"The guerrilla war in Spain " Topic

"The guerrilla war in Spain is oft times referred to, both in historical accounts and literary adventures, but generally, for the English speaking reader at least, this is through the prism of the British experience in the Peninsular and firmly within the context of what was achieved by Wellington and his forces. As a rule, this tends to focus on guerrilla forces who operated with Wellington's area of influence. This results in a rather skewed view of reality and limits the information largely to those guerrilla forces operating near the border with Portugal or in the far North of Spain during the campaigns of 1813 and 1814.

In truth, the view of guerrilla operations on the periphery of the main area of military operations results in an Anglo-centric view which largely understates the contribution made to the defeat of Napoleon's forces in the Peninsular. Poor roads across rough terrain mean that information available to the British deployed in Portugal was rather limited, but it is important to recognize that guerrillas were active right across Spain and their actions were key to holding down vast number of French troops spread out right across the country in an attempt to create a network of garrisons and outposts which would subdue the guerrillas and allow safe passage of French supplies and messengers which were so important to keeping their armies in the field and under the orders of the Emperor…."
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