Posted on 04/24/2008 10:43:29 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
I fear that the French are wasting their time. The problem is that every time they look at Waterloo they say that Napoleon won on points.
Napoleons army was the best he had commanded since he advanced into Russia an army of veterans, 200,000 strong. Wellington referred to his force as an infamous army.
My predecessor, David Chandler, who wrote the definitive account of Napoleons campaigns, said that the Emperors idea had been to get between the Prussians and the British. I will defeat the British and the Prussians, then the Austrians, then the Russians, and Europe will be mine, Napoleon said.
He hits the British at Quatre Bras, who go reeling north back towards Brussels, and he hits the Prussians at Lingy. They retreat east, thinking that their commander, Blücher, is dead. He is found under a dead horse and revived with gin, rides after his soldiers and turns them around.
Napoleon doesnt know anything about this: on the morning of June 18, 1815, he is terribly complacent.
Wellington decides to fight a defensive war of attrition. Through drunkenness, stupidity or fear of their officers, the British line holds. The French have been aware for some time of soldiers advancing on their right flank. Napoleon knows that these are the Prussians, but he sends his aides out through the ranks to say they are French soldiers. He has calculated that the British will fall first and he will have time to redeploy. It is a massive miscalculation.
When the Prussians come into musket range they open fire. The cry goes up among the French: Treason! They think these are French soldiers that have changed sides. It is then that the French army collapses.
That is Dr Chandlers reconstruction and it is the most telling I have ever heard. Napoleon was responsible for his own defeat: he was complacent. Wellington was anxious and left nothing to chance. And if you are going into battle it is far better to be in a state of deep anxiety, as the events of the past four years prove.
Duncan Anderson is Head of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst
At the end of the day Wellington played a weak hand of cards very well indeed.
Fell? Pushed? Jumped? No one knows. "
The French know. What do their archives say?
yitbos
Go ahead and ask them.
Marshal Louis Davout. If he had actually been the guy in charge, Western history probably would have turned out very differently.
The French Calvary never broke the English Square but
Wellington’s concealment of his forces behind that ridge
and their exposure at the critical moment meant the end of
French elan.
“Le Guarde Recule!”
“Le Guarde Recule!”
“What do the french archives say” No one knows, Sandy Berger signed them out.
I thought it was longer before. Yes, the jury is out on how he died. But it was more than Berthier. Napoleon had already lost his best marshalls to death, defection, or fatigue.
I don’t think even he could have saved Waterloo. IF Blucher had actually been crushed earlier, instead of just bloodied, yes, Wellington might have lost. But there was still a massive Russian army out there, and the rest of Europe could mobilize again. Moreover, Davout as a general might have been terrific, but as a charismatic leader, Napoleon had everyone beat.
Interestingly when asked to surrender the French Commander (in history books) was supposed to have said, "The Old Guard dies but does not surrender".
It is my understanding that the actual word was "Merde!".
Under great quotes, in the Franco-Prussian war, when Mar shal Bazaine was bottled up in the fortress of Metz, and was asked the situation, he said, "Nous somme dans un pot de chambre, et nous serons emerdee/"
This topic was posted , thanks bruinbirdman.
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