Featured battle : Oporto

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 12 May 1809

Soult had nearly 12,000 men [of his nominal corps strength of 23,500] in the city of Oporto and was trying to hold the line of the Douro. Wellington's first action after landing in Portugal was to march against Soult as the most serious threat to Lisbon. The line of the river Douro was made even more impassable because Soult moved all boats to his bank of the river. In a brilliant move four wine barges were secretly captured from the French bank of the river and the Buffs [3rd Foot, East Kents] 30 men per barge crossed the river and held a bridgehead while Wellington ordered other troops across. Soult rushed troops from guarding the waterfront to face the crossing. As soon as he had done this the towns people launched their boats and ferried British troops across to attack the other flank of Soult's 'front'. The French believed their position was untenable and withdrew from the town.

Allied Coastal Forces of World War 11. Volume 1

John Lambert & Al Ross
Having read Volume 2 first I came to Volume 1 with high expectations I was not disappointed. One could not help but be impressed with the massive research which must have been undertaken to produce such a wealth of detail. But more than that the information is presented in an easily accessible form.
The story of the Fairmile designs begins in the first World War and finishes with those which survive today. The same is true of the US submarine chaser except that none are still around. It seems wrong to select any particular parts of the book it is all worth reading but what I found surprising was the variety and quantity of the weapons fit. In type this ranged from the rather simple, primitive Holman projector to the top quality Rolls Royce 40mm gun. In quantity as much as two 4.5 inch, twin 20mm Oerlikon plus mines and depth charges all on a displacement of around 100 tons. All of this propelled at over 30 knots.
As I wrote in the review of Volume 2 [see elsewhere on this site] this is not a book just to be read but to be owned. A quality publication in a large format, 290mm by 240mm, with over 250 pages packed with technical drawings, photographs and engaging text. Some publicity blurb says it would help anyone wishing to build a model but for some of the boats little more would be needed to build to full size craft such is the detail given.
Along with Volume 2 we cannot recommend this book too highly.

Seaforth Publishing, 2018