Welington's Military Machine - Philip J Haythornthwaite

Wellington's Military Machine by Philip J Haythornthwaite publised by Spellmount Limited.

Although it goes over quite a bit of previous material, which really is unavoidable there's some interesting odd bits of information which makes, for myself anyway, quite an interesting read.

For example the cavalry section mentions among other things the horses received by the 14th Light Dragoons in 1809 had been rejected by the Irish Commissariat Corps and also mentioned is the Court Martial of the 0th (POW) Light Dragoons commanding officer for failing to lead his regiment in combat and a draconian disciplinary regime. Money and contacts talks, he got off.
It gives a brief run down of;

Cavalry, Household, Light, Heavy and Yeomanry.

Infantry including Guards, Line, Militia, Volunteers and Fencibles which are often forgotten about.

Artillery, Horse, Siege and Garrison.

Supporting arms are the Commissariat, Medical, Engineers, Staff and Intelligence.

Allies including Spanish, Portuguese, Hanoverians, Netherlands, Austians, Russians, Swedes, Prussians, The Emigrant Corps And the Foreign Corps.

Next comes a chapter on strategy and tactics followed by the armies campaigns which include;
The Low Countries 1793 to 1795.
India.
The Cape 1795 and North Holland 1799.
The West Indies.
Egypt 1801.
South America 1806 to 1807.
The Peninsular with individual battles;
Vimeiro 21 August 1808, Corunna 16th January 1809, Portugal and Talavera 1809,Busaco 27 September 1810, Akbuera 16th May 1811, Cuiudad Rodrigo 1812, Badajoz 1812,
Salamanca 22 July 1812, Vittoria 21 June 1813, Pyreness and Southern France 1813.
America and Canada 1812 to 1815.
Netherlands Quatre Bras 16th June 1815, Waterloo 18th June 1815.

Then it's the turn of the Royal Navy;
Ships Crew, Ships of the Line, Frigates, Shipyards and Equipment and tactics.
Navy Campaigns;
The Glorious First of June - 1st June 1794. With a mention of the hospital ship Charon, named after the boatman who ferried the dead.
Cape St Vincent 14th February 1797.
Camperdown 11th October 1797.
The Mediterranean 1798.
Copenhagen 2nd April 1801.
Trafalgar 21 October 1805.
Naval Campaigns of 1806 to 1815
Amphibious Operations.

Don't expect much detail regarding regiments, campaigns and uniforms, although it has a number of good illustrations on the subject of uniforms and most of the campaigns show how the sides lined up. It's main purpose is an overall view of the military of Wellington and I believe it fulfils that purpose well, others may disagree. At 183 pages less index I wouldn't expect anything other than a brief breakdown considering the subjects covered, but it's detailed enough to be interesting.
I also may be influenced by the fact that I managed to find a copy reasonably priced on line.

I just purchased a copy for myself. I already have the sister book "Napoleon's Military Machine" so it's a good overview.

I also had a look at the Napoleon book but decided that the regimental information, for which I'm mainly interested in, I had already had although spread over a number of sources.
Since the tactical information was of little interest, I didn't bother with it.
It still appears to be a good book for an overall view of Napoleons military.