Customer Reviews

At All Costs: Stories of Impossible Victories (Cassell Military Classics Series)

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3 star:		(1)
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This book (and two others like it - Glorious Defiance and Seize and Hold) is a good book for introductions to several battles (some a bit obscure) with a similar theme. At All Costs covers battles where a desperate force needs to attack or hold an objective which against seemingly impossible odds in a "ours in not to reason why, ours is but to do and die" battle. This book covers the following battles:

Minden, 1759 - Balaclava, 1854 - Delhi, 1857 - Little Round Top, 1863 - Mars-la-Tour/St-Privat, 1870 - Gordon Relief Expedition, 1884-5 - Arras, 1940 - Longstop Hill, Tunisia, 1943 - The Nijmegen Bridges, 1944 - Air Assault on Corregidor, 1945 - Goose Green, 1982

Each battle is covered in what amounts to an essay on the topic and therefore does not cover them in too much detail, hence only three stars. I use them when I want to read about a battle in one sitting because they average about 20 pages each. But they usually spark an interest to find more books on the battles covered so as to absorb more details about that particular battle and for that they are excellent.

Overall, this is a good book for those interested in learning about dramatic battles but don't want to get bogged down in minute details.