Fighting in woods and forests is a very special form of war. Avoided by military commanders unless such terrain is to their advantage, for soldiers forest battles are a chaotic mix of dread, determination, and, all too often, death. Adversaries remain in constant fear of concealed ambush, casualties usually must be abandoned, and prisoners who cannot be guarded are killed. Heightened fear can lead to excesses. Too often, armies have been badly prepared and trained for such warfare and have suffered severely for it. In Warfare in Woods and Forests, noted military historian Anthony Clayton describes major events in woods and forest warfare from the first century CE to the 21st. These events involve Roman soldiers in Germany 2, 000 years ago; North Americans in 18th- and 19th-century conflicts; invaders of Russia in 1812 and 1941; British, French, and Americans in France in 1916 and 1918; Americans in the Hürtgen Forest in 1944; and modern-day Russian soldiers in Chechnya.
Table of Content
Foreword by General Charles Guthrie, former Chief of Defence Staff (UK)
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Warfare before Firearms
3. Early Modern Warfare 1500-1713
4. The Eighteenth Century. New Irregular Challenges
5. 1815-1914 Towards Later Modern Warfare
6. The First World War 1914-1917
7. The First World War 1918
8. The Second World War 1939-1945
9. Post 1945 and Conclusion
Select Bibliography
Index
About the author
Anthony Clayton is a retired official of the British Colonial Government of Kenya, former Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and former Associate Lecturer at the University of Surrey. He is author of 15 books including Paths of Glory: The French Army, 1914–1918; The British Officer: Leaders of the Army from 1660 to the Present; and Defeat: When Nations Lose a War.
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