Battle of Waterloo, 1815 — 47,000 Fell
Atlas & Ash
1,068 views
The Battle of Waterloo put 47,000 men on the ground inside three square miles in ten hours, and it was decided by a Prussian staff officer who retreated in the wrong direction.
In June 1815 Napoleon had been back on the throne for eighty-nine days and had one chance left. Two allied armies stood in Belgium, Wellington's in the west and Blücher's in the east, and they were not yet joined. If he could get between them he could beat them one at a time. Waterloo 1815 is the story of what happened when he tried.
This covers the whole four-day campaign, not just the ridge: the crossing at Charleroi, Ligny and Quatre Bras fought on the same afternoon, d'Erlon's corps marching between two battles and fighting in neither, and the midnight decision at Wavre that kept the Prussians within twelve miles of Wellington.
Then the battle itself, hour by hour — Hougoumont swallowing 12,000 Frenchmen, d'Erlon's columns broken by Picton's volley, the British heavy cavalry destroying itself at the grand battery, Ney's 9,000 horsemen thrown at unbroken squares, La Haye Sainte falling when the riflemen ran out of ammunition, and Plancenoit pulling the Imperial Guard away from the only place it was needed.
Napoleon Waterloo is usually told as one man's defeat. It was closer than that. Wellington called it the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life, and the wars that had run since 1792 ended on that ridge.
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CHAPTERS
0:00:00 June 18th, 1815
0:01:04 The Man Who Came Back
0:03:07 Two Armies in Belgium
0:04:30 Crossing the Sambre
0:05:40 Ligny and Quatre Bras
0:07:40 The Decision at Wavre
0:09:28 The Ridge at Mont-Saint-Jean
0:11:09 Nothing Happens Until Half Past Eleven
0:12:23 Hougoumont
0:13:35 D'Erlon's Columns
0:15:08 The Cavalry Hour
0:16:45 La Haye Sainte
0:18:15 Plancenoit
0:19:34 The Guard Recoils
0:21:33 What It Cost
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If there is a campaign you want laid out on the ground it was fought on, say so in the comments.
#history #documentary #militaryhistory #maps #Waterloo #Napoleon
1 Comments
Battle of Waterloo, 1815 — 47,000 Fell
Atlas & Ash
1,068 views
The Battle of Waterloo put 47,000 men on the ground inside three square miles in ten hours, and it was decided by a Prussian staff officer who retreated in the wrong direction.
In June 1815 Napoleon had been back on the throne for eighty-nine days and had one chance left. Two allied armies stood in Belgium, Wellington's in the west and Blücher's in the east, and they were not yet joined. If he could get between them he could beat them one at a time. Waterloo 1815 is the story of what happened when he tried.
This covers the whole four-day campaign, not just the ridge: the crossing at Charleroi, Ligny and Quatre Bras fought on the same afternoon, d'Erlon's corps marching between two battles and fighting in neither, and the midnight decision at Wavre that kept the Prussians within twelve miles of Wellington.
Then the battle itself, hour by hour — Hougoumont swallowing 12,000 Frenchmen, d'Erlon's columns broken by Picton's volley, the British heavy cavalry destroying itself at the grand battery, Ney's 9,000 horsemen thrown at unbroken squares, La Haye Sainte falling when the riflemen ran out of ammunition, and Plancenoit pulling the Imperial Guard away from the only place it was needed.
Napoleon Waterloo is usually told as one man's defeat. It was closer than that. Wellington called it the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life, and the wars that had run since 1792 ended on that ridge.
-------------------------------------
CHAPTERS
0:00:00 June 18th, 1815
0:01:04 The Man Who Came Back
0:03:07 Two Armies in Belgium
0:04:30 Crossing the Sambre
0:05:40 Ligny and Quatre Bras
0:07:40 The Decision at Wavre
0:09:28 The Ridge at Mont-Saint-Jean
0:11:09 Nothing Happens Until Half Past Eleven
0:12:23 Hougoumont
0:13:35 D'Erlon's Columns
0:15:08 The Cavalry Hour
0:16:45 La Haye Sainte
0:18:15 Plancenoit
0:19:34 The Guard Recoils
0:21:33 What It Cost
-------------------------------------
Subscribe if you would like to see the next map drawn.
If there is a campaign you want laid out on the ground it was fought on, say so in the comments.
#history #documentary #militaryhistory #maps #Waterloo #Napoleon