In the latest issue of Military Times, we analyse the first major defeat of Napoleon’s empire, at the Lines of Torres Vedras. Napoleon’s disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia led directly to his fall from power two years later. Less well-known is that the tide had already turned against him on the opposite side of Europe.
In the winter of 1810-1811, a small Anglo-Portuguese army was holding a line of forts in the hills north of Lisbon. The defences were so strong that a mighty French army was first brought to a standstill, then lost a third of its men to starvation. The French had come up against a master of defensive tactics -the Duke of Wellington.
Also in this packed issue, we look through the sniper’s at Vassili Zaitsev, the true-life sniper ace on whose memoirs Enemy at the Gates in based.