The Shape of Battle: The Art of War from the Battle of Hastings to D-Day

Historian and novelist Mallinson (Fight to the Finish) delivers a stirring survey of six consequential British military clashes, from the Norman invasion to the war in Afghanistan. He begins with Anglo-Saxon King Harold’s thumping defeat of Norse invaders at Stamford Bridge in 1066, which was followed weeks later by William the Conqueror’s decisive victory against Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Four centuries later, the Battle of Towton pitted the House of Lancaster against the House of York and featured the massed longbow, a “medieval machine gun” that could fire up to 12 arrows per minute. Mallinson also discusses Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and details the unprecedented planning, resources, and intelligence-gathering that went into British D-Day operations during WWII. At the 1951 Battle of the Imjin River in South Korea, British troops held the line for three days against a massive onslaught of Chinese troops, while in the early 2000s, a succession of British commanders struggled against “low-tech” yet “suicidally brave” Taliban fighters in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. Mallinson draws apt literary allusions, painstakingly chronicles the background to each battle, and vividly profiles key players. The result is an erudite and eloquent study of the art, history, and literature of warfare. (Aug.)