Waterloo: A Near Run Thing (Great Battles) [Paperback]

David Howarth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1997 | Series: Great Battles

The Battle of Waterloo commenced when the first shots were fired on a Sunday morning in June 1815. By the evening, 40,000 men and 10,000 horses lay dead or wounded among the Belgian cornfields and Napoleon had fled. This book provides an account of that day.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Howarth, who died in 1991, was one of Britain's best writers of historical events. He himself had worked as war correspondent for the BBC in the Second World War, reporting the chaos of Dunkirk, but with the fall of France he joined the Navy and then came under the command of the SOE (Special Operating Service) running clandestine operations between Shetland and Norway. For this he was awarded the highest honours that Norway could award a foreigner. His own naval experiences in wartime and those in peacetime as an experienced sailor and boatmaker in Shetland, allow him to write with great understanding

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Windrush Press, Ltd. (May 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1900624028
• ISBN-13: 978-1900624022
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,346,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless classic that will take you to the battlefield, December 3, 2000

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Waterloo: A Near Run Thing (Great Battles) (Paperback)

That this book has been in print for over 30 years will give you some idea as to how powerful it is.

Up until Howarth published this book, most accounts of the battle had been from a technically military viewpoint - that is who was doing what to whom with what and where. Detail for this kind of book was drawn from various diaries, accounts, and research conducted by Siborne some 20 years after the battle itself. However these books never dwelt on the experience of battle from a personal standpoint, they tended to be emotionally remote.

Howarth really tipped the formula on its head by putting a framework of the battle and filling it out with the personal accounts.

To do this he has divided his sections simply to follow the course of the day. There is an introduction which describes the men from whom he is drawing material and a sketch of events leading up to Waterloo itself, then it is followed by six sections - Dawn, Morning, Noon, afternoon, evening, and night.

He selected a broad range of men to follow including British Ensign William Leeke, a naive young officer and newly joined, sergeants William Wheeler and William Lawrence, Pierre Robineaux, a French Captain, and Captain Mercer an artillery officer. Howarth can take us around the battlefield as fighting shifts and rages to show us what each man experienced, the fear, pain, hunger, thirst, and other hardships.

Given that Waterloo was one single day in history it might seem a little much that so much has been written about it. Yet it was the bloodiest engagement that had been witnessed by anyone to date - thousands of men and horses dying in a single afternoon of violent battle. It was also pivotal for it was not only the last battle for Napoleon, but the first time that Wellington had actually come up against Napoleon. Two masters of warfare finally matched in combat.

Grand themes are all very well, but we don't want to forget the small stories which tell us of the personal experience of those that were there. If you like this book you should also try John Kincaids, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade (one of Howarth's sources as well) - and Harry Smith's Autobiography - both of which have been reprinted and are on sale at Amazon.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I wish that I had read this prior to visiting Waterloo., February 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Waterloo: A Near Run Thing (Great Battles) (Paperback)

I wish that I had taken the time to read Mr. Howarth's work prior to visiting Belgium. He continues with his effective style of "humanizing" the tragedy of war, and approaches the topic from multiple angles. The events of a battle - particularly from the point of view of strategy - can be difficult to put into words. Mr. Howarth does a remarkable job of placing the reader in the fray and of making the course of the battle understandable. Though I consider 1066 his finest work, this is a wonderful second.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I dare you not to cry, November 2, 2001

By 

kymm - See all my reviews

This review is from: Waterloo: A Near Run Thing (Great Battles) (Paperback)

A detailed, compassionate and very moving account of the battle of Waterloo in 1815. David Howarth based this book on a kaleidoscope of 18 eye-witness accounts which explains its freshness. Who could not be moved by the fate of the newlyweds, Sir William & Lady de Lancey? Or angered by the Prince of Orange for his arrogance and stupidity? And how is it possible not to be fascinated by Lord Uxbridge's gruesome operation to ampute his leg?

It is a book as relevant today as it ever was for the question David Howarth posed in his introduction "what makes a man, who joins an army and puts on a more or less exotic kind of dress, behave on the word of command entirely unlike himself, but like a ferocious animal?"