Attack in the West. By Major W. G. F. Jackson.
(Eyre & Spottiswoode. 21s.) AT the end of his life Napoleon said : " I have fought sixty battles and I have learned nothing which I did not know at the beginning." His first campaign of 1796 is a classic demonstration of the unchanging principles of strategy, and is therefore of perennial interest. With a force equal or inferior to the enemy in numbers and material he contrived again and again, by a brilliant application of offensive strategy and inspiring leadership, to achieve local superi- ority on the decisive field of battle. 'Major Jackson gives a lucid analysis of the cam- paigns of Piedmont and Lombardy, amply supported by maps, but it is a pity that he does not devote more attention to the origins of Napoleonic strategy. Revolutionary changes in the art of war do not come suddenly out of the blue, and it was the gradual evolution of ideas in the French army between the Seven Years' War and the French Revolution, particularly the teaching of Bourcet, Guibert, and Du Tell, that inspired Napoleon and shaped his military
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