The Times review of Churchill’s autobiography, My Early Life, mentioned “the charm and briskness of this book” as well as its “humour, headlong excitement, quiet irony, melancholy regret for vanished customs and glories, love of sport [and] the pleasures of friendship,” although it also made the slightly snide point that “The material is, of course, splendid, as Mr. Churchill will agree.” That material is an adventure story that would defy belief if it were in a novel, yet in fact it did all happen to one man.

Ronald Delderfield was an English novelist and dramatist (A Horseman Riding By, To Serve Them All My Days, God is an Englishman) who nonetheless wrote a sublime piece of military history telling the story of the Emperor Napoleon’s relations with his twenty-six marshals of the Empire and their relations with each other and the effect both had on the course of the Napoleonic Wars. 

Following the recent appearances of retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland and retired General John Allen at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, retired General Martin Dempsey, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, admonished retired senior leaders not to endorse political candidates. “As generals, they have an obligation to uphold our apolitical traditions,” Dempsey wrote. Through the broad sweep of American history, however, the “apolitical traditions” of the military are hardly clear-cut.

Advice for battalion and squadron commanders before assuming command.