Battle of Waterloo

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Battle of Waterloo
Part of the Napoleonic Wars (Seventh Coalition 1815)
The Battle of Waterloo by William Sadler
Date June 18, 1815 Location Waterloo, Belgium Result Decisive Coalition victory
Combatants
France	Prussia Allied army: -United Kingdom -United Netherlands -Hannover -Nassau -Brunswick
Commanders
Napoléon Bonaparte Michel Ney	Duke of Wellington Gebhard von Blücher
Strength
73,000	67,000 Allies 60,000 Prussian (48,000 engaged by about 18:00)
Casualties
25,000 dead or wounded	22,000 dead or wounded

Waterloo Campaign
Quatre Bras – Ligny – Waterloo – Wavre

The Battle of Waterloo, fought on June 18, 1815, was Napoleon Bonaparte's last battle. After his exile to Elba, he had reinstalled himself on the throne of France for a Hundred Days. During this time, the forces of the rest of Europe, the United Kingdom, Prussia and the Russian Empire converged on him, commanded by the United Kingdom's Duke of Wellington, and Prussia's Gebhard von Blücher.

The battlefield is in present day Belgium, about 12 km (7.5 miles) SSE of Brussels, and 2 km (1.2 miles) from the town of Waterloo, at 50°40′45″N, 4°24′25″E.

Contents 1 Prelude 2 Order of battle 3 Battle 4 Conclusion 5 The battlefield today 6 Waterloo in popular culture 7 Battle of Waterloo Simulators 8 References 9 Further reading 10 Notes 11 External links

[edit] Prelude

See main article Waterloo Campaign

As far back as 13 March 1815, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw; four days later the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria and Prussia bound themselves to put 150,000 men each into the field to end his rule. Napoleon knew that, once his attempts at dissuading one or more of the Seventh Coalition allies from invading France had failed, his only chance of remaining in power was to attack before the Coalition put together an overwhelming force. If he could destroy the existing Coalition forces south of Brussels before they were reinforced, he might be able to drive the British back to the sea and knock the Prussians out of the war.

Napoleon divided his army into a left wing, commanded by Marshal Ney, a right wing commanded by Marshal Grouchy and a Reserve, which he commanded personally (although all three elements remained close enough to support one another). Crossing the Netherlands' frontier at Thuin near Charleroi, the French drove in Coalition outposts and secured Napoleon's favoured "central position" - at the junction between Wellington's Allied army to his north-west, and Blücher's Prussian to his north-east. Although the Coalition members were well informed of Napoleon's movements, Wellington did not react to the news of the outbreak of hostilities until the evening of June 15. As Napoleon considered the Prussians the greatest threat, he moved against them first, attacking their outposts at Thuin near Charleroi before advancing through Charleroi, his scouts reaching Quatre Bras that evening. Ziethen's rearguard action held up Napoleon's advance, giving Blücher the opportunity of concentrating his forces in the Sombreffe position, which had been selected earlier for its good defensive attributes. Napoleon sent Marshal Ney, in charge of the French left, with the task of securing the crossroads of Quatre Bras, towards which Wellington was hastily concentrating his dispersed army. Once Quatre Bras was secured, Ney could swing east and reinforce Napoleon.

Ney, advancing on June 16, found Quatre Bras lightly held by Allied troops, but having previously experienced Wellington's skill at concealing his strength, he overestimated the forces opposing him. Despite outnumbering the Allies heavily throughout the day, he fought a cautious and lacklustre battle which failed to capture the crossroads of Quatre Bras. By the middle afternoon Wellington had taken personal command of the Allied forces at Quatre Bras. The position had been reinforced steadily throughout the day as Allied troops converged on the crossroads, and they were finally able to advance and drive the French back.

Napoleon, meanwhile, took the reserves and the right wing of the army and defeated the Prussians, under the command of General Blücher, at the Battle of Ligny on the same day. The Prussian centre gave way under heavy French attack, but the flanks held their ground. Had Ney intervened at this point as planned, the Prussians would have been partially encircled from the west and would almost certainly have been forced to try to extricate themselves by falling back to the east, along their lines of communication.

The Prussian defeat at Ligny made the Quatre Bras position untenable, and on June 17, Wellington duly fell back to the north. His control of Quatre Bras enabled the Prussians to fall back in support of Wellington - that is, parallel to his line of retreat and not, as Napoleon had hoped, away from him.

This was part of Napoleon's strategy to split the much larger Coalition force into pieces that he could outnumber if he was allowed to attack them separately. His theory was based on the assumption that an attack through the centre of the Coalition forces would force the two main armies to retreat in the direction of their respective supply bases, which were in opposite directions.

The general retreat of the Prussian army had taken it to the town of Wavre, and this by default became the marshalling point of the army. The Prussian chief of staff, General August von Gneisenau, planned to rally the Prussian Army at Tilly, from where it could move to support Wellington, but control was lost, with part of the army falling back towards the Rhine, but the majority of it falling back to Wavre, where it rallied. Here, Gneisenau decided to march upon Wellington's left flank at dawn with the I, II and IV Corps. The IV Corps, under the command of General Bülow von Dennewitz, had not been present at Ligny, but arrived to reinforce the Prussian army during the night of the 17th and 18th. III Corps formed the rearguard, tasked with hindering the pursuing French.

Wellington, meanwhile, spent the 17th falling back to a previously reconnoitred defensive position at Mont St. Jean, a low ridge south of the village of Waterloo. He was followed by the left wing of the French Army of the North under the command of Marshal Ney. Napoleon joined Ney with most of the reserves which (along with the right wing of the Army of the North) had defeated the Prussians at Ligny.

Ambiguous orders by Napoleon on the June 17 to his subordinate Marshal Grouchy, to pursue the Prussians with 30,000 men, contributed to Napoleon's eventual defeat. Because Napoleon took his time issuing orders on the morning of June 17, Grouchy started the pursuit late on June 17, by which time the Prussians had disengaged. Precious time was lost locating the main body of the Prussian Army, by which time it was too late to prevent it reaching Wavre, from where it could march to support Wellington. On the 18th, with the right wing of the Army of the North, reinforced with a cavalry corps, Gérard engaged the Prussian rearguard under the command of Lieutenant-General Baron Johann von Thielmann at the Battle of Wavre.

[edit] Order of battle

See main article Order of Battle of the Waterloo Campaign

The battle was to involve 71,947 French soldiers; while the Allied army from Britain, Brunswick, Hanover, Nassau and the Netherlands were 67,661 men strong. (Of the 26 infantry brigades in Wellington's army, 9 were British; 7 of the 12 cavalry brigades were British. The remainder were Hanoverian, Netherlands, Nassau and Brunswick troops. Half the 29 batteries of guns were Hanoverian or Netherlands).

Two and a half Prussian army corps were engaged in the battle, attacking the French right flank, bringing the number of Prussians fully engaged by about 18:00 to 48,000 men. (Two brigades under Friedrich von Bülow, commander of the IV Corps, attacked Lobau at 16:30, Georg von Pirch's II Corps and parts of Graf von Ziethen's I Corps engaged at about 18:00.)

[edit] Battle

The Waterloo position was a strong one. On the extreme right was the "château" and orchard of Hougoumont - in fact a large and well-built country house, rather than a military fortification. From here, a long, low ridge ran from west-east to the village of Papelotte on the extreme left. Both Hougoumont and Papelotte were fortified and garrisoned, and thus anchored Wellington's flanks securely. Papelotte also commanded the road to Wavre that the Prussians would use to send reinforcements to Wellington's position. The ridge was bisected by the Brussels road, which ran from north to south. On the western side of this road, and in front of the rest of Wellington's line, was the farm of La Haye Sainte, which the Duke garrisoned with 350 light infantry of the King's German Legion. On the opposite side of the road was a sand quarry, which provided useful cover for the 95th Rifles who acted as sharpshooters.

The challenge which this position presented to an attacker was formidable. Any attempt to turn Wellington's right would entail taking the entrenched Hougoumont position; any attack on his right centre would mean the attackers would have to march between enfilading fire from Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte. On the left, any attack would also be enfiladed by fire from La Haye Sainte and its adjoining sandpit, and any attempt at turning the left flank would entail fighting through the streets and hedgerows of Papelotte. Nowhere could Wellington's strength actually be discerned because, as was his custom, he had formed his men behind the slope of the ridge and only his skirmishers and artillery were visible.

Napoleon ruled out attempts at manoeuvring Wellington off the Waterloo position as too time-consuming, given the potential arrival of the Prussians. He therefore devised an alternative, which was to make a diversionary attack on Hougoumont to draw in Wellington's reserves and then attack his left centre in force. This attack, Napoleon hoped, would break through a weakened line and would drive Wellington away from the Prussians, who would themselves be left hopelessly trapped between Napoleon and Grouchy.

The battle commenced at about 10:00 with the diversionary attack upon Hougoumont^[1]. The success of this ruse depended on Wellington moving his reserves to his threatened right flank to protect his communications with the sea. Wellington was indeed apprehensive of a French move around his right flank, and had deployed most of his reserves there. The Hougoumont attacks, led by Prince Jerome, instead escalated into an all-day battle which drew in more and more French troops but just a handful of Allied ones. It thus had the exact opposite effect to that intended. At one point, the French succeeded in breaking into the château's courtyard before being repulsed, but their attacks were eventually unsuccessful.

The main attack, preceded by an artillery bombardment by the most feared weapon of the era, the French field artillery, was delayed for hours until the sodden ground from the previous night's downpour had dried out sufficiently to take the weight of the French ordnance. The mud also hindered infantry and cavalry as they trudged into position. When the French artillery eventually opened fire on Wellington's left centre at around 11:35, the expected impact on the Allied troops was diminished by the soft terrain that absorbed the impact of many of the cannon balls. In addition, Wellington's characteristic "reverse slope defence" left the French Grand Battery with few worthwhile targets.

At about 13:30, after receiving news of the Prussian advance to his right, Napoleon ordered Marshal Ney to send d'Erlon's infantry forward against Wellington's centre left, passing to the east of the farm La Haye Sainte. D'Erlon, like Ney, had also encountered Wellington in Spain, and was aware of the British commander's favoured tactic of using massed short-range musketry to drive off infantry columns. His four divisions, totalling around 18,000 men, therefore advanced in battalion lines behind one another rather than the usual French columns, apparently to enable them to fire more effectively. The leftmost division, commanded by General Allix, became embroiled with the defenders of La Haye Sainte; the rightmost, commanded by General Durutte, likewise tried to fight its way into the village of Papelotte on Wellington's left. The remaining two, commanded by Generals Donzelot and Marcognet, initially attacked the Netherlands 1st Brigade commanded by Major-General Willem Frederik van Bylandt, which was one of the few units placed on the forward slope of the ridge. After suffering an intense artillery bombardment and exchanging volleys with d'Erlon's men for some nine minutes, van Bylandt's outnumbered soldiers were forced to retreat over the ridge and through the lines of General Thomas Picton's division. Picton's division included veteran regiments from the Peninsular campaign among which were the Highland regiments, some of the few battle-hardened regiments that remained with Wellington's British contingent at Waterloo. Picton's 7,000-strong division moved forward over the ridge line to engage Donzelot and Marcognet's 9,000 men. There followed an exchange of musketry and a fierce close-quarters fight which Picton's outnumbered soldiers came close to losing.

At this crucial juncture, British heavy cavalry, formed unseen behind the ridge, were ordered to charge in support of the hard-pressed infantry. The Household Brigade (1st and 2nd Life Guards, Royal Horse Guards and 1st 'King's' Dragoon Guards) and the Union Brigade (Royals, Scots Greys and Inniskillings) charged with Lord Uxbridge, the Allied cavalry commander in chief, leading them. This force of around 3,000 cavalry swept aside Travers' cuirassier brigade and charged on into d'Erlon's infantry, who because they were deployed in line for a musketry engagement against infantry, had neither the time nor the space to form defensive squares. Travers' two regiments of cuirassiers were broken; Donzelot and Marcognet's divisions, plus Bourgeois' brigade, were severely mauled, lost two eagles, and took little further part in the day's fighting.

Rather than rally and reform, however, the British heavy cavalry galloped across the battlefield in pursuit and rode on into the French lines, where they sabred many gunners. At this point, with their horses blown and their formations in disorder, they were in turn counter-attacked by French cavalry, and were badly cut up. Losses at this point were probably around a quarter of their number of effectives (total losses, for the whole battle, were around 45%). Major-General William Ponsonby, commanding the Union Brigade, was killed, as was the commander of the Scots Greys. Apocryphal legend has it that in charging the French, the latter regiment rode through a battalion of Highland troops, who clung onto their stirrups and accompanied them into the charge. This story appears to have arisen shortly after the battle, and was later given currency by the romanticised paintings of the battle by Lady Butler, but no reliable contemporary account exists to verify it.

This spectacular event cost the British heavy cavalry dearly. However, the widespread idea that the two brigades were a totally spent force subsequently is not upheld by close examination of contemporary accounts. They counter-charged cuirassier units a number of times during the large-scale French cavalry attacks in the afternoon. The Household Brigade also charged and halted the attack of a combined force of French infantry (Bachelu's Division)and cavalry ordered forward by Marshal Ney after he perceived that the French cavalry alone were achieving very little. The presence of the two heavy brigades was also used in a very deliberate way to bolster the morale of nearby infantry and cavalry units who appeared to be giving way.

Meanwhile, the Prussians began to appear on the field. Napoleon sent his reserve, Lobau's VI corps and 2 cavalry divisions, some 15,000 troops, to hold them back. With this, Napoleon had committed all of his infantry reserves, except the Guard, and he now had to beat Wellington with inferior numbers.

At this point Ney noted an apparent exodus from Wellington's centre. This was simply the movement to the rear of casualties from the earlier encounters, but he mistook this for the beginnings of a retreat. Lacking an infantry reserve, as they had all been committed either to the futile Hougoumont attack or to the defence of the French right, Ney tried to break Wellington's centre with his cavalry alone. Thousands of armoured heavy cavalrymen struggled up the slope to the fore of Wellington's centre, where squares of Allied infantry awaited them.

The cavalry attacks were repeatedly repelled by the solid Allied infantry squares (four ranks deep with fixed bayonets - vulnerable to artillery or infantry, but deadly to cavalry), the harrying fire of British artillery as the French cavalry recoiled down the slopes to regroup, and the decisive counter-charges of the Allied Light Cavalry regiments, the Netherlands Heavy Cavalry Brigade, and the remaining effectives of the Household Cavalry. After numerous fruitless attacks on the Allied ridge, the French cavalry was exhausted. Consequently Ney organised a combined arms (infantry, artillery and cavalry) attack on La Haye Sainte, which fell as the defending King's German Legion troops ran out of ammunition. Ney then moved artillery up to the Allied centre and began to pulverise the Allied squares.

Had there been any infantry reserves left at this point, the French must certainly have broken through Wellington's crumbling centre. Bülow's Prussians, however, had meanwhile driven Lobau out of Plancenoit, which was behind the French right. Therefore Napoleon sent his 10 battalion strong Young Guard to beat the Prussians back. After very hard fighting the Young Guard recaptured Plancenoit, but were themselves counter-attacked and driven out. Napoleon sent two battalions of Old Guard and after ferocious bayonet fighting - they did not deign to fire their muskets - they recaptured the village. The dogged Prussians were still not beaten, and approximately 30,000 troops under Bülow and Pirch attacked Plancenoit again. It was defended by 20,000 Frenchmen in and around the village. The Old Guard and other supporting troops were able to hold on for about one hour before a massive Prussian counter-attack evicted them after bloody street fighting. The last to flee was the Old Guard who defended the church and cemetery. The French casualties at the end of the day were horrible; for example the 1er Tirailleurs of the Young Guard had 92% losses.

With Wellington's centre exposed by the French taking La Haye Sainte, and the Plancenoit front temporarily stabilised, Napoleon committed his last reserve, the hitherto-undefeated Imperial Guard. This attack is one of the most celebrated passages of arms in military history, but it is unclear which units actually participated. It appears that it was mounted by five battalions of the Middle Guard, and not by the Grenadiers or Chasseurs of the Old Guard. Marching through a hail of canister and skirmisher fire, the 3,000 or so Middle Guardsmen defeated the Allied first line, including British, Brunswick and Nassau troops. Meanwhile, elements of General von Ziethen's 1st Prussian Army Corps had finally arrived helping to relieve the pressure on Wellington's left flank, thus allowing Wellington to strengthen his shaken centre. The French guard battalions marched on, and the situation became critical. Chassé's Netherlands division was sent forward. Chassé sent forward his artillery to halt the French advance and silence French artillery. Their fire took the victorious grenadiers in the flank. This still couldn't stop the Guard's advance, so Chassé ordered his first brigade to charge the French.

Meanwhile, to the west, 1,500 British Guards under Maitland were lying down to protect themselves from the French artillery. They rose as one, and devastated the shocked Imperial Guard with volleys of fire at point-blank range. The French chasseurs deployed to answer the fire. After 10 minutes of exchanging musketry the outnumbered French began wavering. This was the sign for a bayonet charge. But then a fresh French chasseur battalion appeared on the scene. The British guard retired with the French in pursuit, but the French in their turn were halted by flanking fire from the 52nd Light Infantry of Adam's brigade.

The last of the Imperial Guard retreated headlong in disarray and chaos. A ripple of panic passed through the French lines - "La garde recule. Sauve qui peut!" ("The Guard retreats. Save yourself if you can!"). Wellington, judging that the retreat by the Imperial Guard had unnerved all the French soldiers who saw it, stood up in the stirrups of Copenhagen (his favourite horse), and waved his hat in the air, signalling a general advance. The long-suffering Allied infantry rushed forward from the lines where they had been shelled all day, and threw themselves upon the retreating French.

After its unsuccessful attack on the Allied centre, the French Imperial Guard rallied to their reserves of three battalions, (some sources say four) just south of La Haye Sainte for a last stand against the British. A charge from General Adam's Brigade and an element of the 5th Brigade (The Hanoverian Landwehr (Militia) Osnabruck Battalion), both in the second Allied division under Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, threw them into a state of confusion; those which were left in semi-coherent units fought and retreated towards La Belle Alliance. It was during this stand that Colonel Hugh Halkett took the surrender of General Cambronne. This happened during the destruction of one of the retreating semi-coherent squares from the area around La Haye Sainte towards La Belle Alliance. ^[2].

Throughout the late afternoon, Zieten's 1st Corps had been arriving in greater strength at the area just north of Le Haye Saint. This allowed Wellington to reinforce his center in time to repulse Napoleon's attack on his center. At the time the French Guard was being chased off of the British center, the Prussian 1st Corps was breaking through the French center. By 7:30 pm the French position was bent into a rough horseshoe shape. The ends of the U where now based on Hougomont on the French left, Plancenoit on the French right, and the center on La Haye. The French had retaken the positions of Le Haye and Papelotte in a series of attacks by Gen Durette. Oberst von Hofmann's 24th regiment led an advance towards Le Haye and Papelotte and the French forces retreated behind Smohain without contesting the advance. The 24th Regiment advanced against the new French position but was seen off after some early sucess. The Silesian Schutzen and the F/1st Landwehr moved up to support as the 24th regiment returned to the attack. The French fell back before the attack without much of an attempt at defense. At this point the French began to seriously contest ground attempting to regain Smohain and hold on to the ridgeline along Papelotte and the last few houses of Papelotte. The 24th Regiment linked up with a Highlander Bn on its far right. Determined attacks by the 24th Regiment and the 13th Landwehr regiment with cavalry support threw the French off these positions and further attacks by the 13th Landwehr and the 15th brigade expelled the French from Fichermont. Durutte’s division was beginning to unravel under the assaults when General Zieten’s 1st Corp cavalry was being poured through the gap. At the threat of a charge by massed Cavalry moved quickly from the battlefield. 1st Corp then attained the Brussels road and the only line of retreat available to the French.

About the same time the Prussians were pushing through Plancenoit in the 3rd assault upon the town this day. The Prussian 5th, 14th, and 16th brigades, were involved in the attack. Each Prussian brigade would be about 9 battalions strong or roughly the size of a French division. Descriptions of Plancenoit sound like depictions of hell itself. The church was fully involved in a fire, with house to house fighting leaving bodies laying about from both sides. The French Guard battalions, a Guard Chasseur and 1/2e Grenadiers being identified in the position. Virtually all of the young guard was now involved in the defence with remnants of Lobau's Division as well. The key to the position proved to be the wood to the south of Plancenoit. The 25th regiment's musketeer battalions threw the 1/2e Grenadiers (Old Guard) out of the Chantelet woods, flanking Plancenoit and forcing a retreat. The Prussians IV Corps advanced beyond Plancenoit to find masses of French retreating in a mass jumble from advancing British units. The Prussians were unable to fire for fear of hitting allied units. It was now seen that the French right, left, and center, were failing.

The whole of the French front started to disintegrate under the general advance of the Anglo-allied army and the Prussians following the capture of Plancenoit. The last coherent French force consisted of two battalions of the Old Guard stationed around the inn called La Belle Alliance. This was a final reserve and a personal bodyguard for Napoleon. For a time Napoleon hoped that if they held firm the French Army could rally behind them. But as the retreat turned into a rout, they were forced to form squares as protection against the leading elements of allied cavalry. They formed into two squares, one on either side of La Belle Alliance. Until he was persuaded that the battle was lost and he should leave, Napoleon commanded the square which was formed on rising ground to the (Allied) right of the inn. The Prussians engaged the square to the left, and General Adam's Brigade charged the square on the right, forcing it to withdraw. As dusk fell both squares retreated away from the battlefield towards France in relatively good order but the French artillery, and everything else belonging to them, fell into the hands of the Allies and Prussians. The retreating Guards were surrounded by thousands of fleeing Frenchmen who were no longer part of any coherent unit. Allied cavalry harried the fleeing French until about 23:00 hours. The Prussians, led by General von Gneisenau, pursued them throughout the night.

Source: 1815 The Waterloo Campaign, The German Victory, Peter Hofschoer ISBN 1-85367-368-4

[edit] Conclusion

At around 21:00 Wellington and Blücher met, signifying the end of the battle. Waterloo cost the Allied forces around 15,000 dead and wounded, and the Prussians some 7000. Napoleon lost 25,000 dead and injured. 8000 of his troops were taken prisoner.

After the French defeat at Waterloo and the final battle of the Napoleonic Wars at the Battle of Wavre, Napoleon was deposed and remained at large for some time in France before surrendering to the British. Allegedly, Napoleon tried to escape to North America but the British ship Bellerophon caught up to him where he promptly surrendered. He was subsequently exiled to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821.

[edit] The battlefield today

The current terrain of the battlefield is very different from what it would have been in 1815. In 1820, the Netherlands' King William I ordered the construction of a monument on the spot where it was believed his son, the Prince of Orange, had been wounded. A giant mound was constructed here, using 300,000 cubic meters of earth taken from other parts of the battlefield, including Wellington's sunken road. Wellington, when visiting the site years later, allegedly complained "they've spoiled my battlefield!"

[edit] Waterloo in popular culture

• The phrase to meet one's Waterloo (or similar) has entered the English language as a word signifying a great test with a final and decisive outcome- usually a negative one, in recognition of Napoleon's defeat; e.g. [1], [2].
• The battle of Waterloo was the final battle listed in Edward Shepherd Creasy's book The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World.
• The Waterloo Medal was issued to all ranks who participated, including supposedly a baby born on the field to one unit's auxiliary woman aide. It was one of the first general medals issued. One can be seen with Wellington's uniform in the basement at Apsley House.
• The final mission of Starcraft's Brood War expansion, "Omega" is a scenario similar to Waterloo, except the forces in the position similar to Napoleon emerge victorious.
• "The Adventures of Gerard" (1903) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle contains a chapter "How the Brigadier Bore Himself at Waterloo", about his fictional hero Brigadier Etienne Gerard. The chapter consists of two short stories which were originally published separately. Project Gutenberg:The Adventures of Gerard (Audio Book)
• "Vanity Fair" [1848] by William Makepeace Thackeray contains several chapters revolving around the events at Waterloo.
• As a sort of interlude in his "Les Miserables" after Jean Valjean's arrival in Paris but before the introduction of Marius, Victor Hugo recounts his visit to the battlefield in 1861 and recites his version of the battle.
• "Sharpe's Waterloo" or "Waterloo: Sharpe's Final Adventure Campaign" is a novel by Bernard Cornwell, which sets his fictional hero Richard Sharpe at the battle on the staff of the non-fictional Prince of Orange. The book was later adapted for television by the ITV and starred Sean Bean as Sharpe.
• Waterloo was a 1970 Italian-Russian film, directed by Sergei Bondarchuk. It was the story of the preliminary events and the battle, and is remembered for its lavish battle scenes.
• The band ABBA made a song titled "Waterloo" that won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974.
• The famous quote attributed to Wellington ("The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton") was certainly an invention; unlike his older brother, Wellington got poor grades at Eton; on one of his rare visits back there, the only athletic activities he could remember were skipping across a brook, and fisticuffs with a fellow student.
• In the video game Psychonauts, Fred Bonaparte, an insane asylum employee turned inmate and descendant of Napoleon Bonaparte, loses his sanity after continuously losing a game of "Waterloo" with a patient, Crispin Whytehead, and develops a split personality between himself and his forefather.
• In Blackadder: Back & Forth, Lord Blackadder travels back in time and accidentally kills Wellington before the battle of Waterloo; when he returns to the future England is full of French culture, so he time-travels once again to ensure that the Duke lives.
• "Waterloo" is a song by American metal band Iced Earth, that is about the battle at Waterloo. It appears on the album The Glorious Burden, but is not available on the regular American release.
• "The Battle of Waterloo" is a song by the German Metal Band Running Wild off their Death or Glory album.
• "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" is a fantasy novel by Susanna Clarke in which the battle of Waterloo is described from the point of view of a magician who aids the Duke of Wellington. For example, it is thanks to the magician's weather control that heavy rain falls before the battle, aiding the Coalition forces.
• Waterlube is a fictitious water park visited by Napoleon in the film Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
• In the movie Jaws, Captain Quint, while recounting his experience as a seaman aboard the USS Indianapolis, likens the sailors' grouped formations to avoid sharks as "something you would see in a calendar, like the Battle of Waterloo."
• "Waterloo" was a 1959 country song recorded by Stonewall Jackson. The chorus is:

Waterloo, Waterloo

Where will you meet your Waterloo?

Every puppy has its day

Everybody has to pay

Everybody has to meet his Waterloo.

• The battle is mentioned in the 2004 film The Alamo, where it is compared to the Battle of San Jacinto, the final battle of the Texas Revolution.
• "You're My Waterloo" is an unrealeased song by The Libertines.
• "Waterloo to Anywhere" is the debut album by Dirty Pretty Things, though this is more likely a reference to the London railway station.
• The entire battle between Julius Caesar and the Belgians in Asterix in Belgium is a parody of the battle of Waterloo. The arrival of Caesar and his troops is resembles a similar painting depicting Napoleon and his army. In the French version the text which accompanies the battle on paper is a parody on Victor Hugo's poem about the Battle of Waterloo. Asterix, Obelix and Vitalstatistix lead a surprise attack on Caesar's troops just when the Romans seem to win the battle. This is of course, exactly what happened to Napoleon in Waterloo.
• When French President Jacques Chirac visited the UK to celebrate the centenary of the Entente Cordiale, the Waterloo Room in Windsor Castle was renamed the Music Room, and then renamed the Waterloo Room following Chirac's departure.
• "The Battle of Waterloo" is a traditional tune for great Highland bagpipe.

[edit] Battle of Waterloo Simulators

There are two simulators on the internet, one at PBS.org ^[3], and one at the BBC online^[4] it is generally considered that the PBS edition is superior because in the BBC version people can memorize the steps to win the game, and there are only two outcomes - Napoleon wins or Napoleon loses. In the PBS version, there are seven possible outcomes, varying from complete Coalition victory (Napoleon dies on the battlefield) to early French major victory (Napoleon crushes Wellington before Blucher arrives, and when Blucher arrives Napoleon crushes him as well. After that, with two Coalition allies knocked out of the war, Russia and Austria sign peace treaties with France. Note, the second part about Napoleon crushing Blucher is not shown on the simulator, but a player with this outcome receives a message that Blucher was defeated after Wellington was defeated.)

[edit] References

• Wellington's Dispatches June 19, 1815
• Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
• The Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal

[edit] Further reading

• Campaigns of Napoleon by David G. Chandler
• Napoleonic Wars by Michael Glover
• Waterloo Lectures, Colonel Charles C. Chesney
• 1815, The Waterloo Campaign by Peter Hofschroer
• Waterloo - A Near Run Thing by David Howarth
• "Sharpe's Waterloo" by Bernard Cornwell

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Battle of Waterloo

• History of The Napoleonic First Empire, Paper & Digital Magazine
• Gutenberg: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo on line version in HTML
• Battle of Waterloo - maps, diagrams

• Eye witness accounts of Napoleonic warfare.
• Waterloo's significance to the French and British - including proportions of soldiers by nation
• Waterloo - the German Victory
• Myths and Lies about the performance of Dutch and Belgian troops in 1815
• BBC History - Waterloo
• Napoleon's Guard at Waterloo 1815
• Battle of Waterloo could help doctors fight death from multiple organ failure
• Anglo-Allied Order of Battle for the campaign
• French Order of Battle for the campaign (in French)
• Prussian Order of Battle for the campaign (in German)
• The Waterloo Medal Book: recipients of the Waterloo medal, listed by Corps and Regiment