Book Review; The Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine 1815

     Osprey Men At Arms 496
     The Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine 1815
     Author Peter Hofschroer  Artist Gerry Embleton
     ISBN 978-1-78200-617-6

     Every once in a while there is a book that I love and hate at the same time. This is one of those books. I love that the most important army on the Allied side of the Waterloo campaign is finally getting the detailed coverage that it deserves, and I hate the fact that I now have to repaint a lot of my Prussian army (perhaps I should just buy more.....).
      Hofschroer does an excellent job of outlining the condition of the Prussian Army at the time of the start of the Waterloo campaign. Plagued with shortages of equipment and supplies while in the middle of both reorganizing and absorbing new territories and recruits the Prussians were able to confront Napoleon at Ligny on the 16th of June 1815, fight a massive battle, retire in good order that night and then, on the 18th of June 1815 launch the attack into Napoleon's flank that saved Wellington's failing army on the field of Waterloo while simultaneously fighting a rearguard action against Grouchy at Wavre.
      Dispensing with the bothersome chronology and vague maps that are often a real downside to the venerable Osprey MAA series, Hofschroer provides a tightly written account of the state of the army in the days before the outbreak of the campaign. Part of this is a description of the uniforms worn by the troops in the sundry formations that made up the Brigades. The dizzying array of new uniforms, leftovers from the 1814 campaign and not-yet-replaced Napoleonic uniforms must have made this an interesting force to see.
       He continues with a short exposition of the the 1812 Drill Regulations and joins to this a couple of examples of real units adapting this to the conditions of the battlefield. I found this part particularly interesting as it is very rare to find the theoretical so directly juxtaposed with the real.  He continues this examination of tactics with a description of the Battle of Ligny, describing the actions of the various Prussian formations during the battle and the eventual retirement to Wavre followed by the march to the guns that saved the Anglo-Dutch army at Waterloo. These actions are illustrated with historic German maps that clearly show the terrain and troop dispositions (but they could have been larger!). These maps are a huge improvement over the vague pastel-colored "maps" that Osprey so often encumbers their slim volumes with.
     The artwork is very much up to the usual standard of Osprey productions. Embleton's illustrations are energetic, atmospheric and precise. They clearly show the very wide variety of uniforms worn by the Prussian army at the time. This gives me a chance to paint colors other than the interminable Prussian Blue!

     Very Highly Recommended!