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When this book was first published in 1971 the opening paragraph of the blurb read: "You could fill a library with books about the Crimean War, and that, paradoxically, is why this book has been written. For in this library you would find exhaustive histories, some reaching to several volumes; you would find biographies, commentaries, diaries and treatises written from this angle and from that - but you would not find a single concise volume, a straightforward and objective account of the war covering the peripheral theatres as well as the Crimean itself, giving all the fundamental facts, yet pleading no special cause. This book aims to fill that gap." Now, over thirty years later, that remains substantially true. The next paragraph began: "The battlefields round Sevastopol are at present inaccessible, even to Russian tourists." Happily this is no longer true, and a number of agencies take tours to the battlefields of the Crimea. As the illustrations in this book were originally selected with the intention of making the reader familiar with the topography of the siege and the battles of Balaclava, Inkerman and the Chernaya, it will prove an invaluable asset to anyone visiting the Crimea.… (more)
User reviews
There is a good annotated bibliography, and anoraky lists of regiments and the Orders of Battle of the three main combatant armies.
Having said that, there are occasional flashes of insight that make this book nonetheless worthwhile. It details, for instance, the campaigns of the Crimean War that took place outside the Crimea - for instance, in the lower Danube basin (where the war started), in the Caucasus, and the naval blockade of Russia in the Baltic. And Chapter 10, "Administrative difficulties", is actually a very good exposition of the concept of military support services and the problems inherent in keeping an increasingly modern army supplied. Our current-day politicians, who regard it as a scandal that it takes two people behind the lines to supply one soldier in the line, would do well to read this and learn something about real life.
The Crimean War, especially from Britain's point of view, was a prime example of incompetance at many levels, unprofessionalism at the highest level, and generally it reflects on typical British arrogance when dealing with foreigners that blinds us to all else and makes us look foolish to everyone except ourselves.
The 1971 paperback edition has lost the maps inside the front and rear endpapers that would give a useful overview of the whole campaign, though they are referenced in the contents list.