My intention in writing this book has been to focus not upon wars, campaigns, and battles in themselves, but squarely upon the lives of the men who, through the length of human history have fought them. Why did they become fighting men? How were they recruited and trained? How were they armed and fed and paid? What did they carry in their packs? How did they survive when 011 campaign? And how did they cope with that climactic experience of combat? In the sweep of history covered by this book, certain principles of military life recur. The need for physical endurance and courage is a given, for it is hard to imagine any military training or campaigning that would not require these qualities. But the experience of comradeship-in-arms is equally omnipresent. A Mongol horseman, one of Wellington s or Napoleon's foot soldiers, a Japanese samurai, and a Viet Cong peasant guerrilla would have very little in common at most levels, but all will have bonded to some degree in a band of brothers, forged in the white heat of the traumatizing, exhilarating experience of combat. Yet this said, there can be no pretence of discovering a single character of the warrior or fighting man.
Download from (depositfiles.com) or (filesonic.com)
