It’s great news about the liberation of Kherson. As the Russian war machine began grinding to a halt, earlier in the year, I read something said by a general, I think. He said “amateurs talk about military strategy, professionals focus on logistics.” It rang true to me then, and I’ve put down the book I’m reading to talk about it.
I’m in the last 30% of reading Senlac: book 2. I thoroughly enjoyed book 1, and reviewed it in Readers Club. The thing that’s struck me today, is how calculating William the Conqueror was. He knew Harold Godwinson well. William had entertained him as his prisoner in Normandy for many months. He had seen his impulsiveness. Harold’s brothers, closest advisors, and even his mother, advised him to wait for the remaining army to return from the north. They urged him to rest, and wait until he had an overwhelming force. Instead he set off to confront the Normans, as soon as was possible, as William knew he would. His logistics were poor, his army was hungry and tired.
I think it’s safe for me to tell you this. Spoiler alerts don’t really apply to 1066, do they?
Harold comes across as a kind and thoughtful man, in so far as a king could be in those days. He isn’t stupid, but he perhaps cares for his people too much. William’s slaughter of English men, women, and children spurs Harold into precipitous action. So whatever I’ve said about logistics, it’s hard to compare Harold with Putin, and William with Zelensky.
Senlac is a great book, in two volumes. I think it should be a course book at Sandhurst and West Point, Dartmouth and Annapolis. I implore Julian de la Motte Harrison, the author, to ensure it is not translated into Russian, at least not until the present war is over.
If you read my last post, you may have thought I’d be reading Louis XIII: The Making of a King. I will, I just need to finish Senlac first. At the moment I’m struggling to put it down.