Customer Reviews

For Valour: Victoria Cross and Medal of Honor Battles

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Military historian Bryan Perrett offers a dual history of America and Great Britain's top medals for bravery in this fascinating book from Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Perrett's book is an interesting read. He examines various battles beginning with the Crimean War and concluding with the end of World War II. Curiously, though almost 400 Victoria Crosses and Medals of Honor were awarded in post-WWII conflicts, these awards are only covered in a one-page summary. Why these awards were given such short shrift is unknown. Likewise coverage of VC/MOH winners very much favors the English award. Some 20-odd chapters deal with VC winners; ten deal with MOH winners.

In any case Perret sets the stage for each battle - Balaklava, Gettysburg, San Juan Hill, Mons, Jutland, Iwo Jima, etc. - and then describes the VC/MOH actions against this backdrop. He also supplies information on what happened to each winner after their "moment of glory" including post-war careers; an interesting touch.

Given the number of VC/MOH winners and the lack of coverage for post-1945 winners, Perrett's book cannot claim to be definitive. It does do a marvelous job of describing the often incredible feats of valor performed by some incredibly brave men.

Recommended.

This is one of Bryan Perrett's finest works. It describes certain battles from The Crimean War to WWII that were notable for awards of either the Congressional Medal of Honor or the Victorian Cross, with the emphasis on the latter undoubtedly due to Mr. Perrett's English military background. The emphasis of each chapter is really more on the battle in question, with the individual stories of the medal recipients woven into same. It is also interesting to find out what happened to some of the recipients after their military service and medals, which the author shares, and unfortunately some of these heroes came to a sad end in their civilian lives. The greater emphasis in the book is on the 19th century British colonial period and World War I. Mr. Perrett always goes to great lengths to lay out the units involved in each conflict, and to explain what led to the battle and what outcome it had in the overall conflict. This is an entralling read, especially if you enjoy military history. Also highly recommended by the same author and somewhat in the same vein are "Heroes Of The Hour", and "Last Stand!".