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A provocative reappraisal of Wellington's military career, his
victory at Waterloo, and the source of his genius as a general
Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, lives on in popular memory as
the "Invincible General," loved by his men, admired by his peers,
formidable to his opponents. This incisive book revises such a
portrait, offering an accurate-and controversial-new analysis of
Wellington's remarkable military career. Unlike his nemesis
Napoleon, Wellington was by no means a man of innate military
talent, Huw J. Davies argues. Instead, the key to Wellington's
military success was an exceptionally keen understanding of the
relationship between politics and war. Drawing on extensive primary
research, Davies discusses Wellington's military apprenticeship in
India, where he learned through mistakes as well as successes how
to plan campaigns, organize and use intelligence, and negotiate
with allies. In India Wellington encountered the constant political
machinations of indigenous powers, and it was there that he
apprenticed in the crucial skill of balancing conflicting political
priorities. In later campaigns and battles, including the
Peninsular War and Waterloo, Wellington's genius for strategy,
operations, and tactics emerged. For his success in the art of war,
he came to rely on his art as a politician and tactician. This
strikingly original book shows how Wellington made even unlikely
victories possible-with a well-honed political brilliance that
underpinned all of his military achievements.
A compelling history of the British Army in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries-showing how the military gathered knowledge
from campaigns across the globe At the outbreak of the War of
Austrian Succession in 1742, the British Army's military tactics
were tired and outdated, stultified after three decades of peace.
The army's leadership was conservative, resistant to change, and
unable to match new military techniques developing on the
continent. Losses were cataclysmic and the force was in dire need
of modernization-both in terms of strategy and in leadership and
technology. In this wide-ranging and highly original account, Huw
Davies traces the British Army's accumulation of military knowledge
across the following century. An essentially global force, British
armies and soldiers continually gleaned and synthesized strategy
from warzones the world over: from Europe to the Americas, Africa,
and Asia. Davies records how the army and its officers put this
globally acquired knowledge to use, exchanging information and
developing into a remarkable vehicle of innovation-leading to the
pinnacle of its military prowess in the nineteenth century.
Intelligence is often the critical factor in a successful military
campaign. This was certainly the case for Arthur Wellesley, the
Duke of Wellington, in the Peninsular War. In this book, author Huw
J. Davies offers the first full account of the scope, complexity,
and importance of Wellington's intelligence department, describing
a highly organized, multifaceted series of networks of agents and
spies throughout Spain and Portugal - an organization that was at
once a microcosm of British intelligence at the time and a
sophisticated forebear to intelligence developments in the
twentieth century. Spying for Wellington shows us an organization
that was, in effect, two parallel networks: one made up of Foreign
Office agents ""run"" by British ambassadors in Spain and Portugal,
the other comprising military spies controlled by Wellington
himself. The network of agents supplied strategic intelligence,
giving the British army advance warning of the arrival,
destinations, and likely intentions of French reinforcements. The
military network supplied operational intelligence, which confirmed
the accuracy of the strategic intelligence and provided greater
detail on the strengths, arms, and morale of the French forces.
Davies reveals how, by integrating these two forms of intelligence,
Wellington was able to develop an extremely accurate and reliable
estimate of French movements and intentions not only in his own
theater of operations but also in other theaters across the Iberian
Peninsula. The reliability and accuracy of this intelligence, as
Davies demonstrates, was central to Wellington's decision-making
and, ultimately, to his overall success against the French.
Correcting past, incomplete accounts, this is the definitive book
on Wellington's use of intelligence. As such, it contributes to a
clearer, more comprehensive understanding of Wellington at war and
of his place in the history of British military intelligence.
Intelligence is often the critical factor in a successful military
campaign. This was certainly the case for Arthur Wellesley, the
Duke of Wellington, in the Peninsular War. In this book, author Huw
J. Davies offers the first full account of the scope, complexity,
and importance of Wellington's intelligence department, describing
a highly organized, multifaceted series of networks of agents and
spies throughout Spain and Portugal - an organization that was at
once a microcosm of British intelligence at the time and a
sophisticated forebear to intelligence developments in the
twentieth century. Spying for Wellington shows us an organization
that was, in effect, two parallel networks: one made up of Foreign
Office agents 'run' by British ambassadors in Spain and Portugal,
the other comprising military spies controlled by Wellington
himself. The network of agents supplied strategic intelligence,
giving the British army advance warning of the arrival,
destinations, and likely intentions of French reinforcements. The
military network supplied operational intelligence, which confirmed
the accuracy of the strategic intelligence and provided greater
detail on the strengths, arms, and morale of the French forces.
Davies reveals how, by integrating these two forms of intelligence,
Wellington was able to develop an extremely accurate and reliable
estimate of French movements and intentions not only in his own
theater of operations but also in other theaters across the Iberian
Peninsula. The reliability and accuracy of this intelligence, as
Davies demonstrates, was central to Wellington's decision-making
and, ultimately, to his overall success against the French.
Correcting past, incomplete accounts, this is the definitive book
on Wellington's use of intelligence. As such, it contributes to a
clearer, more comprehensive understanding of Wellington at war and
of his place in the history of British military intelligence.
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