Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Age of the Big Battalions => Topic started by: carojon on January 28, 2021, 03:31:51 PM
-
I've just finished reading All at Sea by John Dillon looking at the naval support provided to the British Army during the American War of Independence.
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4DEuhibtB3o/YBFrqPLtfgI/AAAAAAAAts0/pX3Q4PmfZB4e1AlcA7FwQsLPuHZyluNegCLcBGAsYHQ/s524/helion1000942.jpg)
This book digs deep into the logistics the British faced projecting their forces over 3,000 miles of contested sea lanes together with a look of the amphibious capabilities demonstrated alongside the wider context of the war as a whole.
If you would like to see my thoughts about this interesting read then just follow the link to JJ's
https://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2021/01/all-at-sea-naval-support-for-british.html
JJ
-
A good review of what sounds like an interesting work (which I don't yet have but fully intend to buy), although I think one needs to look at other strategic considerations as well, to understand some of the limitations on British movement in North America. For all the opprobrium heaped on him for Minden and the outcome of the AWI, Sackville/Germain in fact deserves respect for putting together an army of over 30,000 British and German troops in 1776, and getting them - and their supplies of course - across the Atlantic. Equally, I hope the author gives Clinton - whose military ancestry was primarily Navy rather than Army - his due for understanding the complexities of amphibious warfare, again despite the outcome of the Yorktown campaign. The Royal Navy's performance in the AWI, certainly in North America, was well below par by comparison with the SYW and French Revolution/Napoleonic Wars (the Battle of the Capes was its first defeat by the French in a fleet action since the Middle Ages) and overall defeat should also be seen in this context.