British Expeditionary Warfare and the Defeat of Napoleon, 1793-1815How did Britain manage the transportation of large numbers of troops to French controlled territory during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and successfully land them? Shortlisted for the Society for Nautical Research Anderson Medal 2016 Britain's naval victories in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars succeeded in protecting Britain from French invasion, but they could not of themselves defeat France. This required the support of allied armies and necessitated the shipping of large numbers of troops to, and successfully landing them on, French controlled territory - a major logistical operation. Wellington's expedition to Portugal and Spain led to Napoleon's defeat in the Peninsular War, but there were many other British expeditions before this which were not successful, in part because they were too logistically ambitious and/or they lacked allied support. This book examines the nature of combined operations and considers the planning and preparation of expeditions. It highlights the navy's important role in amphibious warfare and describes in detail the logistical operations which supported British expeditionary warfare in the period. It outlines the role of the Transport Board, explores how it periodically chartered a large proportion of the British merchant fleet and what theeffects of this were on merchant shipping. The book concludes that the Transport Board grew in competence; that the failure of expeditions was invariably due to circumstances well beyond its control; and that its pivotal role inthe preparation of all the major military expeditions in which hundreds of thousands of British troops served overseas was very significant and very effective. Robert K. Sutcliffe completed his doctorate at the University of Greenwich. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 British Expeditionary Warfare 17931815 | 9 |
2 Bringing Forward Merchant Shipping for Government Service
17931815 | 40 |
3 Competing Demands for Merchant Shipping 17931815 | 71 |
4 Economy versus Efficiency | 101 |
Naval and Military
Cooperation | 123 |
Kings Ships or Merchant Transports? | 148 |
7 Castlereaghs European Expeditions 180508 | 171 |