105th Foot. The Prince of Wales Wessex Regiment Series by Martin McDowell
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Genre: General Fiction/Classics > Historical Fiction, Military/War
Worth Their Colors (105th Foot. The Prince of Wales Wessex Regiment #1)
A novel set in the early years of the Napoleonic Wars, using the actual events as they happened. The year is 1805 and Nelson has robbed the French of their way across The Channel, but Napoleon’s Grande Armee’ remains a potent threat. Faced with this, the Secretary of State for War gathered all possible forces to resist invasion. This included sweeping up into Detachment Battalions the surviving soldiers of various minor disasters and combining them together with a very much less than re-assuring mixture of recruits. This is the story of one such Battalion, a collection of veterans, social outcasts, untried Militia, volunteers, criminals and poachers who march and train together until the desperate British military deem them fit to be part of General Stuart’s army that invades Calabria to support one the few allies Britain has, the King of Naples. There they confront a veteran French army on the plains of Maida for the first set piece confrontation between the armies of Great Britain and Napoleon’s all-conquering forces. At the campaign’s end, as a Detachment Battalion, usually considered as inherently inferior, they could be broken up and sent to reinforce under strength, well established, Regiments. Or, perhaps, by their own deeds and prowess, they deserve to be recognised as a numbered Regiment, and be““Worth Their Colours.”
Close to the Colours (105th Foot. The Prince of Wales Wessex Regiment #2)
This story, sequel to “Worth Their Colours” is also set within actual history – fictional characters in actual events. On 2nd May 1808 Napoleon Bonaparte imprisoned the Spanish Royal Family and proclaimed his brother Joseph the new King of Spain. The Spanish rose up at the insult and so, with Spain in foment, the British Government saw the opportunity for a British army to once again set foot on European soil. Therefore, in August 1808, a small force led by General Sir Arthur Wellesley came ashore through the pounding surf of Mondego Bay to land on the Portuguese coast. This is the story of that army, how they confronted the hitherto victorious French, beginning with the very first exchange of fire at Brilos and then the success of Rolica and the stunning victory of Vimeiro. Wellington was recalled as being signatory to the controversial Convention of Cintra, and only then came the advance into Spain under General Sir John Moore. This incursion soon turned into a winter retreat of appalling hardship, but the army turned and stood at Corunna to inflict one last defeat on their pursuers, before returning home. The tale is told through the eyes of the characters of the fictional 105th Foot, The Prince of Wales Own Wessex Regiment, but all the events are actual history.
The Plains of Talavera (105th Foot. The Prince of Wales Wessex Regiment #3)
In January 1809 Moore’s evacuated army arrived back in England, but by April another, this time under Sir Arthur Wellesley, was returned to Lisbon to renew the war with the forces of Napoleon. This army was 23,000 strong but at the time of Wellesley returning, the French had a quarter of a million men in the Peninsula and so he had very much to rely on Spanish Armies to occupy the bulk of the French occupiers and also on the growing strength of the Spanish and Portuguese guerrillas, ably led by El Capucino and El Charro. In March of 1809, the French had captured the Portuguese port of Oporto and so Wellesley began there, to recapture this Portuguese second city and here begins another chapter in the story of the ‘The Rag and Bone Boys’. The 105th Foot, The Prince of Wales Own Wessex Regiment.
To the Battle Honour of Maida, first on their Colours from the previous campaign of 1808, have now been added those of Rolica, Vimeiro and Coruna. They march with Wellesley to play a major role in crossing the River Douro to take Oporto and then on to Talavera to support the Spanish, from which they have to withdraw after this costly victory and then suffer a dreadful retreat where their starvation was worse than that of Moore’s retreat in the previous year. After a year of inactivity, during which Officers could return home, the Summer of 1810 sees Wellesley again on the offensive, with new Allies, the Portuguese. This campaign includes the Battle of Busaco which was followed by the retreat back to the Lines of Torres Vedras, from which they finally advance when the French withdraw, having suffered starvation themselves. Throughout all the victories and retreats, the members of the 105th, both Rank and Commissioned, live, marry, fight and survive, through disputes, deep friendship and the perils of dreadful conflict. As usual, Henry Carr, now a full Major, must endure the ongoing personal feuds with the same old enemies, but support arrives, as usual, from his own friends and allies.
The Walls of Badajoz (105th Foot. The Prince of Wales Wessex Regiment #4)
The twelve months between March 1811 and March 1812 was the time of decision for the Peninsular War, when Napoleon swelled the armies of Marshalls Soult and Marmont with French veterans, this with the aim of ridding Spain and Portugal of the tiresome British once and for all. As a consequence, during this period the Allied army under the Duke of Wellington suffered more casualties than all the other years of the war combined. Within this twelve months, came the most severe encounters of the whole campaign, the dreadful battles of Albuera and Fuentes d’Onoro, then the two sieges Cuidad Rodrigo and Badajoz, each appalling for their hardships, the severity of the assaults and their aftermath. The story begins with the advance through Santarem after the winter inactivity, harrying the French North and East and ends at the walls of Badajoz. In the interim months, conflict between the two sides is almost weekly, either skirmishing, minor battles or simply standing and staring, one side waiting, the other deciding, either to attack or to hold their ground.
Throughout all, the 105th Foot, the Prince of Wales Own Wessex Regiment, march on, the ‘Rag and Bone Boys’, always either in the van or stood tense and ready as first reserve. Within their number, their characters live, fight, suffer and die; Henry Carr, now an experienced Major, Senior Major O’Hare and Lieutenant-Colonel Lacey, both now feeling the strain of four years of continuous campaigning. The men in the ranks maintain their bonds of comradeship, despite the dangers, the hardships, overbearing Officers and the ill-tempered characters of some amongst them. Their Followers support, to both feed, mend and tend as and when their men return to them, either just hungry, sometimes badly wounded or sometimes not at all. Thus the 105th continues both as a family and as a formidable fighting unit, one of Wellington’s most trusted, which brings extra duties and accompanying dangers.
However, old rivalries and jealousies continue, not least from Captain Lucius Tavender, especially when Carr’s younger brother, Willoughby, joins the 16th Light Hussars as a Cornet. Elsewhere, Lord Frederick Templemere, now a Politician and a paroled prisoner of war, has his own and very different, furrow to plough.
To the Walls of France (105th Foot. The Prince of Wales Wessex Regiment #5)
The fifth in the 105th Foot, ‘Rag and Bone Boys’ series. At the end of 1811, after four years of hard warfare against the forces of Napoleon, Wellington was not prepared to waste the Winter months and therefore he used them to capture, at great cost, the two ‘keys of Spain’: Cuidad Rodrigo and Badajoz. With these two now in Allied possession the story continues with Wellington advancing forward into Spain at the head of an Allied army to begin the campaigns of 1812. During this momentous year huge questions dominate the European stage, not least the aftermath of Napoleon’s disastrous invasion of Russia and the loss of an army of 600,000 men and all their horses and equipment. The following twelve months extending into 1813 is a year of titanic set-piece battles which will settle, one way or another, the fate of Spain and Portugal within the French Empire and also events far away over the Atlantic will have their own part to play, with the armies of the new Republic chancing their arm with their own invasions of Canada.
Both triumph and tragedy befall the Allied army during 1812, first the complete victory of Salamanca, then the near farce and tragedy of the Burgos siege, followed by a retreat back to Cuidad Rodrigo, worse than that of Coruna due to acute starvation. British Intelligence makes full use of Napoleon’s tragedy, weaving deceit on both sides of the Atlantic, such that El Rey Joseph is ordered to send men back to France and then in 1813 the Allies spring forward from the Portuguese border, with an advance so rapid that within three weeks there comes the triumph of Vitoria and then fighting to open the passes over the Pyrenees into France itself.
As part of what is now a formidable army, the 105th Foot Wessex The Prince of Wales Own, must first contend with the retirement of their Colonel, Bertram Lacey, finally worn down by years of intense campaigning and finally the horrors of Badajoz. His replacement is Carr’s old enemy from his last visit back to England after Talavera, this replacement being Sir Ambrose Brockenhurst MP, the Colonel of the 105th’s Militia, him arrived from England to take over from Lacey and the result is incompetence and even humiliation. Carr is promoted to temporary Brevet-Colonel, but their reputation is now sullied, yet the 105th play their part in Salamanca and endure the retreat from Burgos. With the Spring of 1813, all Allied armies advance to Vitoria to play their part in this momentous battle and take part in the conflicts in the Pyrenees, where, on the far right of Wellington’s line at the battle of Sorauren outside Pamplona, the 105th’s reputation is finally restored. Throughout all, the band led by Colour-Sergeant Jedediah Deakin hold together, giving mutual support and comfort, and taking advantage of any opportunity that comes their way which may soften the hard and dangerous life they necessarily lead.
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