Guerreros

The eminent military historian Sir Max Hastings chooses in this inspiring and inspiring account the lives of sixteen "warriors" of different social backgrounds and nationalities over the past three centuries, from the Napoleonic Wars to the Golan Heights, through the World Wars or Vietnam , selected for their courage or their extraordinary war experience. In the course of four decades writing about war, Max Hastings has developed a fascination for feats on the battlefields (land, sea, or air) and, of course, the military who starred in them. To do so, he addresses the biographies of iconic soldiers such as the Napoleonic general and writer Baron Marcellin de Marbot (inspired by Brigadier Gerard de Conan Doyle); Sir Harry Smith, whose Spanish wife Juana became his military partner in more than one campaign; Lieutenant John Chard, a modest engineer who became the unsuspected hero of Rorkes Drift during the Anglo-Zulu war, and immortalized in the cinema by Stanley Baker; squadron leader Guy Gibson, a pilot whose heroism in the skies of World War II earned him the admiration of his nation, but few friends; or energetic Virginian Lt. Col. John Paul Vann, one of the most influential American military advisers in the Vietnam War, a single line from the army with a turbulent personal life. To prevail on the battlefield, any army needs individuals capable of showing courage above the ordinary, but what is common in war? In Warriors, Max Hastings tries to answer that question, and how that perception has changed over time. While honoring extraordinary courageous deeds, he casts his inquisitive gaze on the awarding of valor decorations and on why these prominent warriors seldom measure up as leaders.