quickly from Trafalgar, and Napoleon's
conquests created an ever-widening network of new French naval
bases for the British Admiralty to cover. Collingwood, Nelson's
deputy at Trafalgar, was still commanding in the Mediterranean four
years later. The Admiralty had not dared to recall him and he died
at sea, utterly exhausted, in March 1810. Four months later the
French inflicted the greatest humiliation suffered by the Royal
Navy in the entire naval war: the annihilation of an entire British
frigate squadron in the battle of Grand-Port, Mauritius, in August
1810. In this account of the men who imposed such a strain on the
world's greatest navy for 21 years, Richard Humble has provided a
remarkable addition to the well-worn pages of conventional naval
history.
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