Those of you who read my ramblings more or less regularly will know of my interest in the military history of the Indian sub-continent. So it will come as no surprise to you that news of Rene Chartrand's latest work sparked considerable interest and caused me to lay out some cash.
I was not to be disappointed.
It is a fairly meaty tome at around 320 page and barely one of them is wasted.
The activities of the various permutations of the French East India company are covered in some detail for the first time in English and most importantly all in one place. This obviously covers the Indian sub-continent but less obviously Africa, China Thailand Madagascar and Louisiana.
In 21 chapters and 3 appendices M. Chartrand takes us through the wars and armies of the Compagnie-des Indes. Not only the obvious conflicts against the British in the 18th century but less obvious conflicts against Spain in what is now the US state of Florida and their battles with the First Nations in other parts of what would become the USA. The scholarship in impressive and the emphasis is of course of French sources which is as it should be.
For me however the meat of this fascinating book were those chapters concerned with India. Here the success of the book is to bring all of the disparate information under one set of covers. Speaking for myself I had around half- or a bit more of the information on uniforms in assorted other sources- some in M. Chartrand's other works but this volume both brings all of that into one convenient place and corrects some misconceptions. For example more than one source refers to French Company troops dressed in the usual Grey white coats- in fact this was the exception rather than the rule- when fighting the British the French Company troops in India would more often be dressed in Blue uniforms.
As well as campaign narratives chapters on weapons and organisation - both of the European and local troops are covered in some detail. I will have no trouble organising my French forces for Indian wargames with this book to hand.
Physically the book is well up to the usual Helion standard. Indeed rather more sumptuously illustrated than some. There are 12 colour plates by Patrice Courcelle as well as 18 other pages of colour illustrations. some contemporary and some not. All are to the point. Add to this a large number of black and white illustrations- of which only a minority were familiar to me and this is another winner from Helion and from M. Chartrand.
There were only a couple of jarring notes. Both linguistic and very minor first the various French trading posts which English sources would refer to as 'Factories' are referred to as 'lodges' . Slightly more jarring is the reference to Indian matchlock musketeers- who would be 'peons' or 'barkanzys' or 'buxerries' depending upon where they were from and in whose service they were- as 'fusiliers' which is a bit confusing until you get the context. But that is merely nit-picking and does not in the least detract from and excellent book.
Very Highly Recommended.
