An exhilarating and uplifting account of the lives of sixteen 'warriors' from the last three centuries, hand-picked for their bravery or extraordinary military experience by the eminent military historian, author and ex-editor of the Daily Telegraph, Sir Max Hastings. fascinated by outstanding deeds of derring-do on the battlefield (land, sea or air) -- and by their practitioners.He takes as his examples sixteen people from different nationalities in modern history -- including Napoleon's 'blessed fool' Baron Marcellin de Marbot (the model for Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard); Sir Harry Smith, whose Spanish wife Juana became his military companion on many a campaign in the early 19th century; Lieutenant John Chard, an unassuming engineer who became the hero of Rorke's Drift in the Zulu wars; Captain Karl von Muller of the light cruiser Emden whose predations in the South China Sea on behalf of the German Imperial Navy in World War I earned him the title of 'the gentleman of war'; the Australian-born man of letters Frederic Manning whose account of trench warfare, Her Privates We, is unrivalled; Squadron Leader Guy Gibson, the 'dam buster' whose heroism in the skies of World War II earned him the nation's admiration but few friends; and various other assorted combatants. people capable of courage beyond the norm. In this book Max Hastings investigates what this norm might be -- and how it has changed over the centuries.While celebrating feats of outstanding valour, he also throws a beady eye over the awarding of medals for gallantry -- and why it is that so often the most successful warriors rarely make the grade as leaders of men.
