At last, in this absorbing and authoritative study, the story of the epic struggle on Spain's eastern front during the Peninsular War has been told. Often overlooked as not integral to the Duke of Wellington's main army and their campaigns in Portugal and western Spain, they were, in point of fact, intrinsically linked. Nick Lipscombe, a leading historian of the Napoleonic Wars and an expert on the fighting in the Iberian peninsula, describes in graphic detail the battles fought by the French army of General Suchet against the Spanish regulars and guerrillas and subsequently the Anglo-Sicilian force sent by the British government to stabilize the region. Despite Suchet's initial successes and repeated setbacks for the allied armies, by late 1813 the east coast of Spain held a key to Wellington's invasion of France and the ultimate defeat of Napoleon's armies in the Peninsula. At a tactical level the allies were undeniably successful and made an important contribution to the eventual French defeat. AUTHOR: Nick Lipscombe is a leading historian of the Peninsular War and an expert guide to the Peninsular battlefields. For over thirty years he served in the British army. He is an established author of books on the military history of the Napoleonic period, including Bayonne and Toulouse 1813-14, Wellington's Guns and the award-winning The Peninsular War Atlas. He is the editor of Waterloo: The Decisive Victory and was the chairman of Peninsular War 200, the UK's official organization for commemorating the bicentenary of the conflict. 30 colour and b/w illustrations