我们生活在一场技术革命中，在这场革命中，战争的性质变化比历史上任何其他时期都要快，摄政时代和半岛战争激动人心、多彩的日子现在似乎如此遥远，以至于它们被有效地排除在神话中。
约翰·莫洛（John Mollo）在少年时代受到了爱德华时代杰出历史学家C.C.P.劳森（C.C.P.Lawson）的友好和不懈帮助的启发，这本引人入胜的书献给了他。他多年来致力于研究拿破仑时代的英国军队、其战役、胜利和灾难。通过这样做，他不仅掌握了这一时期所穿制服的最千变万化的范围——他已广泛发表了这一主题——而且掌握了军队取得一些最具历史意义的成功的整个社会和政治背景。
在这里，他描述了英国第一批骠骑兵团的概念、孕育、诞生和青春期——这是摄政王热衷于军装和花花公子的副产品——在1808年至1814年伊比利亚半岛残酷的战争现实中，他们在两次截然不同的战役中，首先在摩尔统治下，然后在惠灵顿统治下，走向全面成熟。
约翰·莫洛（John Mollo）以当代书信、日记、报告和全面的参考书目为基础，将读者带入和平与战争中的骠骑兵旅的核心，用坚定的笔触描绘了该旅丰富多彩的人物，并描述了日常生活的方方面面，包括营房和战场。他这样做，突显了摄政王如此钟爱的浮夸的花花公子主义与各级官兵在最恶劣的气候和地形条件下作战时的冲劲和毅力之间的巨大反差，他们常常在相当大的困难下作战，缺乏许多基本的军事生活必需品。
这是一个基于19世纪早期战争残酷现实的故事，必须对硬币的两面进行审查。在正面，我们看到过度使用鞭子残酷地强加纪律，对半岛军队的毁灭性影响是容易获得几乎无限的酒精供应，导致在我们这个时代没有军事上的类似情况，人类遭受的痛苦几乎是行乞的信仰。莫洛对摩尔撤退到科伦纳时的骠骑兵部分的描述令人难忘。
这是一本值得珍藏的书，文笔优雅，有着自然故事讲述者的气质，有着真正的爱人和军事史研究者的印记。
From Corunna to Waterloo: With the Hussars, 1808 to 1815
Living as we do in the midst of a technological revolution, during which the nature of war has changed more rapidly than in any other period in history, the stirring, colorful days of the Regency and The Peninsular War seem now so remote that they are effectively removed into mythology.
Inspired in his boyhood by the kindly and unfailing help of a distinguished Edwardian historian – C.C.P. Lawson, to whom this fascinating book is dedicated – John Mollo has devoted many years to the study of the British Army in the Napoleonic era, its campaigns, triumphs and disasters. In so doing he has not only become a master of the most kaleidoscope range of uniforms worn in the period – a subject on which he has published widely – but also the whole social and political background against which the army achieved some of its most historic successes.
Here he describes the conception, gestation, birth and adolescence of the first British Regiments of Hussars – the byproducts of the Prince Regent’s passion for military finery and dandyism – leading on to their full maturity in the grim realities of war in the Iberian Peninsula between 1808 and 1814, first under Moore and then under Wellington, in two widely different campaigns.
Basing his story on contemporary letters, diaries and reports and a comprehensive bibliography, John Mollo takes the reader into the heart of the Hussar Brigade in peace and war, depicting its many colorful characters with a sure hand and describing every facet of day-to-day life, in barracks and on the battlefield. In so doing he highlights the extraordinary contrast between the foppish dandyism so beloved by the Prince Regent and the dashing courage and fortitude of all ranks as they fought under the most severe conditions of climate and terrain, often against considerable odds and lacking many of the bare necessities of military life.
This is a story based on the harsh realities of war in the early years of the nineteenth century and both sides of the coin have to be examined. On the obverse we find the brutal imposition of discipline by the excessive use of the lash, the devastating effect upon the Peninsular Army of easy access to almost limitless supplies of alcohol, leading to situations which have had no military parallel in our own time, and human suffering almost beggaring belief. Mollo’s description of the Hussars part in Moore’s retreat to Corunna is unforgettable.
Written with great elegance, the touch of a natural story teller and the imprint of a true lover and student of military history, this is a book to treasure.
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