Customer Reviews

MEMOIRS OF A POLISH LANCER: The Pamietniki of Dezydery Chlapowski (Ancient Empires Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Lancers of the Imperial Guard were the most renowned of the Polish units serving in Napoleon's army. Chlapowski's memoirs contain eyewitness accounts of the guerrilla war in Spain and the great battles of the Grand Armée from 1807 to 1813. The famous Polish Lancer regiment of Napoleon's Old Guard was rated as light cavalry in consideration of its mobility, but was often committed to head-to-head battles with heavy cavalry (always victoriously).One of the legends that have come out of the Napoleonic Wars is the charge of the Polish Light Horse Regiment of the Imperial Guard at Somosierra, Spain on 30 November 1808.
Dezydery Chlapowski make a nice description of what happen in Somosierra, because of this charge Napoleon decide to promoted the whole Polish Guard regiment to the Old Guard.He also spent alot of his time in the Emperor's company.
Mr. Simmons make a good Translation of this memoirs(first time published in English)This is a great book if you are loo!king for history of the Polish Light Horse Regiment and the Peninsular War, I also recommend the Memoirs of Baron de Marbot,A History of the Peninsular War by Charles Oman, In the Peninsula With a French Hussar:Memoirs of the War of the French in Spain and may be this is not a book about the War in Spain but a great book
IN THE SERVICE OF THE TSAR AGAINST NAPOLEON with any of this book you could get the idea of how important were the Polish in the Napoleonic Wars, I almost forgot In the Legions of Napoleon: The Memoirs of a Polish Officer in Spain and Russia.

This is an excellent book, although rather brief (153pp). The book is interesting in that:

1) More than most Napoleonic memoirs, the author describes actual tactics and small-scale maneuvers rather than feats of derring do, or general descriptions of life on the campaign;

2) The author's perspective as a Polish officer (often mistaken for being French) is interesting; and

3) the author seems to have been in one of the few units that made it through the Russian Campaign as a cohesive military unit (with greatly reduced numbers, of course).

The book is well-written and well-translated, and definitely worth a read for those interested in things Napoleonic.

1992, hard bound in dust jacket, 8 x 11, 158 pages, many illus & drgs.
Decorated for valor by France and Poland, made one of Napoleon's inner circle, Dezydery Chlapowski's Memoirs of a Polish Lancer describes life at the heart of the action. A young Polish cavalry officer, he served in the trenches of Danzig with the newly raised army of a liberated Poland. He served as an Aide de camp for Napoleon in the Spanish Campaign of 1808 and the Danube Campaign of 1809. Napoleon granted Chlapowski the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Polish Lancers of the Imperial Guard for his outstanding performance on numerous confidential missions,

Afterwards Chlapowski served in the terrible 1812 campaign and in the battles of 1813 with the outnumbered French Cavalry. In his Memoirs, Chlapowski wrote for the education of young Polish gentlemen and describes how to conduct a successful charge, how to make a patrol, and the various intrigues of the Imperial Household that would force him to leave service in favor of his homeland. This is the first time these Memoirs have been translated into English. Follow the exploits of a true hero in the Memoirs of a Polish Lancer.