Pen & Sword are to be congratulated for expanding their Battleground series of battlefield guides to include the Franco-Prussian War. Given that these guides are largely devoted to the Great War and the Second World War it make sense to include this earlier and decisive conflict, which changed the face of Europe for the next 75 years, and, it could be argued, led to the two later wars which engulfed much of the globe. By including the Franco-Prussian War, we link a continuum of conflict that began in 1870 and ended in 1945. Having walked all of the principal battlefields of August- September 1870, this reviewer looked forward to reading this volume.
In essence, it is concerned with that portion of the war following the creation of Marshal McMahon's Army of Chalons on 17 August 1870 and its destruction at Sedan on 1 September. The first two chapters are concerned with the rivalry between France and Germany during the previous decade, and providing an outline of the war and the initial German victories culminating in the siege of Metz (19 August - 27 October). Otte then gets into the meat of the subject with five chapters describing in more detail the campaign between Chalons and Sedan, and the aftermath of the French surrender, which saw the end of the French Second Empire, and the creations of the French Third Republic and the Imperial German Empire. In these, while the narrative could be more lucid than it is, one gets a good overview of the campaign and the battles of Beaumont and Sedan, the latter being broken down into the fighting at Bazeilles to the south-east of the the city, and around Sedan itself. Personal accounts interspersed amongst the descriptions of the fighting bring the story to life, highlighting the shocking effect of modern weapons, and the drama and ferociousness of the fighting.
The crux, and indeed purpose of this volume are the five battle field tours that follow. The first of these is a 122 kilometre car tour taking in the whole of the campaign commencing and concluding in Buzancy. Then we are given a walking tour of the Battle of Beaumont, where General de Failly's French 5th Corps was surprised in its encampment, which is the best of the tours in relating the actual fighting and troop movements to the ground. The remaining three tours are devoted to the climactic and decisive Battle of Sedan. The first is a walking tour of the village of Bazeilles to the south-west of Sedan, where the French Marines and the 1st Bavarian Corps fought a hotly contested and bloody engagement, resulting the destruction of the township. Next is a walking tour of the fighting to the north of the city around the heights of Floing, scene of the disastrous French cavalry charges. A car tour around Sedan and its surroundings completes the visits.
For those primarily interested in visiting memorials, cemeteries and individual graves this is an excellent guide, for this is largely the focus of the tours and all are covered and photographed in detail. Those more interested in relating the battles on the ground, especially troop and unit movements and understanding what occurred where, will be sadly disappointed. For example, in the campaign car tour at Buzancy, where an initial skirmish took place, there is no description of where it took place. Instead we visit the mass grave, the 1870 memorial, General Chanzy's Mortuary Chapel, and his monument in the village square, despite the fact Chanzy never took part in the campaign. Similarly at Nouart, we don't visit the site of the engagement that was fought north of the village; instead we are taken to Chanzy's birthplace and another monument to him. Although the tour of Bazeilles provides a good feel of how the battle evolved, it is mainly concerned with buildings, monuments and cemeteries. The tours of Floing and Sedan do not provide much in the way of understanding what occurred on the ground, although one gets a general sense of the great cavalry charge at Floing. The car tour is principally concerned with grave sites and who are buried in them. This excessive interest in cemeteries, individual graves and monuments detracts from the usefulness of what is supposed to be a battle field guide, that is a guide that relates the battles to the ground.
Like the other guides in the Battleground series it is lavishly illustrated, with contemporary and modern photographs, then and now comparisons of buildings, and a few panoramas of the battlefields today. The many maps are generally satisfactory in supporting the narrative, mostly being from other works, but they provide little to show the flow the battles. Three appendices on Orders of Battle and short biographies of Napoleon III and Wilhelm I round out the book.
Overall, Touring the Sedan Campaign was a little disappointing. While it certainly serves a purpose, and some will find it useful, it falls short of what we have come to expect of the otherwise excellent guides on the Battleground series. One hopes that the other three proposed volumes covering the Franco-Prussian War strike a better balance between those more interested in cemeteries and monuments, and those who wish to use the guides as a means of relating the fighting and troop movements to the ground.
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- markytReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 13, 2021
Ver enjoyable and informative
