DOC Napoleon's Guard (Trade Editions) by Philip Haythornthwaite in History

Review

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful. These book is a must for any historian;By Eduardo J. Tellez AThese Book is a must for any historian; uniformologist; collector; and painter of military miniatures; or any enthusiast of the Napoleonic period.You can find; A unique insight into the life of this elite fighting corps.Lavishly illustrated; with 12 colour plates exhaustively detailing the equipment; uniform and combat experience of the Guard.The Napoleonic era is one of the most popular amongst military enthusiasts and wargamers.No mere ceremonial outifit; the Guards were involved in the thick of the fighting - witness their near destruction at Waterloo!In the back of the Book there is a part of the introduction that I would like to include It goes like this;Napoleon's Imperial Guard was the elite corps of the French Army; and; as members of the Emperor's personal Guard; its soldiers were accorded a degree of care and attention which distinguished them from the rest of the French Army. The Guard differed from the guard corps of other European sovereigns of the period; in that its function was rather functional than ceremonial; and its expansion was such that it came to represent a considerable portion of France's military establishment. By supplying personnel to other units; it functioned as a training school for the remainder of the army; yet the elite status of the guard did little to protect its soldiers from the rigours of combat in the brutal Napoleonic Wars.I would like to finish saying that this book is a great study of Napoleon's Imperial Guard; with a detailed history of the daily life and dutys of those regiments featured; the author try to focus here the presenting uniforms and detailed pieces of equipment; show men in actual conditions of battle and peacetime.