The Fall of Toulon by Bernard Ireland

The full titleTHE FALL OF TOULON, The Last Opportunity to Defeat the French Revolution leads me to wonder if it would not better have read "The "FIRST" Opportunity.........

The author, Bernard Ireland is probably best known as the editor of Jane's Fighting Ships but at the same time "has written more than two dozen books over thirty years on various aspects of naval history and technology including Warships of the Age of Sail.

Publisher's comments: "In the Summer of 1793 French Royalist surrendered the great naval base at Toulon to the British, intending this to be the springboard for a full scale counter revolution. A multi-national taskforce led by the British, and including Spanish, Austrian, and Italian forces, landed in the city. But the Royalist hopes were dashed: the Revolutionaries reacted with great speed and violence. Instead of striking into France, the Royalist and their foreign allies were besieged in Toulon. Among the Republican forces was a young artillery officer who soon made a name for himself: Napoleon Bonaparte. The stage was set for an epic tragedy."

If you've read any of the HNF series that begin "before" the French Revolution, then you've read something about this "fiasco on a grand scale". But for the slow communications of the day and the British government's lack of will to commit the necessary resources in a expeditious manner, we might not have had much of the HNF of 1793-1815 that we enjoy today.

This is a detailed and well researched chronology of the entire episode from the background of the Revolution and the state of the French military as well as the British Navy to the evacuation and subsequent retribution and recriminations. It is factual history so remember (the 1st rule of historians) "don't critique history". But if you want to know the full and indepth story, it's here.

It's in my library (under the heading: "don't ask a limited naval force to do the job of an Army").

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