Bernard Cornwell · 2024 · overland

Bernard Cornwell's 2024 novel, slotted into the gap between Badajoz and Salamanca. The two French armies in Spain are joined by a single pontoon bridge over the Tagus at Almaraz, and if it goes they cannot support each other. Sharpe is sent ahead of the raiding force to find out what is guarding it, in country full of partisans and French cavalry.

1. 1
   Elvas

   With Badajoz taken and the army resting, Wellington wants the one crossing that lets Soult and Marmont reinforce each other destroyed - and a small force is put together to go and do it before the summer campaign opens.

2. 2
   The Tagus

   The country between the armies belongs to nobody: partisans, deserters and French foraging columns - and Sharpe goes forward with a handful of riflemen to see what is actually holding the crossing, which nobody has looked at.

3. 3
   Almaraz

   At Almaraz a pontoon bridge is covered by forts on both banks and a tower on the road behind - and the raid has to take all of them in a morning, because the French can bring a division up in a day.