Richard BrzezinskiRezensionen

Not my normal read but this was actually surprisingly interesting.

Lutzen 1632 lýsir einni af örlagaríkustu bardögum 30 ára stríðsins í Mið-Evrópu. Þetta var stríð þar sem kaþólikkar og mótmælendur bárust á banaspjótum og hin ýmsu þýsku smáríki börðust innbyrðist með íhlutun erlendra málaliða, herja og annarra ríkja. Gústav Adolf Svíakonungur er sennilega þekktastur erlendu konunganna sem börðust í 30 ára stríðinu. Leiddi baráttu mótmælenda um tíma og var mjög sigursæll en svo fór að lokum að hugrekki hans og dirfska varð honum að bana við Lutzen 1632. Þrátt fyrir fall hans voru úrslit daglangs bardagans óljós, að hluta sigur mótmælendaherjanna en einnig kaþólikka og fall Gústavs Adólfs markaði endalok stórveldisdrauma Svía.

The Book we see is a second volume in the complicated process of presenting a representative sample of the military structure of a large and hastily assembled state. We see examples of the direct mercenary, civic and ethnic minority troopers of Poland. The images are striking, the information solid and we get an prononing glossary of some military terminology.½

The kingdom of Poland was torn apart by its neighbours in three deals. 1772, 1793, and 1795 were the dates when Austria, Prussia and Russia took their slices. These handbooks deal with the extremely colourful army that upheld the kingdom until that diplomatic coup. As Poland was an extremely large country by European standards the army was diverse, and an interesting field of study. This first partition of the the study covers those troops raised by the Royal government. The map is quite perfunctory, but the plates are attractive and the diversity of equipment is formidable.

En välgjord bok med mycket fakta om slaget och dåtidens utrustning, vilket tillsammans med illustrationer och bilder ger en bra bild över slaget.

This is the follow on volume to the very good first volume. There simply isn't enough here to justify a separate volume. The book is intended to be about foreign troops in the the Polish army, but very little space is devoted to this. The book provides some follow on details regarding troop types covered in volume one, but space is devoted to explanation of the plates before it reaches mid-way in the text. I like the plates. There are some really good ones of Tartars and Cossacks, but they really don't redeem the shortcomings in the text.

This is one of the better Osprey titles. The text is great. It explains the organization of the Polish army during this period. It gives suitable attention to the various forms of cavalry from winged hussars to cossacks. It also leaves some space for the foot and artillery in Polish units. I'm less wild about the mix of illustrations. While they are beautiful, as one should expect from this series, my personal feeling is they aren't as varied as they could be--and thus are less useful than they could be.

A long time coming, but well worth the wait. The former consultant of With Fire & Sword (1998), here expands on his previous publications and dispels the myths surrounding the Commonwealth’s Winged Hussars and their demise. The RECRUITMENT AND ORGANIZATION section follows a brief introduction with an etymology of hussar, from the Byzantine chosarioi/chonsarioi. Adequately covered is a simple hierarchy and organization of feudal French origins, with insight into the social stratification of Polish nobility and means of remuneration.

Comprehensive sections on equipment and accouterments with tidbits of information such as a cottage industry in armor manufacture/modification and faux leopard skin capes. The reference to “western armour” deserves some elaboration, though beyond the scope of the book, if only to cover the transitional phase. Of interest is the section on wings: their introduction, evolution and usage.

In sixteen pages the author details the hussar’s role on campaign (5) and battle (11): in matters of life, training, sieges and battlefield formations - the evolution of the huf – and the engagement’s aftermath. The EXPERIENCE OF BATTLE focuses on the fluid nature of cavalry warfare, and a section dismissing the notion of kopia’s superiority over the pike. A point of disagreement is over the discounting of the lance’s value against plate armor, though not with the kopia, it being fragile on account of its hollowness. The importance of status is clearly shown, whether land-owning rotmistrz or towarzysze of varying wealth, inflexible other than on the battlefield, while the daily campaigning was up to the dogsbody pacholiks and servants.

Numerous illustrations and photographs, with a few recycled from Polish Armies 1569-1696, nicely complement the book. Vuksic’s plates while accurate, with no disproportionate bodies or garish colors, are of posed figures. It lacks a certain degree of vitality as was exhibited in those of McBride’s in Brzezinki’s previous two books. There is too much space in some of the plates: 2B’s images could have been shrunk without detail loss and 2 pictures transferred to 2A, with the addition of another reconstruction.