Jonathon Riley – författare

What makes a battle decisive? Jonathon Riley draws on his personal experience as a soldier and historian to explore the definitive battles of the modern era from Yorktown in 1781 to Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Each battle included is a turning point, the outcome of which has changed the face of history. The battles at Ligny, Quatre Bras and Waterloo in 1815 concluded more than twenty years of war with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France and instituted alliances that dominated Europe until 1860. The Ardennes in 1944 was decisive because Hitler threw away the last army he had which could have stalled the Allied advance into Germany. The war ended less than five months later. Dien Bien Phu confirmed the collapse of French colonial power in Indo-China, and paved the way for US involvement in Vietnam to stem the tide of Communist expansion. Since Operation Desert Storm no battle can be said to have been decisively concluded and the closing chapter looks to 21st century emergencies where opponents abandon conventional conflict.

What makes a battle decisive? Jonathon Riley draws on his personal experience as a soldier and historian to explore the definitive battles of the modern era from Yorktown in 1781 to Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Each battle included is a turning point, the outcome of which has changed the face of history. The battles at Ligny, Quatre Bras and Waterloo in 1815 concluded more than twenty years of war with Revolutionary and Napoleonic France and instituted alliances that dominated Europe until 1860. The Ardennes in 1944 was decisive because Hitler threw away the last army he had which could have stalled the Allied advance into Germany. The war ended less than five months later. Dien Bien Phu confirmed the collapse of French colonial power in Indo-China, and paved the way for US involvement in Vietnam to stem the tide of Communist expansion. Since Operation Desert Storm no battle can be said to have been decisively concluded and the closing chapter looks to 21st century emergencies where opponents abandon conventional conflict.

The career of General Hugh Stockwell culminated in the ill-fated Suez Operation of 1956 but no stigma can attach to him for this. It was a military success but a political nightmare which resulted in the fall of Prime Minister Eden, the lowest point in relations between the Western allies, the departure of France from the NATO military structure and the huge loss of British national confidence. Stockwell’s career up to that point had been exemplary. Although commissioned into the Welch Fusiliers he had fought in Norway 1940, commanded the Special Training Centre at Lochailort and 2nd battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers in 29 Independent Brigade during the successful invasion of Madagascar in 1942. He was a brigade and divisional commander in Burma and commander of 6 Airborne Division in Palestine before becoming Commander Land Forces during the Malayan Emergency under Templer. After the Suez debacle he went on to be Adjutant General and Deputy SACEUR during the height of the Cold War (Cuban missile crisis and erection of Berlin Wall). This is a timely biography of a soldier who was at the heart of the action during the Second World War and the turbulent post-war years

The Royal Welch Fusiliers were present at all Marlborough's great victories; they were one of the six Minden regiments; they fought throughout the Peninsula and were present at Wellington's final glorious victory at Waterloo. In The Great War their officers included the writer poets Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves; their 22 battalions fought not just on the Western Front but at Gallipoli, in Egypt, Palestine, Salonika, Mesopotamia and Italy. In WW2 they won battle honours from the Reichswald to Kohima. More recently they have served with distinction in the war against terror in the Middle East. Like so many famous regiments the RWF are no longer in the British Army's order of battle having been amalgamated into the Royal Regiment of Wales. But this fine book is the lasting memorial to a fiercely proud and greatly admired regiment.

1813 was a critical year in the world war that ended with the downfall of Napoleon. In a series of major battles, the converging armies of the Sixth Coalition drove the French forces back. This was the year in which the balance of power tipped decisively against Napoleon’s First Empire, and that is why Jonathon Riley’s highly readable and timely new study is so important. He covers the operations in central Europe and Spain, where the allies broke French power, humbled Napoleon and laid the foundations for the Congress of Vienna and the European settlement that endured for the next fifty years. In particular, he focuses on the operation of the Sixth Coalition - Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and the smaller German states. This was the prototype of all uneasy modern coalitions, with their troubled command relationships, disagreements on strategy and operations, and clashing political ambitions. At the same time, he reassesses the performance of Napoleon himself who was also an alliance commander, for his armies included not only Frenchmen but also Poles, Danes, Italians, Germans and a host of other contingents.In graphic detail he covers the 1813 campaigns, which have received less attention than those of 1812 and 1814/15 in spite of the fact that all the decisive moments came in 1813 – save for one: Waterloo.

The career of General Hugh Stockwell culminated in the ill-fated Suez Operation of 1956 but no stigma can attach to him for this. It was a military success but a political nightmare which resulted in the fall of Prime Minister Eden, the lowest point in relations between the Western allies, the departure of France from the NATO military structure and the huge loss of British national confidence. Stockwells career up to that point had been exemplary. Although commissioned into the Welch Fusiliers he had fought in Norway 1940, commanded the Special Training Centre at Lochailort and 2nd battalion Royal Welsh Fusiliers in 29 Independent Brigade during the successful invasion of Madagascar in 1942. He was a brigade and divisional commander in Burma and commander of 6 Airborne Division in Palestine before becoming Commander Land Forces during the Malayan Emergency under Templer. After the Suez debacle he went on to be Adjutant General and Deputy SACEUR during the height of the Cold War (Cuban missile crisis and erection of Berlin Wall). This is a timely biography of a soldier who was at the heart of the action during the Second World War and the turbulent post-war years

'In war, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns. Thus it may be known that the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or peril...' ("Sun Tzu The Art of War"). We speak of Caesar who conquered Gaul, not the legions; MacArthur who landed at Inchon, not the Marines - and we speak of Napoleon, one of history's most successful generals. Major General Jonathon Riley is supremely well qualified to write on Napoleon's generalship and has written an informed and insightful account. He opens with a short treatise on generalship in order to define Napoleon's achievement before moving on to the man himself. He examines Napoleon as a strategist; as a coalition commander; Napoleon's campaigns and Napoleon on the battlefield. Areas often ignored in the context of pre-industrial warfare - logistics and counter-insurgency - are also examined. Riley proceeds to three specific case studies beginning with Napoleon's first essay in generalship and the conquest of Piedmont; Napoleon at the height of his powers at the conquest of Prussia, to Napoleon's final defeats and the Battle of the Nations in 1813.