Cromwell!

This is coolbert:

From that latest edition of the BBC "History" magazine as extracted again to the topic of the amateur military commander as able to beat the professionals.

"THE MAKING OF A MILITARY GENIUS" by  Martyn Bennett

"In just two years, Oliver Cromwell made the journey from little-known MP [Member of Parliament] with no experience of armed combat to brilliant, battle-winning leader."

"Remarkable journey"

"Oliver Cromwell's battle-winning intervention at Marston Moor was remarkable enough in itself. But what made it even more extraordinary was the fact that, just two years earlier, at the outbreak of the Civil War between the forces of the parliament and Charles I's royalists, he was a little-known MP [Member of Parliament] who had never taken up arms, let alone led men into battle."

. . . .

"Self-help guides"

"Contemporary military manuals suggest that it took years to acquire the experience and the skill to be a captain of horse - - he alone a colonel. However, Cromwell had managed it in a matter of months."

THE AMATEUR ABLE TO BEAT THE PROFESSIONAL! AND ABLE TO DO SO WITH PANACHE'.

CROMWELL HIS MILITARY EXPERTISE AS GAINED FROM A SELF-HELP READING LIST THE LESSONS OF WHICH WERE TAKEN TO HEART?

A reading list to include:

* John Cruso's Militarie Instructions for the Cavallrie (1632),

* William Barriff's Miltia Discipline or the Young Artillery Man (1635)

* the Swedish Intelligencer


Is that all it takes? Read a few books?

Oliver Cromwell understanding full well the advantage of PURSUIT. NOT allow your adversary one iota of respite. The enemy unable to reconstitute their forces. Cromwell acknowledged as a man of means willing to put his body where his mouth was and do so in an admirable fashion!!

See previous blog entry the topic of which was Oliver Cromwell!

coolbert.