Michael Solka Knihy

Although the war of 1870–71 has gone down in history as the 'Franco-Prussian War', nearly half of the German troops sent to the frontier were from other German states – both the willing members of the North German Confederation and the southern states who were in some cases more hesitant about accepting Prussian domination. Some contingents had only one or two regiments – though these might be of high quality, like the 'Black Brunswickers'; others provided whole army corps, like Bavaria and Saxony. This book lists and illustrates the organization and varied uniforms of all these allied contingents, most of which fought well when it came to the test of battle.

In 1870 Bismarck, Prime Minister of Prussia, engineered a war with France that would result in the fall of the Second Empire. It was the first modern European war and saw the use of bolt action rifles, machine guns, railway transport and professional general staffs.

Zu Beginn des Amerikanischen Sezessionskrieges waren romantisch-heldenhafte Vorstellungen vom Soldatenleben und Krieg weit verbreitet. Dem entsprachen die pittoresken Zuave-Einheiten, die in phantasievollen afrikanisch-orientalisch-französischen Kostümen ins Feld zogen. Die Zuaven erregten öffentlich große Aufmerksamkeit, erlebten aber auf den Schlachtfeldern des ersten „modernen Krieges der Geschichte“ ein Fiasko. Das Buch skizziert sämtliche 24 Zuave-Einheiten des US-Bürgerkrieges, sowohl der Nord- als auch der Südstaaten. Die farbigen Uniformtafeln schuf der berühmte Zeichner Darko Pavlovic.