THE LINES OF TORRES VEDRAS: THE CORNERSTONE OF WELLINGTON'S STRATEGY IN THE PENINSULAR WAR, 1809-12
by John Grehan
Spellmount, £20, pp. 240,

There can be no prouder battle honour on a British regiment's colours than Albuera, proportionately the bloodiest engagement of the Peninsular War. Although the British commander, Marshal William Carr Beresford, was not a gifted tactician, reacted slowly to fast-moving events and chose the wrong set of south-western Spanish slopes on which to fight Marshal Soult's French army advancing from Andalucia, his infantrymen performed extraordinary feats of gallantry that terrifying day, 16 May 1811.

For over an hour, seven battalions of them stood at less than 60 yards' range from 17 French battalions, trading musket fire as the bodies mounted up and were used for cover, until the French finally broke and retreated. Many British units emerged from the contest having lost 60-75 per cent casualties; subalterns found themselves commanding battalions by the time the slaughter was over.

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