Ambushes and Surprises

Ambushes and surprise attacks are tactics as old as warfare itself. This instructive and interesting book, written by a distinguished Victorian soldier and military historian, describes and analyses some of history’s most famous military ambushes—including Hannibal’s waylaying of the Romans on the shores of Lake Trasimene; the other great disaster to Roman arms when the Legions were lured to their doom by the Teutonic tribes of Germanicus in the Teutoburg Forest; from the Age of Charlemagne Malleson tells the story of Roland and Oliver’s doomed stand against the Moors at Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees. Other surprises and ambushes recounted in the book include Marshal Massena’s campaign of 1799 around the St Gothard Pass in the Swiss Alps, and France’s successful ambush of Braddock’s British force in the North American wilderness at Fort Duquesne. Each account is illustrated by a map, making this a most illuminating as well as an highly entertaining, read.-Print ed.