The Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine 1815

While obtaining some books from The Book Depository, this title from Osprey Publishing, Men-at-Arms series popped up: The Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine 1815.

In a moment of weakness I purchased it as well.  I have more than enough information on this subject, but let's not be naive, too much is never enough.

The Book Depository provide an excellent service.  Highly recommended.  In fact they probably do too good a service and I will rue the day when there are no longer any local book sellers, but there's progress for you.

The book turned up in about ten days and better still I resolved to read it.  Being familiar with Osprey books I knew it wouldn't take long.

To put it nicely this book is really just a taste.  The colour plates give it value and I learnt a bit about the North German Federal Army Corps.  The structure was interesting, showcasing units against the background of the various actions fought in 1815.  The content was possibly sufficient by way of introduction, but reminded me more of the sample pages you can sometimes view when browsing eBooks.  This book, it struck me when I finished it, was a sample.

That is not a flaw or even a reason not to purchase (as mentioned the colour plates are in my opinion worth the money).

There is one major flaw though: there are no real recommendations for further reading.  The related titles on the inside of the back cover are exclusively Osprey and struck me as embedded advertising that hadn't been given much thought.

Luckily with Google this defect is easily remedied.  To be fair, when I purchased this book I also purchased Peter Hofschroer's Waterloo 1815 Quatre Bras & Ligny along with his Waterloo 1815 Wavre, Plancenoit & the Race to Paris.

My Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine, while far from an accurate representation of the real thing, will hopefully see plenty of action in the coming months as we head towards the Waterloo Bicentenary.