Badajoz 1812: Wellington's Bloodiest Siege (Praeger Illustrated Military History)

The storming of Badajoz was an epic action which involved Wellington's infantry in some of the most savage hand-to-hand fighting of the whole Peninsular War. At appalling cost in a nightmare assault during the night of April 6, 1812, Wellington's soldiers hacked their way over the bodies of the dead and through the huge medieval walls of the town. These were held with great tenacity, skill and courage by a resolute French and German garrison. Having stormed the town the battle-crazed army lost control and the horrors of the sacking which followed, as much as the courage of the attackers, have passed into legend.Napoleon once said that fortresses would not stop an army, but they would retard its progress. In the case of the mighty Spanish fortress of Badajoz he was absolutely correct. For not only did it prove to be a very sharp thorn in the side of the Allied army's progress in the Peninsula but it cost Wellington the flower of his army in the great assault that finally wrenched it from French hands on the night of 6 April 1812. The assault can hardly be described as successful, accompanied as it was by such great loss of life. Indeed, it was only the sheer determination of Wellington's men, driving themselves on through a maelstrom of fire against the towns massive walls, that won the day. The fall of Badajoz had terrible consequences for the town's population, and the 72-hour period of debauchery, murder and destruction brought down upon it by Wellington's victorious soldiers remains one of the most shameful episodes in the long history of the British army. The story of the siege and storming of Badajoz - and of its northern counterpart, Ciudad Rodrigo - is the subject of this fine volume by Ian Fletcher.