Warships in the War of the Pacific 1879-83

Not long after Wargame Developments was founded in 1980, I represented the group at the Games Day show held in one of the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster, London. I took along a naval participation wargame that I had devised based on the events of the Battle of Angamos … and it was played through several times. The rules were simple, and each player had a set of sealed orders that they were given before the game started and that they were supposed to follow. Needless to say, being gamers, these were more often ignored by the second or third move of the battle!

My interest in the naval aspects of the War of the Pacific can certainly be said to date from there, and when I saw that Osprey had published a book entitled WARSHIPS IN THE WAR OF THE PACIFIC 1879-83: SOUTH AMERICA’S IRONCLAD NAVAL CAMPAIGN, I had to buy a copy.

The book is divided into:

• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Background
• Chronology
• The Naval Campaign
• Opening shots
• The Chilean Fleet
• The Peruvian Fleet
• The Ironclads in Action
• Iquique, 21th May 1879
• Angamos, 8th October 1879
• Arica, 27th February 1880
• Analysis and Conclusion
• Further Reading
• Index

This is an excellent introduction to the naval aspects of the conflict and well worth the price of £9.99 I paid for it.

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WARSHIPS IN THE WAR OF THE PACIFIC 1879-83: SOUTH AMERICA’S IRONCLAD NAVAL CAMPAIGN was written by Angus Konstam and illustrated by Paul Wright and published in 2024 by Osprey Publishing (ISBN 978 1 4728 6124 5).