"The Battle of Ocana: The Army of Spain's Greatest Victory" Topic

"Although the Battle of Ocana is without doubt the Army of Spain's greatest victory, until F.O. Juarez and O.L. Ruiz Jaen brought out their beautiful book, la Batalla de Ocana, Campanas militares en la provincia de Toledo en 1809, there was no monograph on the event. The paradox is all too apparent. As a matter of national pride, Spanish historians could hardly be expected to tackle the question; from the French point of view, Napoleon, not being the Commander-in-Chief on that particular day and Imperial military history being strictly speaking Napoleonic, no historian had ever actually taken on the subject. As for the English, keen as they are on what they call the Peninsular War, since none of their troops took part in the event, they quite understandably neglected the Battle of Ocana, at least in detail. Now the French archives are simply overflowing with information about this glorious feat of arms for their army. We have developed these contemporary sources using some new Spanish sources which our predecessors F.O. Juarez and O.L. Ruiz did not know about at the time they did their research"

See here.
link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

TangoO1: I was not aware of this book. Thank you very much for posting this.
John Miller

humm Ocaña a Spanish victory?
so Dunkirk is also a British victory then…

The Spaniards have a sort of misplaced complexed relationship with this war of independence(from France??).
Some battles fought by the Brits and Portuguese barely acknowledge them and portrait monuments to glorious Spanish troops and victories.
Even if one does not like it or tries to transvestite it, History is and remains.
And why should history of defeats be less interesting than victories?

Yes it is totally true, even the name "war of Independence" is ignored in the english-speaking and french-speaking worlds but in this case the Spaniards are not responsibles, the ambiguous title chosen by the french author/editor and how the French used to name their armies are totally responsibles : the (French) "Armée d'Espagne" "Army of Spain" 's greatest victory like there were too French "Army of Portugal" "Army of Italy" "of Germany" of the Alps, Pyrénées, of the Rhin, of the Midi etc,etc…there was too an "Army of England"

Several threads have been opened about this book
TMP link
TMP link

The French forces has some very distinct units.

Several on this forum are doing the German division of the IV corps, and all its formations were there. Also the 4th, 7th and 9th Polish. And the Vistula lancers; and Westphalian chevauleger.

Lots of cavalry. And some distinct French infantry units.

link

GdeP

humm Ocaña a Spanish victory?

Um no, the translation of the original French is a bit vague. "Army of Spain" refers to the French "Army of Spain," not the Spanish Army. And since they beat the biggest concentration of Spanish troops ever encountered, they can claim it as their "greatest victory."

Glad you like it my friend John!.

Amicalement
Armand

Just picked up a copy, I would have missed this title without Armand.

Thank you cousin!

So happy for that my dear cousin! (big smile)

Amicalement
ARmand