Customer Reviews

1809: Thunder on the Danube - Napoleon's Defeat of the Habsburgs, Vol. 1: Abensberg

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This is great book with a lot of very useful information that I personnally have not seen in print in America before. A word of caution though to all we are looking to buy this book . . . this is ONLY Volume I of a series. This book covers only the Bavarian phase of the 1809 campaign on the Danube. I have not seen this tidbit of information in print anywhere including the Pen and Sword website nor have I found any information on the release of subsequent books in the series (or how many there will be for that matter). It is still a great book as are all of John Gill's books.

This has become my primary reference for the Eggmuhl campaign. It has a good section on the backround to the war and the battles through 22 April are well described. The battle and campaign maps are good. Gill's narrative is more objective in tone than his also excellent With Eagles to Glory. His research is comprehensive, and his oobs (some 50 pages worth with three sets) may be the best I've seen.

I hope the next two volumes arrive in time for the 200th anniversary.

I sought this book eagerly after acquiring Volume III. I was not disappointed. John Gill is a master of detail, yet he is never boring. The facts and figures all swirl around a highly readable narrative and we follow the path both sides took that ultimately ended at Wagram. Excellent maps for gamers and historians to follow, the treasure for wargamers and game designers is the huge trove of Order of Battle information found in each volume. This series is so expanded that it makes a great companion piece to the long out of print Armies on the Danube by Scott Bowden. Gill goes beyond Bowden to give accurate analyses of the plans and battles while bringing the various characters to life for the reader. If you ever wondered what happened in general histories from Austerlitz to the retreat from Moscow, John Gill brings it all with this masterpiece of historical research. My next mission is to find Volume II somewhere. It may be a long and arduous hunt, but dear reader, it will be worth it. I am hoping there will be more books from John Gill to follow.

In this volume, John Gill presents the lead up to the Franco-Austrian war of 1809. The amount of detail on the sources of this war are amazing. This is not a survey of the war nor of the Napoleonic Wars; rather this is a history in detail on one facet of the wars of the Corsican Ogre.

The book is not a light read, but it is definitely worth the time. I would not recommend it for someone who wants an overview of the Napoleonic Wars, but it is an excellent text for the serious student.

Superbly written and researched, the author using largely 19th Century German sources. Best published account of the opening moves of the 1809 Campaign. Fully explains the dramatic collapse of the Austrian strategic plan in its first days of execution.