Customer Reviews

Crécy 1346: Triumph of the longbow (Campaign)

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At first I would to say that I have read all titles of this series from antiquity to the Renaissance and my favorite author is D. Nicholle. So, as I received my copy and saw that the artwork is from Graham Turner (my favorite artist; the cover looks different in reality than that depicted above) joyful reading seemed to be assured. But this book is, regarding formal aspects, the weakest I have read by Nicholle, due mainly to aspects which perhaps the author could not control. 1. On the battlefield maps troop units are constantly labelled wrongly (they are often mixed up, e.g. the black prince wing is labelled as the wing of the Earl of Northampton and vice versa), and, not so important, the arrow showing North is facing the wrong direction by 90°. This problem seems to me due to making the maps in the last possible moment before printing (they, too, look different than the cover illustration shown above). 2. eight pages of mostly superfluous wargaming tips deal at length with figure sizes and army scales which everyone could extract from the text themself. Plus, the author of these tips states that the French army is three times the size of the English army which is totally contrary to the book author Nicholle who writes that they are of comparable size. 3. The political reasoning and actual motivation of the campaign are dealt with in three pages which throws just a spot of light on many topics, like the battle of Sluys and the war in Gascony (I needed to the end of the book to find out that the Duke of Normandy was the French king's brother). So, four more pages wouldn't have hurt. 4. I am interested in the evolution of armor and, as many know, this is an important time for it, but you have to search mostly beyond the pictures for information regarding this topic. One or two more words on this in the text wouldn't have hurt anybody. But, to say something positive, the artwork by G. Turner is really great and if the book is revised soon the new points of view on this battle and good description of raising an army in feudal England and France could be more appreciated.

For one with only an hour to an hour and a half to dedicate to the battle a very good introduction. The book starts by providing some perspective from both the English and French sides (i.e., geopolitical situation, goals, etc.). Professor Nicole then provides a description of the forces involved, their leaders and strategies and goals. Lastly he goes through what transpired through the battle, something that every military officer should read as it involved, for the French, a combination of just about everything that could go wrong going wrong thanks to their own ineptitude.

Firstly, the Italian crossbow mercenaries, who victory depended upon so much were misused. They were forced into action in the rain when their crossbows were of limited value as the strings were wet. The English bowmen, on the other hand, did not have this problem as they were able to string their bows just before going into action (thus insuring they were dry and were working at maximum efficiency). As if this was not bad enough, the Italians were forced to face the English with their eyes to the sun. This was quite a problem as the cross bow must be targeted against specific targets as opposed to the English bows which were an "area saturation" weapon. In addition, the Italians were deployed without the benefit of their shieldholders, troops they hid behind when they had to reload their crossbows. As a result, when the inevitable counter battery of English arrows hit them they were out in the open and unprotetected. In the resulting retreat, thanks again to French ineptitude, the French thought the retreating Italians were in route while in reality they were running back to their lines to the shieldholders. They proceeded to kill a large number of the routed Italians due to "cowardice".

This battle is trully remarkable in that it showed just about everything going wrong. The result was, not surprisingly, a total French defeat.

Excellent coverage of the battle and overview of the entire campaign of Edward III in 1346. I was surprised that the French and their allies were not familiar with the longbow and its capabilities particularly in its lethality to horses.Phillip VI of France was so enthralled with his reputation that he believed the English brigands and their allies from Germany and Flanders would present little trouble to the armed might of the French.As I read this book it almost seemed like a redo of Agincourt although Agincourt is almost a hundred years later and the French make the same mistakes,talk about history repeating itself.
An easy read book that gives an excellent Beardian type overview of the Hundred Years War was written by Desmond Seward. The Seward book gives the overview and background to these campaigns.By stressing economic reasons for the War it gives alot better understanding of the rivalry between France and England.But don't be fooled.it's not just about these countries and who's the bad guy.There are alot of other players involved making it a mishmash of European intrigue.

Über dieses Thema habe ich schon einiges gelesen. Auffällig ist, dass die Beschreibungen der Vorgänge mit anderen Quellen nicht immer übereinstimmen, obwohl es an guten Quellen nicht mangelt.
Bei diesem Osprey-Heft weichen einige Details von dem heute als am wahrscheinlichsten angenommenen Schlachtverlauf ab. Das kann ein Fehler sein, muss es aber nicht. Da ich nicht dabei war, um die tatsächlichen Vorgänge bestätigen zu können, bleibt ohnehin alles subjektiv.