If not a field marshals baton, what did Napoleons soldiers really carry in their backpacks? Napoleons Infantry Handbook is an essential reference guide, filled with fascinating detail on the training, tactics, equipment, service and administration of Napoleons infantry regiments. Based on contemporary training manuals, regulations and orders, Napoleons Infantry Handbook details the everyday routines and practises which governed the imperial army up to the Battle of Waterloo and made it one of historys most formidable military machines. Through years of research, Terry Crowdy has amassed a huge wealth of information on every aspect of the infantrymans existence, from weapons drill and maintenance, uniform regulations, pay, diet, cooking regulations, hygiene and latrine digging, medical care, burial of the dead, how to apply for leave and so on. This remarkable book fills in the gaps left by campaign histories and even eyewitness memoirs, which often omit such details. This book doesnt merely recount what Napoleons armies did, it explains how they did it. The result is a unique guide to the everyday life of Napoleons infantry soldiers.

The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was one of the most innovative British creations of the Second World War. Its mission was to export resistance, subversion and sabotage to occupied Europe and beyond, disrupting the German war effort and building a Secret Army which would work in the shadows to help defeat the Nazis. Potential agents were put through intensive paramilitary and parachute training, then taught how to live clandestinely behind enemy lines, to operate radios and write in secret codes. They lived in constant fear of arrest, and of betrayal by treacherous collaborators. This book uses rare images from the collections of The National Archives and the Imperial War Museum to illustrate the lives of the men and women who made up the SOE, their rigorous training, the clever gadgets they used and their lives behind enemy lines.

HMS Formidable was a British aircraft carrier during the Second World War. One of four Illustrious-class carriers, Formidable was an armoured carrier, able to withstand air attacks, guarding its precious aircraft hangar with an armour-plated flight-deck. As well as its squadrons of fighters and torpedo bombers, Formidable was armed with sixteen 4.5-inch dual-purpose guns, mounted in eight turrets. When action stations sounded, in one of these turrets, sweating in the tropical heat due to heavy asbestos anti-flash gear, lifting shells from the hoist to the gunner, while frantically turning the air into a plum pudding' of smoke and flame to smash the enemy kamikaze from the sky, was the author's grandfather, Arthur Flint. Illustrated with almost 200 contemporary photographs throughout, Formidable is a memorial to the voyages and service of Arthur Flint and his shipmates during the war, from the Battle of Matapan, the landings in North Africa, Sicily and Salerno, to the arctic hunt for Tirpitz, before Formidable steamed east to Sydney in 1945 and joined the British Pacific Fleet, fighting alongside the Americans at Okinawa and the final assault against Japan.

Researched from genuine primary sources, this is the first book to explain and illustrate the organization, activities and personal stories of the female 'support staff' who played a major role in the day-to-day life of Napoleon's armies. The cantinieres who accompanied Napoleon's armies to war have an iconic status in the history of the Grande Armee. Sutler-women and laundresses were officially sanctioned members of the regiment performing a vital support role. In a period when the supply and pay services were haphazard, their canteen wagons and tents were a vital source of sustenance and served as the social hubs of the regiment. Although officially non-combatants, many of these women followed their regiments into battle, serving brandy to soldiers in the firing line, braving enemy fire. This book is a timely piece of social history, as well as a colourful new guide for modellers and re-enactors. Through meticulous research of unprecedented depth and accuracy, Terry Crowdy dispels the inaccurate portrayals that Napoleon's Women Camp Followers have suffered over the years to offer a fascinating look at these forgotten heroines.

In 1792 France unleashed a new form of warfare in Europe. Faced with the well-drilled Austrian and Prussian armies, the French introduced the tactic of mass skirmishing by tirailleurs. Soldiers were thrown forwards and told to fight in open order. Moving quickly and making use of cover, they fired on the enemy line, annoying it, goading it, and all the time distracting it from the infantry columns coming up behind, bristling with bayonets, ready for the charge and a shock action. Of these tirailleurs, the best were the professional chasseur light infantry battalions, raised and trained in the army of Louis XVI; but they were too few in number. A patriotic appeal for light infantry volunteers was made, and within two years the original twelve battalions became ninety strong. By the time of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, there were 185 battalions of light infantry in service, with hundreds of voltigeur light companies attached to the regular line infantry battalions. Although all infantrymen could fight as tirailleurs, specialist light infantry did it best, and were clearly an important part of Napoleon's armies. Why was this? In this book Terry Crowdy explores the origins of the light infantry in the century before Napoleon came to power. From bands of irregular partisans, to sharpshooters and scouts, the book follows France's early experiments with this arm. Drawing on contemporary documents, including the French parliamentary archives, this book charts the expansion of the light infantry arm, reviews the reasons behind organisational changes, and analyses the tactics employed by light infantry in meticulous detail. Lavishly illustrated, this book is an essential reference for students and hobbyists of the Napoleonic Wars.

On average a Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent would be dead within three months of being dropped in the field. Terry Crowdy tells the extraordinary story of these agents, some of whom were women as young as 22, following them through their experiences beginning with their recruitment and unorthodox training methods, particularly the unarmed combat training provided by the notorious Fairburn and Sykes partnership. As well as detailing these controversial techniques, the training chapter also covers the tough physical training course and parachute training that all recruits had to endure before being sent into occupied Europe.
Crowdy also examines the SOE's unique system of codes, which included each agent composing their own poem as well as using quotations from famous pieces of literature to convey secret messages, and explores the strengths and weaknesses of this system. Full-color artwork and photographs show the innovative equipment, including the S-Phones and Eureka sets, which allowed the agent to communicate directly with pilots and other agents. Lastly, the book recounts the incredible combat missions of the SOE agents, incluidng operations in the field with Yugoslav and Greek partisans, as well as sabotage missions ranging from blowing up bridges to the raising of full-scale partisan armies as they attempted to fulfill Churchill's directive to set Occupied Europe ablaze.