The task of the cuirassiers is to disorganise the opposing infantry battalions with their charge; they throw themselves at them like a living mass of iron. At the sight of them, the cry Here come the cuirassiers! echoes from row to row, announcing the enemy's defeat... After provisional regiments of heavy cavalry had marched into Spain in the early days of 1808, Napoleon decided to form a permanent regiment. Thus, on 21 October 1808, the 13th Cuirassier Regiment was created. It would make a name for itself on the peninsula through its impressive fighting power and the numerous retreats it caused. The cuirassiers gained such a good reputation that the command of the city of Zaragoza issued a decree imposing the death penalty on any Spaniard who dared to shout Here come the cuirassiers!. In 500 pages, the author tells the story of the French cuirassiers in Spain from 1808 to 1813: the formation of three provisional regiments at the end of 1807, the creation of the 13th Cuirassier Regiment from the first of these regiments, the destruction of the second after the Battle of Baylen and the dissolution of the third after the campaign in Barcelona, then the campaigns of the 13th Cuirassier Regiment under the command of Marshal Suchet until its return to France in early 1814. The work continues with the account of the regiment's campaign in the Army of Lyon in 1814 and the campaign of its 5th Squadron with Napoleon in Germany in 1813 and then in France in 1814. The various events and battles are of course described, as is their happy or unhappy everyday life, thanks to extensive, often unpublished excerpts from memoirs. This detailed and lively narrative is supplemented by the service records of the hundred or so officers assigned to the 13th Cuirassier Regiment.
