The Austrian Army 1805-1809 - vol. 3: Cavalry, artillery and other forces (History of Soldiers and weapons book) Paperback – October 1, 2018

This title is my first purchase of the series covering the Austrian 1809 army. It is really good to see some new Napoleonic titles and especially those covering the Austrians. In some ways, these books could be described as filling the gap between the popular Osprey Napoleonic titles and the excellent Hourtoulle Napoleonic series. This particular title is divided into five sections, namely the Austrian cavalry in 1809, the Austrian artillery in 1809, other branches of the army, such as engineers and miners, followed by a section covering the Elite Troops Austrian Grenadier battalion of 1809, and finally, a section covering the Tyrol Rebellion of 1809. On the positive side it is nice to see such a variety within one book but on the negative side, it is a lot to fit into 98 pages. Due to this the reader will naturally not expect any detailed battle or action accounts. The book instead concentrates on the various uniforms of the period, the units and their commanders and the calibre and number of guns the Austrian army contained. And, although it will no doubt be obvious to the reader that many of the prints can be found online, and I've seen several in other titles, and the quality of some of the full pages prints could be better, there are a few I've not seen before, which makes a pleasant change. And I particularly liked the image of the Austrian Ulan on page 84. I've seen it before several times but it is the first time I've seen it in colour and it is nice to have it within a book and covering a full page. As already mentioned, the final section covers units during the 1809 Tyrol rebellion. It alone takes up 14 pages but I found it a very interesting and welcoming addition to the book. Like the Hourtoulle series there are numerous examples of uniforms in colour, mainly showing jackets and headgear. And, like other uniform titles, this one is ideal for popping into now and again when the need arises. (great for both wargamers and military enthusiasts) On the negative side, I do feel they are rather priced a little too high but I am sure they will become a welcome addition to anyone's Napoleonic collection and I am certainly looking forward to seeing the rest of the 1809 series and the 1813 title.

3 from 3 These books are gold. A complete resource for Austrian cavalry unit organisation coloyrs recruitment training weapons..everything

Interesting book, seems to be thorough. However, the editing and production quality is quite poor. Not a deal breaker, but a little irritating considering the price.