It is 1809.
Austria is back in the war and London is committed to a new campaign in Europe. A force of 40,000 men and 600 ships gathers along the south coast of England. They are destined for Walcheren, and a lightning strike against the French dockyards on the Scheldt.
Captain Hugh Kelly RN is once again embroiled in a joint operation with the army with his old adversary Sir Home Popham, a man who never forgets a perceived slight. Alfred Durrell, Hugh’s first lieutenant, is on secondment as Popham’s aide, a posting which places him at the heart of the campaign as relations between the army and navy begin to deteriorate.
Meanwhile, in the second battalion of the 110th infantry, Captain Ross Mackenzie arrives to take command of the light company and finds himself quickly at odds with a fellow officer, while Lieutenant Giles Fenwick is obliged to choose between regimental loyalty and personal integrity.
In Flushing, Katja de Groot finds the business she inherited from her husband threatened when the British take over her home. In England, Roseen Kelly waits for her husband's return, growing more and more concerned as news of victory at Flushing is clouded by more sinister reports.
As the campaign begins to crumble under bad weather, poor planning and divided leadership, it seems that retreat may be the only option. But as the troops begin to arrive home, it is clear that something has gone badly wrong with Lord Chatham's Grand Expedition -- for in the damp, mosquito-ridden dykes and canals of Walcheren, the British army faces an enemy more deadly than the French...
Shortlisted for the Society for Army Historical Research Fiction Prize 2019
Genre: Historical
Austria is back in the war and London is committed to a new campaign in Europe. A force of 40,000 men and 600 ships gathers along the south coast of England. They are destined for Walcheren, and a lightning strike against the French dockyards on the Scheldt.
Captain Hugh Kelly RN is once again embroiled in a joint operation with the army with his old adversary Sir Home Popham, a man who never forgets a perceived slight. Alfred Durrell, Hugh’s first lieutenant, is on secondment as Popham’s aide, a posting which places him at the heart of the campaign as relations between the army and navy begin to deteriorate.
Meanwhile, in the second battalion of the 110th infantry, Captain Ross Mackenzie arrives to take command of the light company and finds himself quickly at odds with a fellow officer, while Lieutenant Giles Fenwick is obliged to choose between regimental loyalty and personal integrity.
In Flushing, Katja de Groot finds the business she inherited from her husband threatened when the British take over her home. In England, Roseen Kelly waits for her husband's return, growing more and more concerned as news of victory at Flushing is clouded by more sinister reports.
As the campaign begins to crumble under bad weather, poor planning and divided leadership, it seems that retreat may be the only option. But as the troops begin to arrive home, it is clear that something has gone badly wrong with Lord Chatham's Grand Expedition -- for in the damp, mosquito-ridden dykes and canals of Walcheren, the British army faces an enemy more deadly than the French...
Shortlisted for the Society for Army Historical Research Fiction Prize 2019
Genre: Historical
Used availability for Lynn Bryant's This Blighted Expedition