Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Waterloo 1815

Great History

Transcript

00:00April, 1814.

00:11For ten years, one man has dominated Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French.

00:19Under his military genius, France conquered an empire that spanned the continent.

00:26But finally, he has been defeated by a grand coalition of his enemies.

00:32Napoleon is forced to abdicate, and exiled to the tiny island of Elba.

00:37While the Bourbon monarchy is restored to France, in the corpulent form of Louis XVIII.

00:44But rumours soon reach Napoleon that France would welcome his return.

00:50The French people have little love for the monarchy or its hangers-on.

00:54The very people whose excesses led to the French Revolution 25 years before.

01:00He also learns that at the Congress of Vienna, his enemies are locked in bitter dispute over

01:05the future of Europe.

01:08Napoleon decides to act.

01:12After just ten months in exile, he returns to France, where the troops sent to arrest him

01:18rally to his cause instead.

01:21Most of France soon follows suit.

01:24But in Vienna, the coalition immediately put their differences to one side.

01:30They declare Napoleon an outlaw, and mobilise their forces for war.

01:37Napoleon knows he must act boldly, before the coalition launches a coordinated invasion

01:42of France.

01:44He counts on winning a quick victory, and then negotiating peace from a position of strength.

01:51He targets the coalition armies within easiest reach – Prince Blucher's Prussian army, and

01:57the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-Allied army – both camped in Belgium.

02:04Napoleon's force is a match for either coalition army on its own.

02:08But he'll be heavily outnumbered if they're able to join forces, so he must keep them apart,

02:15and defeat each in turn.

02:17Napoleon's army crosses the frontier near Charleroi, intending to drive a wedge between the

02:47two coalition armies.

02:51The next day, Napoleon sends his left wing, under Marshal Ney, to take the crossroads

02:57at Quatrebras.

02:59There, Ney clashes with Wellington's army, still scrambling into position.

03:05The Allied troops fight off a series of French attacks, and just manage to hold their ground.

03:13The same day, Napoleon attacks Blucher's Prussian army with his main force, near the village of

03:19Ligny.

03:20The battle is a brutal slugging match, but the French emerge triumphant.

03:25The 72-year-old Blucher leads a cavalry charge in person, and has his horse killed under him.

03:32He only just escapes capture.

03:35The Prussian army retreats, but it is not broken.

03:40Napoleon sends his right wing, under Marshal Grouchy, to keep them on the run, and turns

03:46his own attention to Wellington's army.

03:50The British general doesn't receive news of Blucher's defeat until the next morning, at

03:55which point he orders a retreat through heavy summer showers, to a position eight miles south

04:01of Brussels, near the village of Waterloo.

04:05There he receives a promise from Blucher that the Prussians will march to his aid the next

04:10morning.

04:11So Wellington decides to stand and fight.

04:17Wellington has chosen his battlefield with care.

04:21His troops are behind a gentle ridge, which will give them some shelter from French cannon

04:25fire.

04:26His right flank is anchored on the farmhouse of Augumont, his centre on the farm of La Hessante,

04:33and his left on the farm of Papillotte.

04:37All three are fortified and garrisoned with elite troops.

04:42Wellington's men need every advantage they can get.

04:46The opposing armies are roughly equal in size, but his is a ragtag mix of British, Dutch,

04:53and German troops, many of whom have never seen combat before.

04:59They will have to hold off Napoleon's army of veterans until Prussian reinforcements arrive,

05:05or the battle, and probably the war, will be lost.

05:12Sunday, dawns bright and fair.

05:23Napoleon has ordered Marshal Grouchy to pursue the Prussians and keep them busy, while he defeats

05:29Wellington's army at Waterloo, and opens the road to Brussels.

05:34But it's Grouchy who gets pinned down, fighting the Prussian rearguard at Wavre.

05:41The main Prussian force eludes him, and is already marching to Wellington's aid.

05:49At Waterloo, Napoleon delays his attack, waiting for the ground to dry, which will make movement

05:56easier for his troops.

05:58But the lost hours will later prove costly.

06:02The battle begins around 11am, when Napoleon orders a feint against Wellington's right

06:08flank at Augemont.

06:12He hopes Wellington will commit his reserves here, drawing them away from the centre, where

06:17the main blow will fall.

06:20But Augemont's British and German defenders cling on desperately throughout the day.

06:27At one point, the French force their way through the main gate, but it's shut behind them, and

06:33the intruders are all killed.

06:36Wellington later calls it the decisive moment of the battle.

06:42Around noon, 80 French cannon open fire against the main Allied line.

06:49Most of Wellington's men are out of sight on the reverse slope, but many cannonballs still

06:54find their mark, smashing bloody holes in the Allied ranks.

06:59At 1.30pm, Napoleon sends in his infantry.

07:03The French columns are met by disciplined musket fire, and then charged by British heavy cavalry.

07:10The French attack disintegrates, as Napoleon's men try to save themselves from the crushing

07:21hooves and flashing sabres.

07:25Scores of Frenchmen are ridden down, and two of their famous eagle standards are captured.

07:32But the British cavalry, exhilarated by success, charge too far.

07:37They become scattered, their horses blown.

07:41At their most vulnerable, they're countercharged by French cavalry, and suffer terrible losses.

07:47Among the dead, Major General Sir William Ponsonby, commander of the Union Brigade.

07:56Around 4pm, Marshal Ney thinks he sees the Allies begin to retreat, and leads a mass cavalry charge

08:04to drive home the advantage.

08:07But Ney is wrong.

08:09The Allied infantry are ready, formed in hollow squares, with bayonets fixed.

08:16The French cavalry can't break into these impregnable formations.

08:20They can only circle impotently, until they retreat, or are shot from the saddle.

08:27Ney's failure to support this attack with either infantry or artillery is a serious blunder.

08:37Meanwhile, Blücher's Prussians have begun to arrive.

08:42They capture the village of Plonsonoy, threatening Napoleon's flank, and forcing him to send reserves

08:49to recapture it.

08:52Around 6pm, French infantry finally capture the farmhouse of La Hessante, in the center of

08:58the battlefield.

09:00It allows the French to bring forward artillery, and blast the Allied squares from close range.

09:08They can't miss the closely packed formations, and casualties quickly mount.

09:15It begins to seem that if Wellington's army doesn't retreat, it will be killed where it stands.

09:25But the situation for Napoleon is also desperate.

09:30The Prussians are arriving in force, and he's running out of men to throw against Wellington's

09:35army.

09:38So he turns to his ultimate reserve, the elite Imperial Guard, the most feared troops in Europe.

09:48At 7.30pm, 3,000 of these battle-hardened veterans march past their emperor and across the corpse-strewn

09:56battlefield towards the Allied center.

10:01Wellington's redcoats rise to meet them, and pour devastating volleys of musket fire into their

10:06ranks.

10:08When the Allies fix bayonets and prepare to charge, the Imperial Guard wavers, and then retreats.

10:19Wellington, sensing victory, orders a general advance.

10:25About the same time, the Prussians recapture Plance Noire.

10:31Rumors of the Imperial Guard's defeat, and rumours of encirclement by the Prussians sweep through

10:36the French ranks.

10:38Panic breaks out, and the French army flees the battlefield.

10:44Only Napoleon's old guard maintain their discipline, mounting a heroic but doomed rearguard action.

10:57Napoleon himself is forced to abandon his carriage, and barely escapes the pursuing Prussian cavalry.

11:07The battle is won.

11:11The Duke of Wellington and Prince Blücher meet and congratulate each other outside Napoleon's

11:17former headquarters, an inn called La Belle Alliance.

11:22Blücher thinks it's the perfect name for their shared victory, but Wellington prefers the

11:27more English-sounding Waterloo, where he has his own headquarters.

11:34The Battle of Waterloo was, in the words of the Duke of Wellington, a damned near-run thing.

11:42It was also one of the bloodiest battles of the age.

11:46Around 50,000 men were killed or wounded, 23,000 coalition casualties, 27,000 French.

11:55Due to an appalling shortage of medical care, many of the wounded were left lying on the battlefield

12:01for several days.

12:07Napoleon was utterly defeated.

12:10Unable to raise another army, he surrendered to the British.

12:15They transported him to a second exile, on the tiny, remote Atlantic island of St. Helena.

12:23This time, there was no escape.

12:26He died there, six years later.

12:32Waterloo marked the beginning of a period of relative peace in Europe.

12:37There were no wars between the great powers for 40 years, and the British would not fight

12:43on the continent for another hundred years… until the summer of 1914.

12:54Forty years after the battle, a pioneer in the new art of photography captured these remarkable

13:00images.

13:02They're veterans of Napoleon's armies, by then all old men in their 70s and 80s.

13:09Among them, Sergeant Tania of the Imperial Guard, Moray of the 2nd Regiment of Hussars,

13:18and Verlin of the 2nd Guard Lancers.

13:24These faces are a tantalising link to the dramatic events that shaped the course of history two

13:30centuries ago.

13:54One of the most famous years after the battle…

13:56...

13:57...

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