The expertise of 140 academics, retired soldiers, journalists, museum curators, and professional authors has been recruited to compile the 13,000+ initialled entries in this massive overview of military history from ancient times to the modern world. More than a dictionary of battles, or of military biographies, the aim of this Companion is to provide “a source of dependable information and thoughtful assessment for intelligent general readers” and also “a reliable and quick reference for scholars in this particular field and its related disciplines”. The second group of perceived users, scholars in the field, we can accept without question but whether or not many general readers, intelligent or otherwise, will lightly pick up this substantial volume from a bookshop display, or borrow it from a library, requires a certain amount of editorial faith which we might not necessarily share. But alter the word “intelligent” to “interested” and we would all be marching in perfect step on the same parade ground.
Concentrating on events in Europe and North America ‐ there are similar works on American, Australian, and New Zealand military history ‐ this volume casts a wide net to cover such topics as military academies, alcohol, animals and the military, camp followers, dugouts, the portrayal of war in films, Ancient Greek tactical writers, military head‐dress, hussars, the laws of war, munitions, military nurses, religion and war, uniforms, drill, NATO, parole, the thin red line, etc., etc. Its main concern is land warfare, although crucial events at sea or in the air are not totally excluded. However, there is a measure of inconsistency in the choice of entries in these two areas that rest uneasily with the decisive coverage given to the campaigns and battles, military concepts and leaders, weapons and equipment, and their like. Acknowledging, as the editor candidly remarks, that “no companion can claim to be comprehensive”, and that there will never be universal agreement as to who or what should be included, there still remains grounds for astonishment. For example, if Admiral Karl Dönitz, the commander of the German U‐boats in the Second World War, is allowed an individual entry, why not Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, C‐in‐C Fighter Command in 1940? After all is researched and recorded, Dönitz lost the Battle of the Atlantic, and Dowding won the Battle of Britain.
If the scholarship on display verges on the impeccable, there is also evidence that the contributors live in the real world and are not lacking in humour. The entries for the NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institute) which organised canteens for servicemen during the 1939‐1945 war, and the Yeomanry (British volunteer cavalry) bear witness to these two admirable qualities. In the former it is remarked that the NAAFI was the butt of much unfair wit and was alleged to stand for No Ambition And (expletive deleted on the grounds that it is unsuitable in a professional review journal)‐all Interest. And anecdotal evidence is called up to illustrate the peculiar and distinctive style of the Yeomanry. A brigade commander ordered a Yeomanry colonel to send an officer on some distant and probably fruitless mission. The colonel replied that he would send Charles. “Hmm”, mused the brigadier, “D’you think he’ll go?” Full marks here to the contributors, the editor, and the publishers for conduct which may, or may not be, prejudicial to good order and military discipline.
No military buff, no large lending library, and no general reference library of any consequence, will want to be without this truly companionable volume. Doubtless it will be required reading at Sandhurst and West Point.
