I'm reading "The War Of Wars" right now which is about the first proper World War. At it's heart, the man above... Napoleon Bonapart, clearly a very able General if a little bit on the short side. He was hardly the dwarf that many said he was, but at 5' 6", he was hardly a giant of a man. Like any good general, he was probably a closet homosexual, the book said that, I'm not just making it up. Men who win battles seldom have a way with the female species, that's for sure.
I still haven't got past his first campaign in Italy anyway, so it remains to be seen what feats of military derring-do he will achieve, although I have an inkling that just as he was born on an island, he is doomed to die on an island. Anyway he totallly revolutionized warfare. Just before his time, Generals liked to line their men up all gentlmanly like and have them all kill each other before tea time if possible. Napoleon mixed in some guerilla warfare, diversionary tactics not seen since Alexander or Caesar, and forced marches not unlike the Romans were acquainted with.
The stuffed coats of the aristocratic warring classes never saw it coming, and if the man hadn't been encumbered with God-like pretensions like great leaders before and after him, then who knows how far he could have gone... and those before and after him also. Once again I'm talking utter nonsense, howabout I finish the book and let you know how it goes?
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