The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan

Churchill was a British officer who wrangled his way into Kitchener's campaign up the Nile through connections in high places and against Kitchener's wishes. Kitchener was angry that a journalist-officer of Churchill's age (early 20s) would even presume to render judgment on the Generals and the government.

Churchill recounts the rise of the Mahdi, the defeat of Gordon at Khartoum, the decision of the government to retake the Sudan, and the careful preparations by Kitchener (in some ways a forerunner to Schwarzkopf's massing overwhelming force against Iraq in 1991).

There are a number of lessons in this book. Churchill talks constantly of "scientific warfare" and the inability of the Mahdist forces to cope with it. By "scientific warfare" he meant the telegraph, the railroad, the armored steamboat with cannon, the Maxim gun (an early machine gun), and the disciplined infantry squares. It is helpful to be reminded that predators, B-2s, and Special Forces on horseback with laser designators are simply our generation's version of the "scientific war".

Churchill also points out how few British troops were engaged in the campaign. The majority of the battalions were Egyptian and Sudanese with British officers. Only a minority was British. On the other hand, it was British communications, British logistics, British gunboats, and British firepower that made them dominant. These were Egyptian and Sudanese troops officered by the British and trained to British standards, a lesson for Afghanistan and elsewhere. In one expedition there were 1,300 men of whom only 7 were British.

This is a very useful book as we think about the complexities of the 21st century third world and its problems of poverty, violence, disorganization, and ruthless petty tyrants.


Wonderful Early Churchill   December 18, 2001
Daniel W. Casey (Sturbridge, MA United States)
46 out of 48 found this review helpful

Winston Churchill is one of the greatest figures of world history; this book, written when Churchill was in his twenties, is a wonderful book that considers the reconquest of the Sudan both from a first person point of view (because Churchill was there), and from a broader historical perspective.

Churchill begins the work some 13 years before the war, with the killing of the legendary General Gordon in Khartoum at the hands of the fanatical Dervishes. Churchill lays out in detail the reaction in Britain, the political reasons for why no action was taken at the time, and then goes into a wonderful segue about the intervening years of the wars of the Mahdi and his successor, the Khalifa.

The book is painstakingly researched; and the young Churchill is obviously trying to "get it right"; interjecting his opinions where it is relevant and introducing facts and tables where it is necessary to make his case.

The military buildup, the logistical and technical feat of the railroad built to support the army, the manufacture and employment of river gunboats, and the precise orders of battle and description of equipment -- these are details that show Churchill's immense grasp not only of the broad strategic picture but also a consummate mastery of the details of nineteenth century soldiering. One can see at work the mind that made Churchill a valuable cabinet member in the following thirty years, and an invaluable Prime Minister in wartime.

The prose style is a bit heavy, and Churchill's writing is not at the same level that won him the Nobel Prize, but it is a fine early work about an interesting, if little known, war.

The book itself also caused a rift between Kitchener and Churchill that was never really mended; as a result, Churchill's fall from the Admiralty and the failure of Gallipoli may have had this book as a very small cause. But this is not the book's fault!

A very good work of military history, and an excellent insight into the incredible mind of Winston Churchill.


The stuff legends are made out of   April 2, 2000
Owen Hughes (Montreal, Canada)
24 out of 24 found this review helpful

It's a fabulous story. What a piece of luck that Churchill was there. What a greater piece of luck that he happened to survive the charge of his brigade, which has been called the last genuine cavalry charge of the British Army. (In the Boer war which followed, the cavalry was almost never used in the same way, due to the sneaky Boer tactics. "Stand up and be charged like a man," meant nothing to those guys!) There is something splendid about the British army maintaining its traditions in the heat and dust of the Sudan. No wonder they were conquerors, for a time. If one could put up with conditions like that, one could do just about anything in the fighting way.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing to come out of this book, is the way Kitchener planned his laborious advance, building the railway as he went. It must have stood the future leader of Great Britain's War Cabinet in very good stead, to understand at first hand what logistics was all about. Certainly, when it came to Uncle Adolf's turn in 1940, Churchill (as stated in his later memoirs) knew that once the U.S. came on board with its unlimited industrial capacity, the war was as good as won. It was just a question of tonnage, U-boats or no U-boats, blitz or no blitz. So it was in the Sudan: the methodical Kitchener really never gave the tribes a chance.

This is a book which can be read as history or as a ripping good story. Fortunately for those of us who couldn't care a whit for W.S.C.'s talent as a politician (though one cares somewhat more for his talent as a statesman), his talent as a writer was never really in doubt, as this second published work amply proves. Although I don't think it's quite a five star book today, it would have been in 1896. Lastly, there are some interesting subplots here, including some insight into how this part of the world worked at all, up until the end of the last century. Even more interesting possibly, is the story of Gordon of Khartoum, which is an eccentric tale if ever there was one, and the relating of the Fashoda incident gives us much insight into the workings of the political mind at a time just prior to the formation of the various ententes, which were, in a way, to have such a deadly effect two decades later. Most enjoyable read.


Charge It   February 23, 2001
16 out of 18 found this review helpful

This is the Churchill book with the account of the last war charge of British cavalry in the field. In which Churchill, always a little different, uses a pistol rather than a sword, due to his dislocated shoulder problem from way back in Bangalore days (prelude to his first War Book, The Malakand Field Force).

For such a young writer, there are surprisingly mature observations on the topic of war, to the effect that everyone on both sides is all for it before it starts, then generally eager to be done with it once it's underway. The tone of this book, though, mostly reflects eagerness.

This book is a good resource to better understand the events faithfully portrayed in the video "My Early Life" and this book can itself be better understood as a follow-on to watching Charleton Heston in the role of General "Chinese" Gordon getting killed at the end of the movie "Khartoum," which is the event that actuated the punitive expedition which forms the subject of The River War.

You won't find a better blend of action and theory, than this book written by a participant who at least lopped off the interesting parts of this campaign to form a part of his own, far more wide ranging life story.


Great Military History applicable to our times   December 28, 2003
Lance K. Mertz (Ward Cove, AK USA)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

This is a great history of an obscure little war that holds many lessons for the military today. I recommend it as a great read for any soldier or anyone linterested in military history or science. Churchill is a great writer and you can almost feel the heat and smell the gunsmoke in these pages.