Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Waterloo 1815

april 1814 for 10 years one man has dominated europe napoleon bonaparte emperor of the french under his military genius france conquered an empire that spanned the continent but finally he has been defeated by a grand coalition of his enemies napoleon is forced to abdicate and exile to the tiny island of elba while the bourbon monarchy is restored to france in the corpulent form of louis xv but rumors soon reached napoleon that france would welcome his return the french people have little love for the monarchy or its hangars on the very people whose excesses led to

the french revolution 25 years before he also learns that at the congress of vienna his enemies are locked in bitter dispute over the future of europe napoleon decides to act just 10 months in exile he returns to france where the troops sent to arrest him rally to his cause instead most of france soon follows suit but in vienna the coalition immediately put their differences to one side they declare napoleon an outlaw and mobilize their forces for war napoleon knows he must act boldly before the coalition launches a coordinated invasion of france he counts on winning

a quick victory and then negotiating peace from a position of strength he targets the coalition armies within easiest reach prince bleucher's prussian army and the duke of wellington's anglo-allied army both camped in belgium napoleon's force is a match for either coalition army on its own but he'll be heavily outnumbered if they're able to join forces so he must keep them apart and defeat each in turn napoleon's army crosses the frontier near charles intending to drive a wedge between the two coalition armies the next day napoleon sends his left wing under marshall nay to take the

crossroads at katrebra there ney clashes with wellington's army still scrambling into position the allied troops fight off a series of french attacks and just managed to hold their ground the same day napoleon attacks blucher's prussian army with his main force near the village of leani the battle is a brutal slugging match but the french emerge triumphant the 72 year old blooker leads a cavalry charge in person and has his horse killed under him he only just escapes capture the prussian army retreats but it is not broken napoleon sends his right wing under marshal grushi to

keep them on the run and turns his own attention to wellington's army the british general doesn't receive news of blucher's defeat until the next morning at which point he orders a retreat through heavy summer showers to a position eight miles south of brussels near the village of waterloo there he receives a promise from blucher that the prussians will march to his aid the next morning so wellington decides to stand and fight wellington has chosen his battlefield with care his troops are behind a gentle ridge which will give them some shelter from french cannon fire his

right flank is anchored on the farmhouse of ugamon his center on the farm of la sant and his left on the farm of papillot all three are fortified and garrisoned with elite troops wellington's men need every advantage they can get the opposing armies are roughly equal in size but his is a ragtag mix of british dutch and german troops many of whom have never seen combat before they will have to hold off napoleon's army of veterans until prussian reinforcements arrive or the battle and probably the war will be lost sunday dawn's bright and fair napoleon

has ordered marshall grushi to pursue the prussians and keep them busy while he defeats wellington's army at waterloo and opens the road to brussels but it's grushie who gets pinned down fighting the prussian rear guard at huavr the main prussian force eludes him and is already marching to wellington's aid at waterloo napoleon delays his attack waiting for the ground to dry which will make movement easier for his troops but the lost hours will later prove costly the battle begins around 11 am when napoleon orders a faint against wellington's right flank at ugemon he hopes wellington

will commit his reserves here drawing them away from the center where the main blow will fall but ugamah's british and german defenders cling on desperately throughout the day at one point the french force their way through the main gate but it's shut behind them and the intruders are all killed wellington later calls it the decisive moment of the battle around noon 80 french cannon opened fire against the main allied line most of wellington's men are out of sight on the reverse slope but many cannonballs still find their mark smashing bloody holes in the allied ranks

at 1 30 pm napoleon sends in his infantry the french columns are met by disciplined musket fire and then charged by british heavy cavalry the french attack disintegrates as napoleon's men try to save themselves from the crushing hooves and flashing sabers scores of frenchmen are written down and two of their famous eagle standards are captured but the british cavalry exhilarated by success charged too far they become scattered their horses blown at their most vulnerable they're counter-charged by french cavalry and suffer terrible losses among the dead major general sir william ponsonby commander of the union brigade

around 4 pm marshall nay thinks he sees the allies begin to retreat and leads a mass cavalry charge to drive home the advantage but nay is wrong the allied infantry are ready formed in hollow squares with bayonets fixed the french cavalry can't break into these impregnable formations they can only circle impotently until they retreat or are shot from the saddle nay's failure to support this attack with either infantry or artillery is a serious blunder meanwhile blucher's prussians have begun to arrive they capture the village of plans noir threatening napoleon's flank and forcing him to send

reserves to recapture it around 6 pm french infantry finally capture the farmhouse of lahi sant in the center of the battlefield it allows the french to bring forward artillery and blast the allied squares from close range they can't miss the closely packed formations and casualties quickly mount it begins to seem that if wellington's army doesn't retreat it will be killed where it stands but the situation for napoleon is also desperate the prussians are arriving in force and he's running out of men to throw against wellington's army so he turns to his ultimate reserve the elite

imperial guard the most feared troops in europe at 7 30 p.m three thousand of these battle-hardened veterans march past their emperor and across the corpse-strewn battlefield towards the allied center wellington's redcoats rise to meet them and pour devastating volleys of musket fire into their ranks when the allies fix bayonets and prepare to charge the imperial guard waivers and then retreats wellington sensing victory orders a general advance about the same time the prussians recapture plans noir news of the imperial guard's defeat and rumors of encirclement by the prussians sweep through the french ranks panic breaks out

and the french army flees the battlefield only napoleon's old guard maintained their discipline mounting a heroic but doomed rear guard action napoleon himself is forced to abandon his carriage and barely escapes the pursuing prussian cavalry the battle is won the duke of wellington and prince bleucher meet and congratulate each other outside napoleon's former headquarters an inn called la belle alliance blucher thinks it's the perfect name for their shared victory but wellington prefers the more english-sounding waterloo where he has his own headquarters the battle of waterloo was in the words of the duke of wellington a

damned near-run thing it was also one of the bloodiest battles of the age around 50 000 men were killed or wounded 23 000 coalition casualties 27 000 french due to an appalling shortage of medical care many of the wounded were left lying on the battlefield for several days napoleon was utterly defeated unable to raise another army he surrendered to the british they transported him to a second exile on the tiny remote atlantic island of saint helena this time there was no escape he died there six years later waterloo marked the beginning of a period of

relative peace in europe there were no wars between the great powers for 40 years and the british would not fight on the continent for another hundred years until the summer of 1914 forty years after the battle a pioneer in the new art of photography captured these remarkable images they're veterans of napoleon's armies by then all old men in their seventies and eighties among them sergeant tania of the imperial guard moray of the second regiment of hussars and verleen of the second guard lancers these faces are a tantalizing link to the dramatic events that shaped the

course of history two centuries ago you