"Instrument of War. Volume 1: The Austrian Army in" Topic

…the Seven Years War.

"How did an 18th Century army work? This book is the most important examination of such an army yet done, written by the premier military historian of the era.

Maria Theresa had seen her inheritance almost lost to unprovoked attacks from her neighbors. Her army had stood by her then, and was now trying desperately to improve, as it had to face Frederick the Great, the master-soldier of the era. But she and her ministers soon faced the dilemma of how to fight a war without sacrificing what they were fighting for…"

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Amicalement
Armand

Great book..reprinting of the original..Great author.

I guess that's my copy of the original crashed in value… 😒

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand

Royston- there will never be anything to beat the charm of Emperor's Press original editions though- complete with all of the typos and randomly changing fonts.

Volume I concerns the recruitment, training and organization of the army and volume the campaigns? Is that correct?

I had a book back in the day titled, "The Armies of Maria Theresa" a companion version to, "The Armies of Frederick the Great". Is this basically a reprint of that?

Volume 2 covers all of the campaigns and battles from 1740 to 1763.

" the most important examination of such an army yet done"-

Fortunately, the "premier military historian of the era"
has a markedly better way with words.

('Premier'- … never mind)

When is the reprint of volume 2 due out?

…not before spring 2022
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Both volumes are excellent and well-worth having.

As to the original Armies of Maria Theresa .. a valuable book, but the latter two volumes corrects some of the research and exponentially expands the information.

von scwartz no this is not a reprint, Duffy did an extensive rewrite and addition to make this study into a two volume set, one with organization and tactics and the other the battles.

Great addition for any one interested in the SYW and as always Duffy is a joy to read.

Just started reading IoW – the first edition which had to wait quite a long time …
Prof. Duffy has my greatest respect – excellent information and very readable.
But after a few pages I encountered some surprising mistakes. Sopron is given as "Wieselburg" (should be Ödenburg), IR 3 is titled "Erzherzog Carl" (some 50 years in advance) and called a Hungarian regiment (which it never was, although being stationed in Hungary for some time and fighting there quite often).
These and a few other things do not add to my reading pleasure. There could be false information I am not aware of.
Can anyone tell me if those mistakes have been corrected in the second edition?

Grenadier Corporal Could you give page references for these errors? I also have the first edition, and the list of regiments on pages 425-426 has IR2 and 3 correctly identified. I see Wieselburg and Odenburg side by side on the map on page 62, but am not sure where your reference to Sopron comes from? Sorry for my ignorance.

Answering one of my own questions, p65 describes the "Hungarian Regiment Erzherzog Carl" as "(No 3)". An obvious proof reading error, corrected, as pointed out above, in the list on pages 425-426. It was IR 2. The regiments are also correctly identified in Volume 2's detailed list of the Austrian Regiments.