"Guerra Fantástica 1762 Portuguese Army of the 7 Years War" Topic

at Helion december 2018/january 2019

This book deals with a series of military operations that occurred in Portugal in 1762 and 1763, during the Seven Years' War, and which have been largely dismissed by the historiography. They are collectively called the Guerra Fantástica ,'Fantastical War', given the fact that the military units of the countries involved carried out multiple movements while not engaging in any battle.

This work begins with an introduction to the phenomenon of war as a whole, to the environment in Europe at the time, and to the military framework of the conflict. It then describes the events that led to the participation of Portugal in the Seven Years' War and the way in which the conflict in Portugal began.

It continues with a presentation of the various forces involved. For this purpose, it analyses in detail the weakness of the Portuguese army, the military reinforcements that were obtained from England, and the arrival in Portugal of the Count of Lippe, whom the King of England had recommended to the King of Portugal to be the commander of the forces, given his recognized ability for the task.

It proceeds with an account of the events of the war, starting with an analysis of the invasion of the North of Portugal by the Spanish army and its later withdrawal to Spain. It continues with a description of how the Spanish army, once strengthened by French units, again invaded Portuguese territory, and the events that occurred until its second withdrawal. Despite the numerical superiority of the Bourbon army, the difficulties of the terrain, the efficient command of the Count of Lippe, and the manoeuvres of the Anglo-Portuguese army prevented it from reaching victory and forced its return to Spain.

The book is an important piece of research, based on archival material. It explores contemporary correspondence between the Court of Spain and the commanders of the force that invaded Portugal, which is available at the Archive of Simancas. It makes use, moreover, of the correspondence between the Secretary of State of Portugal, the Count of Oeiras, and the Count of Lippe, and between the latter and his subordinate commanders, which is extant at the Military Historical Archive of Lisbon. At the same time, this work is reader-friendly, integrating several notes and original documents that help clarify certain of its major points, as well as a list of the units that participated in the military operations.

the author had already published a title in Portugal in the collection «Batalhas» n°24 (2005)

This should be a very interesting book from someone who certainly knows the subject – and it will be interesting to see how much new information he uses compared with his work 12 years ago.
It is not a good omen – presumably not down to the author – that the illustration used here is from after the campaign and shows uniforms from the post-war Lippe reforms c.1764. Why oh why would you make a mistake like that (although it happens almost every time with this campaign!!!!)

maybe it is not the definitive card cover but just a provisional picture to cover an empty space like it happens with the Osprey on amazon
such plate is clearly coming from Louis de Beaufort's artwork,
the book will include 104 pages of which 8 pages of colour plates

And this plate is erroneously dated – it is an error that first cropped up 50 or 60 years ago I believe, possibly even earlier – attributing a date of 1762 to a series of uniform plates that show the 1764 uniforms and often repeated by sloppy research including by people and in institutions that should know better! These uniforms are definitely 1764.

I agree, the plate is totally inaccurate. A contemporary drawing of the Portuguese of the European 1762 campaign shows them to look more like pirates, and not very well clothed pirates at that. The drawing is currently on display at the Seven Years War museum at Fort Ligonier, which has a room with some great artifacts purchased in Eutope (including Russia).

I don't actually think it represents the 1764 period in style of hats, cut of coat, etc. If they were British troops depicted I'd say the overall style was that of the late 1770s or 1780s.

I think in the SYW, the Portuguese were still wearing French/Spanish style grey-white uniforms of very old fashioned c1720s/30s cut with full skirts and large cuffs.

hello,

about that, received a reply from Helion, as I asked if it will be the definitive card cover, he confirms it is the portuguese book translated and

yes, a couple of people have pointed that out. Not being Portuguese experts, we trusted the caption when choosing that image but evidently we were misinformed. The book is a translation of a title originally published in Portuguese, so we'll liaise with the original author to find a better image.

For avoidance of doubt- I will be buying this book whatever the cover illustration! It's great that we can soon get information like this in English- and both the author and Helion publishers are to be thanked.