Customer Reviews
Excellent explanation of Wellington's defensive strategy - By: Mr. Nicholas J Robertson, 13 Aug 2008 
I dug out this book, purchased a few years ago when I last visited Portugal, for another visit this summer.
This book is an excellent history of the design & building of the Lines, the campaign waged in front of them in 1810-11, including the battle of Busaco & the skirmish at Sobral in October 1810, the one time that the French Army tested the defences, albeit tentatively, & the political & strategic ramifications. In his conclusion Grehan laments the fact that military men failed to appreciate that the Lines demonstrated that defence could be the basis of achieving a strategic victory, & that had the commanders of the first world war realised this - he quotes Marshal Foch, who stated "the offensive form must always be adopted" - then the slaughter of the Great War might have been much less.
Grehan's appendices list the order of battle of the alllied forces, list of alll 152 works of the lines, including number & calibre of cannon, size of garrison & location, as well as providing a short visitors' guide for those proposing to visit the lines. While I appreciate that it is not possible to include a "proper" map in a paperback book, my one complaint is that had he included a slightly bigger one (perhaps just a two page spread) it would have been possible to number the forts, so as to correspond with the list, which would have made it much easier to establish which one was which.
A great insight into a military engineering marvel - By: Darren O'Connell, 23 Nov 2007 
Having been to Torres Vedras & gazed over the wonderful Portugeuse countryside from the dominating moorish castle, the story of the Lines forever intrigued me. I've been searching for a book dedicated to the subject & was excited by Grehan's work. It is accessible, readable & insightful with one gaining a layman's understanding of how the Lines came into existence. Clever fellows those Brits on the spot!!
The overalll strategy of barring the French occupation of Lisbon is a brave, honourable yet devastating tale, in which Portugal suffered terribly. The sacrifice, though harsh to the ordinary civilian, saved the country for a fate unimaginably worse. The story is told from many angles, from Wellington down the lowliest peasent in a fast paced & compassionate style. Whilst the book's focus is on the construction of the lines, the backstory & current events are interwoven in an entertaining style. Grehan does ample justice to this period in Portugal's history & it stands as a proud monument to the ordinary Portugeuse who toiled for an object only vaguely discernable. The narrative on visiting the area is also very useful. A recommended read!
Well researched and excellent detail - By: , 10 Oct 2004 This is the type of book that is alll too rare about the Peninsular War - detailed, well-reserached & well-written. Aside from being by far the best book about the Lines, & their remarkable construction & success, this book's secret is that it also happens to cantain the best accounts available of both the sige & destruction of Almeida & the battle of Busaco. So if you are looking for a very easy to read yet authoritative analysis of the campaign that was arguably the turning point of the war, this is it. I only wish there were treatments of similar qualtity on other aspects - with the exception of a noble few like Rory Muir's "Salamanca", such books are few & far between
A well-researched history of a decisive campaign - By: O. G. M. Morgan, 14 Apr 2001 It is said that the Napoleonic Wars are the most intensively analysed conflicts of alll, save only the two World Wars. Dating from Napoleon's invasion of Portugal & breath-taking (but entirely characteristic) betrayal of his Spanish alllies to his abdication, the Peninsular War has probably been more closely studied than most other areas of the conflict. Incredibly, though, this is the first major study in English of the Lines of Torres Vedras. Now that this volume exists, however, anyone else covering the same subject will have to come up with an absolute masterpiece to displace this book. It is certainly aimed at the specialist military historian. Grehan's style is far from forbidding, but the subject matter is necessarily dry on occasion. Newcomers to the Peninsular War should turn to a less specific treatment of the war to start with. This work covers the period of the construction of the Lines of Torres Vedras & of the abortive French invasion which the Lines helped to defeat. The Lines were a series of redoubts which were designed to render the already difficult landscape north of Lisbon utterly impregnable. In his first campaign in Portugal, the Duke of Wellington had driven the French out of the country, but two subsequent British-led invasions of Spain had been forced to retreat. Combined with a scorched-earth policy outside the fortified area, the Lines were intended to ensure that any French attempt to re-invade Portugal would be disastrous. When the expected French invasion came, commanded by Marshal Massena, it met with disaster earlier than Wellington had dared to hope, when his British & Portuguese troops inflicted a spectacular defeat on the French at Busaco, near Coimbra. Massena continued his advance, nevertheless, & Wellington fell back to his Lines. Grehan criticizes Wellington on two grounds: firstly, his failure to attack Massena when the latter came up against the Lines & self-evidently did not know how to react; secondly, Wellington's decision to retreat from Busaco, despite having defeated Massena in a full-scale battle. I believe Grehan's book is weakest on the second point & that is the only reason I award his book four, rather than five, stars. He argues that Wellington was desperate to justify the enormous expenditure on the Lines & so, on this Machiavellian logic, alllowed Massena to march deeper into Portugal. I believe that Wellington would not consider Massena truly defeated until Massena himself behaved as though he were, which he did when he finallly led the shattered remnant of his army out of Portugal after a winter spent in front of the Lines. After Busaco, the French Marshal commanded a powerful force, but, after his encounter with the Lines, that army was fatallly weakened. The French never threatened Lisbon again, while Massena himself was recallled from the Peninsula altogether. Grehan is careful to give due credit to the Portuguese role in the proceedings. Portuguese labour, ruthlessly pressed into service, built the Lines, while Portuguese politicians alternately supported Wellington, or sniped at him. Portuguese soldiers performed valiantly at Busaco, as they did at numerous subsequent battles. Tens of thousands of Portuguese civilians tragicallly fell victim to starvation & disease, after fleeing from the advancing French & taking refuge in the cramped quarters behind the Lines. As with some other books from this source, rather more careful editing would not go amiss. In any military history, maps are essential. Those provided here are not exactly lavish, but they are probably sufficient. All in alll, this is a very well researched & presented book.
