Dear Bernard In reply to your reply about not being sure about Albuera I had to write in because that Battle was the toughest and most bloodiest of the whole Peninsular war. And it ranks alongside battles like Malpaquet/Innkerman as one of the famous soldier victory’s of the British army. And from a pyschological perspective it must have been one of the decsisive battles for the french in there defeat in Spain. After all from there perspective they had done everything right They were not fighting Wellington or being commanded by unimaginative or unlucky commanders like Jourdan or Victor. They were not attacking an impregnable position like Bussaco which everyone but Massena knew was going to fail but was on reasonbly flat ground (no reverse slope) Soult’s flank attack was a brilliant move and really befuddled Beresford and Co. They were not using just a simple coloum but a mix of both Line and coloum to give extra firepower and there Artillery and Cavalry played huge support roles which caused great damage themselves. Yet inspite of all this and how close they did come to winning they still lost! That had to have had some effect on if they cant win when they do everything right how could they win when things are against them.How could Sharpe miss playing a role in that!! Yours sincerely Tony