Spying for WellingtonHuw J. DaviesLabel: University of Oklahoma PressDescription: Intelligence is often the critical factor in a successful military campaign. This was certainly the case for Arthur Wellesley the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War. In this book author Huw J. Davies offers the first full account of the scope complexity and importance of Wellington's intelligence department describing a highly organized multifaceted series of networks of agents and spies throughout Spain and Portugal - an organization that was at once a microcosm of British intelligence at the time and a sophisticated forebear to intelligence developments in the twentieth century.Spying for Wellington shows us an organization that was in effect two parallel networks: one made up of Foreign Office agents run by British ambassadors in Spain and Portugal the other comprising military spies controlled by Wellington himself. The network of agents supplied strategic intelligence giving the British army advance warning of the arrival destinations and likely intentions of French reinforcements. The military network supplied operational intelligence which confirmed the accuracy of the strategic intelligence and provided greater detail on the strengths arms and morale of the French forces. Davies reveals how by integrating these two forms of intelligence Wellington was able to develop an extremely accurate and reliable estimate of French movements and intentions not only in his own theater of operations but also in other theaters across the Iberian Peninsula. The reliability and accuracy of this intelligence as Davies demonstrates was central to Wellington's decision-making and ultimately to his overall success against the French. Correcting past incomplete accounts this is the definitive book on Wellington's use of intelligence. As such it contributes to a clearer more comprehensive understanding of Wellington at war and of his place in the history of British military intelligence.
