The battle of Talavera (27-28 july, 1809)

The battle of Talavera or Talavera de la Reina (Toledo), was a bloody battle of the Peninsular War, which was held the 27 and July 28, 1809.
50.000 French (and Allied) under Marshall Victor, General Sebastiani and the overall command of King Joseph Bonaparte, fought against 20.000 British (and German) and 33.200 Spaniards commanded respectively by Arthur Wellesley and Gregorio de la Cuesta.

The battle was mainly fought bewteen the British (and German) and French (and Allied) contingents, with the Spanish units only having a subsidiary role, covering the right flank of the Allied position.

The battle concluded with the tactical victory of the Allied (6.500 losses) with the French having around 7.400 casualties. However, the strategical game was lose to the Allied when Marshall Soult menaced the British rearguard forcing Wellington (which received his tittle after this battle) to hastly retire towards Lisbon.

There are many versions about the battle, slightly different according to the writer's country!
See a sample of the web sites (you can found many more with Google):
Bataille de Talavera (French)
La bataille de Talavera de la Reina (French)
Battle of Talavera (English)
The Peninsular War. The Battle of Talavera (English)
Batalla de Talavera (Spanish)
Talavera 1809 (Spanish) The best Spanish site about the battle
In my opinion, the best information can be found at the Napoleon Series site

Some books:
- La Crisis de una Alianza (La campaña del Tajo de 1809) by Juan J. Sañudo and Leopoldo Stampa, Ministerio de Defensa, Madrid (1996) The Spanish academic definitive work!
- Talavera 1809 Primera victoria Aliada by Jose M. Rodriguez and Dionisio Alvarez Cueto, Almena, Madrid (2004)
- Talavera: Wellington's Early Peninsula Victories 1808-9 by Peter Edwards, The Crowood Press Ltd (2007)
- Talavera: Wellington's First Victory in Spain by Andrew Field, Leo Cooper Ltd (2005)

For the bicentenary
The official site Talavera, un lugar en la Historia (with English translation)
The blog of the Bicentenary Coordinator Sergio de la Llave

A wargaming version can be found in my main web-site Battle of Talavera . Above, you can see a picture from my "home-battle", depicting a charge of the Spanish Cavalry Regimento del Rey: an event very similar to the historical!