ABSTRACT
S.L.A.Marshall, Men against Fire (1947) Three centuries before the American historian, General S.L.A.Marshall, called the battlefield ‘the epitome of war’, another distinguished soldier, Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, wrote that ‘Battles…are the most Glorious and commonly the most important Acts of War, wherein usually the moments to obtain the victory are so few.’ In his Treatise on Modern War (1640), John Cruso, the best-selling military author, agreed that ‘Of all the actions of war the most glorious and most important is to give battle.’1
