Warriors In Scarlet The Life And Times Of The Last Redcoats Ian Knight by Ian Knight 9780230767300, 9781447223535, 0230767303, 1447223535 instant download after payment.

A gripping, authoritative new history of Queen Victoria's army based on eye-witness accounts.Between 1837 and 1901 the British Army underwent a seismic change, as the expansion of the Victorian empire saw them facing new enemies as different as Maori warriors, Afghan hill men, Asante gunmen in the rain forests of West Africa, Boer farmers and Zulu warriors. These were skilled, courageous and experienced fighters, while the British troops were often under-strength and operating in unfamiliar, difficult terrain. Disasters such as iSandlwana, Maiwand, Chillianwallah and Majuba shocked the Victorian public - but in reality the army won more than four-fifths of the battles they fought in this era, and won more than fifty wars for the loss of just one.In Warriors in Scarlet, Ian Knight draws on evocative accounts from ordinary soldiers as well as officers to show us what daily life was like in the army and how it was forced to abandon the strategies that had brought victory in the Napoleonic wars and adapt new practices again and again - becoming, in the end, the professional fighting force of the twentieth century. With its exciting narrative style, careful analysis and emphasis on first person accounts, this is destined to become a classic.