Book Review of "the Face of Battle" by John Keegan

13 July 2002

THE FACE OF BATTLE

John Keegan, the author of "The Face of Battle" is allowing the reader to view different perspective of history, from the eyes of the soldier. Although by his own account, Keegan acknowledges, "I have never been in a battle. And I grow increasingly convinced that I have very little idea of what a battle can be like." Keegan scorns historians for pointing the finger of failure after an evolution occurs and not examining the soldier's point of view while the battle is transpiring.

Keegan chooses the three well documented campaigns of Agincourt in 1415, Waterloo in 1815, and Somme in 1916 to answer the question of his thesis: To find out how men who are faced with the threat of single-missile and multiple-missile weapons control their fears, fix their wounds, and face their death. In his words he is seeking "to catch a glimpse of the face of battle."

The first chapter of his book titled "Old, Unhappy, Far-off Things" gives Keegan's recognition to the fact that historians do not focus enough on actual soldiers. To explain this further, what Keegan is saying is that a historian puts things in a pack of sequential dates and times; but to the soldier, these things happen very rapidly and many times without planning. Keegan continues on to make note that when a historian puts together the pain-staking task of compilation of facts, the information is put down on paper as the writer's view of how the facts unfolded and not from the soldier's perspective.

The second chapter, titled "Agincourt, October 25th, 1415", gives a historical background about Agincourt, and then goes into the campaign about the battle in 1415. King Henry V sought to regain some French territory lost in the Hundred Year War and set out on a 120 mile journey to Maisoncelles where the English came head to head, or 300 yards, with the French. The English bowmen enticed the French to action and when the French responded they were met at the English line which consisted of three groups and archers on the right and left. Keegan goes on to tell of how the different groups of warriors affected each other: the archers versus the cavalry and infantry, the cavalry versus infantry, and infantry versus infantry. The worse effect must have been on the French soldiers that after the order was given to kill all survivors unless they were rich, noblemen, or worth a ransom.

The third chapter, titled "Waterloo, June 18th, 1815", skips ahead four hundred years to Waterloo in 1815 after Napoleon returned from his exile in Elba to face the Prussians and the British soldiers. Keegan gives an extremely thorough look at the battle evolution and breaks the timeline down into five phases: diversion, weakening the center front with artillery, further weakening the center front with cavalry, infantry attack, Prussia reserve arrival and Napoleon's defeat. Keegan goes on to describe how no soldier on either side would have been able to view the entire battlefield and how the events of combat for eight straight hours, after already going through a skirmish with the Prussians just two days prior, would have taken its toll on the French. Keegan examines the emotions of the fighting men in seven different situations, but really touches the reader towards the end of this chapter when he makes a comparison of the surrendering French soldiers piling up on top of each other to try and prevent being harmed after the battle to that of children huddled together