Featured battle : Kobryn

Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

Date : 27 July 1812

An unfortunate first contact for the French Southern Flank Guard of the Grand Armée when they came up against part of the Russian Third Army of the West. They were outnumbered about 4 to 1. Just over 3,200 fit men were captured the remainder were killed or wounded. Russian losses were said to be light.

British Naval Trawlers and Drifters in Two World Wars

Steve R Dunn
The work of Trawlers and Drifters has had a mention in many books but non conveyed the quite incredible amount of service given by these ships and their crews. The narrative contains many stories of particular actions which illustrate the enormous range of tough tasks these small ships were given. The range runs from the almost static boom defence drifters to trawlers acting as rescue ships for the arctic convoys, from the insertion of clandestine agents to the evacuation at Dunkirk. Losses were high from mines, torpedoes and bombs with, in most cases, no survivors. Some reference to the internal politics of the Admiralty is made in the context of explaining why so many of our fishing fleet were required to support the navy. Passing reference is also made to that support still being needed for the Falklands war.
Anyone familiar with John Lambert’s drawings will not be disappointed by those assembled here; quality and quantity almost sufficient to build a boat and certainly great for any ship modeller.
The quality of the publication is such that if the content had been limited to the many photographs and drawings with simple annotations it would have been a very interesting book but with Steve Dunn’s supporting narrative it is raised to a higher level.
We highly recommend it.

Seaforth Publishing, 2021