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Into the Jaws of Death
Lieutenant Colonel Mike Snook MBE
Between the Crimean War and the dawn of the 20th century, the British Army was almost continuously engaged, in one corner of the globe or another, in military operations famously characterized by Kipling as the 'savage wars of peace'.
From Cairo to Cape Town, hard-pressed handfuls of British soldiers flogged across often impossible terrain, and overcame a raft of logistic difficulties, to bring a succession of resourceful enemies to battle. When at length the protagonists met at close quarters, there were often startling, unexpected and violent outcomes.
In his new work Lieutenant Colonel Mike Snook deploys his professional expertise as a soldier, in concert with his life-long study of British military history, to bring the most dramatic clashes of the age of empire back to life. The names of these great battles - Isandlwana, Maiwand, Majuba Hill, Khartoum, Colenso, Spion Kop and Magersfontein still resonate down through the ages.
In a wide-ranging and meticulously researched military history, the author focuses closely on defeat and disaster - the occasions when things went badly awry for the British. Overstretch, political meddling, military incompetence and petty jealousy all played their part. Above all else, however, these are dramatic and perceptive accounts of mere mortal men struggling to deal with the often overpowering dynamics and horrors of 19th-century warfare on the fringes of Empire. Hardback 432 pages, 75 illustrations, 16 maps, 8 tables giving the Orders of Battle for all participants. AUTHOR SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.
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