- 5 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:14history is full of killer stories people places and events so lethal so downright shocking that
00:23we just can't forget them tonight pinned down by nazi tanks frozen americans fight to their last
00:32stories from the battle of the bulge become the stuff of legend spanish conquistadors take on
00:40a mighty empire and pay a terrible price the aztecs capture several conquistadors who are taken to the
00:50top of the great pyramid their beating hearts are ripped from their chests in a surprise attack on
00:55a u.s marine base unleashes hellfire from above just like the water pours over niagara falls
01:02the bombs just rain from the sky these are battles so destructive so disastrous and so devastating
01:11they can only be among history's deadliest
01:22it's 216 bc a brilliant young general from carthage is about to launch a killer attack
01:29against rome it'll kill thousands of soldiers
01:36we're near the town of cannae in southern italy on one side are the romans on the other side the
01:42drastically outnumbered carthaginians but the carthaginians have an advantage they're led by
01:47a man named hannibal hannibal has been planning this confrontation for over two years and is ready
01:54to enter iberia modern-day spain rome sends troops to southern italy to prepare against a possible
02:02carthaginian invasion hannibal knows that in order to win he needs to take the war into italy itself
02:09but between iberia and rome are thousands of enemy soldiers and ships so hannibal makes a bold move to
02:18avoid his enemy hannibal hatches an amazing plan to bring infantry cavalry and 37 elephants across the
02:25alps into italy walking war elephants over the alps the whole plan is crazy that's why it's so
02:33brilliant but it does put hannibal where the romans don't expect him to be roman troops are in the
02:39wrong position entirely they have to scramble to assemble their legions to confront this enemy that
02:45has suddenly arrived at the back door meanwhile hannibal raids villages and roman supply lines
02:52but when he attacks the supply depot near the town of cannae the roman senate finally says
02:58enough the roman senate send an army that is the largest they've ever assembled 80 000 men
03:05hannibal has a plan he places himself directly at the center of his formation with his weakest troops
03:12his iberian and celtic foot soldiers hannibal knows that his foot soldiers cannot win the battle
03:19against rome what he does have is a massive advantage in cavalry the numidian cavalry incredibly skilled
03:26horse people incredibly skilled with the javelin incredibly skilled at maneuvering what hannibal
03:31does is this kind of pincer movement where his infantry in the center fall back the romans are lured in
03:38and that's when hannibal closes the vice the carthaginian cavalry springs into action and they seal the last
03:46possible escape for the romans they're now completely encircled there's sounds coming from all sides
03:53people screaming slipping in the mud you can barely defend yourself panic begins to spread through the roman army
03:59and hannibal's soldiers pick off group after group row after row
04:04an estimated 65 000 are killed that's 20 percent of the fighting age men in rome at the time lost
04:13in a single day
04:15hannibal on the other hand only loses about 8 000 men it is one of the greatest military victories a
04:23human being has ever won
04:25and from the roman perspective one of the greatest military defeats anyone has ever suffered
04:32some daring schemes bring victory others disaster take what happens when japan battles against american troops
04:43on one pacific island
04:49october of 1944 the allies have the germans on the run in europe but in the pacific there's no indication
04:57the japanese and they quit anytime soon for the americans a crucial step towards defeating the japanese
05:03is retaking the philippine islands the hub of japan's war supply pipeline it's october 20th 1944
05:11and douglas macarthur is returning to retake the philippines and the japanese with a major invasion at late gulf
05:18the japanese navy is completely outgunned by the american forces japanese have 67 ships or aircraft carriers
05:26the united states has three or four hundred ships they've got 16 large fleet carriers they have
05:32hundreds of different support ships the american forces don't know is that the japanese have a plan
05:37laying in wait and it starts with the largest naval battle in history it's known as shogo one and it's
05:45the brainchild of japanese vice admiral takio karita it will divide the japanese fleet into three
05:52flotillas that will attack the american invasion force from three different directions the key
05:58of shogo one is for them to send their few remaining aircraft carriers north of late as a decoy they're
06:07hoping the american admiral bull halsey will take the bait and pull away his third fleet from late and
06:13give chase that will leave the ships that are supporting macarthur's invasion in late undefended
06:19and two other forces one coming from the center and one coming from the south will then converge on
06:23those kurita to the north will come together in a pincer movement and they will meet at late gulf
06:30and overwhelm the american amphibious landing but almost immediately the elaborate plan begins to unravel
06:37they are spied by two u.s submarines as a matter of fact the ship that kurita is on
06:43is sunk by one of the submarines
06:47he has to be fished out of the water while the japanese scramble to recover american recon planes
06:54spot a target they've been searching for japan's notorious super battleship named after the most
07:01famous samurai who ever lived the musashi is the biggest most powerful naval ship in the world ever
07:10it is engaged by u.s naval aviation hellcat fighters hell divers and avenger torpedo planes
07:18attack that force 19 torpedoes 17 bombs direct hit she starts the list and she capsizes and she takes
07:291 000 imperial navy souls with her oddly the destruction of their prized battleship could spell good news for the
07:39japanese the americans become convinced that that central force has been defeated and turned back
07:45palsy turns his attention to the japanese aircraft carriers in the north he takes all the warships
07:51leaving the base vulnerable kurita's force reverses course leaving the americans to believe that they
07:58have been repulsed they reverse course again and then move through san bernardino strait to approach
08:04late from the north there's an american naval force there providing protection but it's lightly armed
08:11the small american escort vessels are no match for kurita's battleships but just as victory is at hand
08:19for the japanese kurita flinches kurita becomes convinced that he is outnumbered he thinks that the
08:26plan has failed and that halsey is coming for him and just at the point when they have the advantage
08:32kurita orders them to turn around and sail back through san bernardino strait
08:36macarthur would later call this piece of luck nothing short of divine intervention
08:42the japanese southern force retreats into a trap laid by the u.s navy 7th fleet
08:49in a matter of hours the southern force is sunk thousands of lives lost and the salt water stained with
08:55blood and oil
08:56in the wake of the battle of late gulf the japanese navy is shattered the cost of the conflict is
09:04an
09:04estimated 15 000 dead in just a few days making it the deadliest naval battle in history late is the
09:14last time that we know that battleships shoot at battleships it is the end of an era the beginning
09:20of a new one
09:24it's the summer of 1942 and the nazis are racing towards stalingrad hitler is determined to capture
09:33the city his obsession will cost over one million lives
09:42it's july 1942 the german blitzkrieg rumbles and roars towards stalingrad they seem unstoppable
09:50it's got 600 000 access troops 1 000 tanks and 1 600 aircraft hitler expects russia to fall in a
10:00matter
10:00of weeks hitler is convinced that conquering stalingrad will break the soviet spirit stalin agrees which is
10:09why he's ready to do whatever it takes to hold it stalin issues special order 227 on july 28 1942
10:16and that order states that no one shall take a step backward soviet soldiers are told that they even
10:23retreat a single step they will be executed on site not bluffing and this order applies not just to
10:30the soviet military but civilians the civilian population particularly of the city of stalingrad
10:37the german luftwaft begin their bombardment of the city on august 23rd dropping a thousand tons of bombs
10:45on stalingrad in a single day this is a literal hellscape the fighting spills all over the city they
10:54are fighting down inside the sewers and the streets everywhere you can imagine even the people of
10:59stalingrad are mobilized toward the defense of the city they help in placing obstacles around the city
11:05streets they are involved in raising anti-tank guns to the roofs of buildings the life expectancy of a
11:13german soldier in stalingrad is a mere three days correspondingly the life expectancy of a soviet
11:19soldier is but 24 hours by november the germans control 90 of the city and seem like their one big
11:28push away from victor then the soviets identify a weakness in the enemy's army the flanks of the
11:38german offensive in stalingrad are not held by german soldiers they're held by auxiliaries coming from
11:43places like italy and hungary and elsewhere and the soviets correctly identified their flanks as being
11:49a weak position that they can attack within days the german sixth army with over 200 000 men is completely
11:57surrounded the invaders are now trapped hitler is not pleased to learn this information and issues an
12:05order that says the sixth army will hold their position to the last man in the last round only weeks
12:12later in late november the soviets welcomed their deadliest weapon a long-time ally they called zima aka
12:21winter temperatures drop to minus 49 degrees the german advance falters and freezes in its tracks
12:30machines and men break and shatter on the ground they eat all their horses they eat rats and there are
12:37rumors of cannibalism commander of the german sixth army friedrich paulus pleads with berlin to let him
12:45surrender but hitler has another idea to stall an inevitable soviet victory adolf hitler promotes
12:52paulus to field marshal with the full knowledge that no german field marshal has ever surrendered in
12:58combat adolf hitler reminds paulus of that fact palace is then ordered you fight to the last cartridge
13:05general paulus defies hitler's orders and surrenders the 90 000 nazi soldiers who surrender are sent to
13:13the gulag and of those only 6 000 are ever returned to germany in the end 850 000 axis forces
13:21are casualties
13:22of stalingrad the soviets lose over a million this is a meat grinder in any conversation about history's
13:30deadliest battles stalingrad stands alone the carnage hundreds and thousands of acres of burning bodies
13:39and tanks corpses scattered across endless fields nothing compares to it it is the truest definition of horror
13:54500 years before the battle of stalingrad another kind of horror is unleashed an entire empire is laid to
14:03waste by an almost invisible weapon its use isn't deliberate but its impact is undeniable
14:12in 1520 spanish explorer hernon cortez is occupying the aztec capital of tenochtitlan present-day mexico
14:21city he and his conquistadors have taken it in a bloodless coup cortez and moctezuma the king become
14:28friends but at the same time cortez is saying i'm looking for gold and moctezuma is sending out his
14:35people to collect this gold and to give it to him many aztecs resent the spanish invaders and when
14:42brutal fighting breaks out 600 of cortez men are killed trying to flee he's left with just half his
14:50army he's been chased out of the city but then cortez cannot surrender he has to bring back the gold
14:58from
14:58tenochtitlan cortez is vastly outnumbered but he sees that other nearby tribes are tired of moctezuma
15:07and his brutal regime so he recruits 200 000 of them to fight alongside him cortez takes his spanish
15:15troops and his massive indigenous army and parks it right on the shores of lake tushkoko
15:23on may 22nd 1521 cortez launches his siege of tenochtitlan the spanish and the aztecs clog up the
15:33causeways in brutal hand-to-hand combat fighting is non-stop 24 hours a day the aztecs are skilled and
15:43brutal warriors but spanish steel and gunpowder prove more formidable the new aztec leader the king
15:51cuatemoc decides that his only chance here is to make a frontal assault to try to finally wipe out
15:57the camps of the spanish that are besieging the capital it's a calculated risk leaving tenochtitlan
16:03exposed and the spanish forces are able to breach the city's walls this is inside a city with twisting
16:11streets the aztecs know the streets the spaniards do not the aztecs capture several conquistadors who are
16:17taken to the top of the great pyramid they're in full view of their comrades below their beating
16:23hearts are ripped from their chests the fighting inside tenochtitlan is devastating to both sides
16:30but the aztecs are whittled away by a weapon cortez didn't even intend to deploy they're under siege
16:38from another european weapon smallpox and measles and mumps cortez and his men burst through the defenses to
16:46find people piled up along the streets somewhere between 100 000 and 240 000 aztecs die from a
16:54combination of combat disease and starvation after 93 days the aztecs are done fighting
17:03when tenochtitlan falls it is the fall of the aztec empire in a matter of just a few weeks the
17:10spanish
17:10gravely outnumbered have completely changed the direction of the continent and the people on it
17:22it's august of 1950 and the korean peninsula is under siege one bloody fight becomes the most infamous
17:32battle of the korean war at the end of the second world war on the korean peninsula they simply
17:41divided at the 38th parallel the north supported by the russians and the chinese the south is supported
17:47by the united states and the united nations by 1950 it's no longer saber rattling or a shouting match
17:53it's a shooting war the north korean people's army attacks with the goal of taking the entire korean
18:01peninsula they have t-34 tanks which are some of the best tanks at the time in a matter of
18:08weeks the
18:09north korean army absolutely steamroll their way down the korean peninsula united nations is driven back to
18:16a very small perimeter around the port city of pusan and they know they have to defend that because if
18:22they lose that they've lost korea august 4th 1950 the north koreans make a vicious push to crack the line
18:35the north korean army fields a hundred thousand troops they attack the south korean positions on
18:41multiple fronts at masan in the west hong in the east and daegu near the nakton river an endless barrage
18:50of shelling that reduces entire cities and towns to rubble the fierce combat soon descends into one of
19:00the worst atrocities of the war it is the bloody gulch massacre 75 u.s troops are captured they surrender
19:08more than 50 of them are crammed into a small house and then machine gun to death the rest are
19:15just
19:17lined up alongside of the road shot in the head and rolled into a ditch
19:22the fighting escalates and u.n troops and equipment start to pour into pusan
19:29the north koreans decide to go all in
19:34on september 1st the north koreans launch a massive attack to push through the pusan perimeter
19:40the fighting is brutal at every level grenades bayonets assault rifles and tanks blowing each other to smithereens
19:52the u.n forces holding the port of pusan have stood resolute and it's starting to pay off
20:02on september 15th general douglas mcarthur launches a daring amphibious assault at incheon
20:09far behind the enemy lines this amphibious assault is massive it's got 75 000 troops
20:16and 261 ships the intention here is to once and for all cut off the north korean supply chain
20:23their supply lines are cut they fall into headlong retreat and this massive 100 000
20:28person force that nearly took the peninsula ends up being nearly annihilated
20:36the korean forces are destroyed of the original 100 000 troops only 25 000 make it home alive
20:45the allies suffer serious casualties as well 12 000 dead
20:5217 years after pusan u.s forces face another communist enemy this time in south vietnam
21:04the vietnam conflict is another of these cold war proxy war conflicts the north vietnamese are
21:10supported by the chinese and the soviets the south vietnamese are supported by the united states the
21:15north vietnamese are attacking and they supply themselves through a jungle trail that's called
21:20the ho chi minh trail america believes that if they can cut off the ho chi minh trail they can
21:24cut
21:25off the north vietnamese attacks and so they build a base called caisson the nva are happy with that so
21:31what do they do they send 30 000 nva soldiers and lay siege to caisson the base of 6 000
21:42marines is
21:43slammed non-stop with rocket mortar and artillery fire
21:49there's a point during the siege where an ammunition dump is set off
21:57it kills 14 marines and wounds 43 others caisson has been surrounded
22:05the north vietnamese are successful in cutting off ground-based supply lines
22:10so the marine corps takes to the air and they start running supplies to and from caisson using air
22:15transportation but the u.s planes do more than drop supplies
22:22they drop bombs lots of them it's called operation niagara 2. just like the water pours over niagara
22:31falls the bombs just rain from the sky 350 fighter bombers are making frequent sorties
22:3960 b-52 super fortresses are hammering the nva wherever they can find them
22:46as the americans pour on the pressure from above the north vietnamese have a plan for a ground attack
22:54on january 30th 1968 about a week into the siege on caisson the north vietnamese launched the ted
23:00offensive this surprise attack opens up a whole new front on the battlefield taking the north vietnamese
23:06fight directly into southern vietnam everything suggests the battle for caisson is really just a
23:13distraction but general westmoreland the overall commander of all u.s forces in vietnam doesn't think
23:18so in fact even as the ted offensive expands he throws everything he has into saving that position
23:28hundreds of marines are dying at caisson and the american media is putting the carnage on the evening news
23:37for president lyndon johnson he starts to understand that what's happening at caisson
23:40is a pr nightmare in late march of 1968 president johnson orders caisson held at all costs americans commit
23:5330 000 troops and south vietnamese soldiers to relieve the siege of caisson the huge surge of manpower
24:01succeeds and the siege is broken then weeks after the siege ends caisson is abandoned so caisson where
24:13all these marines die and all these north vietnamese die and a month later we leave it becomes a desperate
24:20deadly reminder of the futility of this war the casualties on the north vietnamese side are astounding
24:28they lose something between five and fifteen thousand troops during the four-month siege
24:33on caisson combat base the actual number of u.s troops lost in defense of caisson exceeds 1 000 people
24:40which makes the siege on caisson combat base one of the deadliest conflicts in the vietnam war
24:49december 1944 allied troops pushed towards berlin adolf hitler unleashes a last ditch offensive what
24:59follows is the single deadliest american battle of world war ii allied forces are charging headlong
25:11into europe after their successful landings in normandy they've liberated almost all of france belgium and
25:17luxembourg but their lines are stretched thin and so they set up a defensive perimeter in the ardenne
25:22forest to resupply and catch their breath but on december 15th 1944 the serenity of the belgian forest
25:32is suddenly shattered the allied troops hear a rumble in the distance and don't really compute or
25:40understand what it is at first this is a force of 400 000 german attackers supported by a thousand
25:47panzer tanks supported by 2500 pieces of artillery the enemy objective is to recapture antwerp they push all
25:58the way in creating a battlefield that's 1500 square miles the german breakout if seen from the air
26:05or imagine on a map it bulges out into this enormous area roughly 50 by 75 miles and that's how
26:12the battle
26:12of the bulge gets its name during the first three days of the battle of the bulge it's estimated that
26:19there are somewhere between eight and ten thousand soldiers that are killed wounded or captured the fiercest
26:26fighting takes place in and around the town of baston where all seven of the area's main roads come
26:33together if you want to get to antwerp you have to take the town of baston and that means the
26:40allies
26:40cannot afford to lose baston eisenhower sends in the 101st airborne to hold the town they are lightly
26:49equipped they don't have a ton of ammunition they don't even have cold weather clothing and it is cold
26:55minus 20 degrees fahrenheit
27:01by december 20th this group of 11 000 american soldiers in baston get completely encircled by the germans
27:09the 101st holds baston for six days many men are down to the last two or three rounds of ammo
27:17but christmas finally comes when general george patten and the powerful third army break the siege on
27:25december 26th 1944 this was hitler's last roll of the dice and those dice just got crushed under the
27:33boots of general pattern by the latter stages of this month of january 1945 u.s forces have driven
27:40the enemy back to germany the americans suffer 85 000 casualties and the germans even more stories
27:50from the battle of the bogues become the stuff of legend as they're told and retold and movies and
27:55television shows most famously band of brothers and the reason they're told and they're told is because
28:00this is true heroism the battle of the balls is the last major german offensive of world war ii
28:1080 years earlier there's another all-or-nothing conflict this time in the united states two armies
28:20are waging the deadliest battle of a fort on american soil
28:27in may of 1863 confederate general robert e lee has just delivered a crushing defeat to union forces
28:34near chancellorville virginia it's the biggest rebel victory of the civil war so robert e lee puts all
28:42his chips on invasion to the north the goal is to take harrisburg pennsylvania which is a major
28:49northern supply hub on june 28 1863 lee gets news that the union's army of the potomac is much closer
29:00to rebel positions than he thought lee decides to give up his plans for harrisburg pennsylvania
29:07instead he has his forces regroup at cashtown just eight miles from a little place called gettysburg
29:14on june 30th one of the confederate brigades of cashtown is sent to scout gettysburg and also to
29:19look for desperately needed supplies they're hoping to find a shoe factory or a boot maker so they can
29:25re-shoe their armed forces there's no boot factory in sight but the scouts do spot a group of union
29:33cavalry approaching from the south confederate commanders become convinced oh it can't be the union
29:40army it must be just some local militia we shouldn't just stop for some local militia
29:46sun comes up on july 1st 1863 two brigades of rebel soldiers are making their way into gettysburg
29:54to beat the heck out of some ragtag pennsylvanian militia the rebels are met by union cavalry
30:01under the command of john buford a union soldier fires at an enemy officer on horseback
30:10he misses but his shot rings out across the valley it's difficult to convey how quickly the conflict
30:19escalates on day one we have 50 000 soldiers converge in gettysburg
30:29the fighting is brutal and by the start of the second day the south has taken control of gettysburg
30:35but union reinforcements control the high ground from culps hill to cemetery ridge within 24 hours
30:42there are 70 000 confederate troops and almost 100 000 union troops lee thinks the south is on the brink
30:50of victory he thinks that if he has a massive attack on the center that he can get the federal
30:55troops to break and that this will be the to him the end of the war you know who likes
31:00this plan no one
31:04all his generals say don't do this we cannot pull this off lee's decides he's going to send all but
31:11500
31:12of them across the open battlefield to attack the union troops
31:18the union is really dug in they've been holding their artillery in reserve and they just bombard the
31:25advancing confederate soldiers over and over again the charging southerners are caught in a pocket of death
31:34bullets and bombs coming in from all sides his men's casualty rate is 50 percent lee's disastrous
31:43strategy goes down in history as pickets charge named after one of lee's subordinates who opposes the tactic
31:51the crushing defeat hobbles lee's army permanently the civil war has battles with horrific death tolls
31:59but gettysburg dwarfs them all 8 000 fatalities and a staggering 43 000 wounded or missing
32:08the battle proves to be a major turning point in the civil war
32:12and the chances of victory shift decisively in favor of the union
32:21july 1916 british and french soldiers are bogged down in trenches fighting the germans in belgium and
32:29france to break through britain launches one of the bloodiest battles in history
32:39the allies are going to take on the germans near the sum river 60 miles north of paris
32:44the reason that the battle of the sum occurs where it does is because it is thought that
32:49this will be the perfect place to apply pressure to the enemy while they're trying to fight a vicious
32:54battle to the south that they're done that's where the allied forces are being bled dry by these
32:59relentless german attacks the site of the allied assault is a muddy bomb cratered killing field 23
33:09miles long on the other side the germans dug in and ready for a fight the german front consists of
33:17three long trenches protected by an innovation that has been used a lot in this war barbed wire
33:25british field marshal douglas haig intends to blast through the german line and he'll try with units
33:33of volunteers called pals battalions pals battalions are a great way to elevate morale all of the men from
33:42one village go down to one recruiter they form them into a battalion and it provides this powerful
33:47obligation that compels men forward in combat
33:53the british and the french spent a week launching heavy artillery fire
34:00million and a half artillery shells are fired toward the german lines
34:04they want to destroy the barbed wire fences and and soften up enemy positions this barrage is directed
34:11against a 23 mile long section of the western front that's a lot of coverage even for a million and
34:19a
34:19half rounds and the result is that they don't hit absolutely everything
34:26july 1st 1916 dawn breaks whistles blow and the battle of the sun begins
34:37british soldiers charge towards the enemy and are mowed down by the thousands
34:45entire villages of young men who've all volunteered and trained and deployed together they're wiped out
34:51in minutes it quickly becomes apparent that the week-long artillery barrage had practically no effect
34:59the shrapnel shells meant to break up the barbed wire explode too high rendering them harmless
35:06haig is using 19th century tactics in a 20th century war the brave charge towards the enemy which has
35:13been a tactic for centuries is now a suicide mission it's the deadliest day in british military history
35:2057 000 casualties 19 000 killed the battle rages on for months the british and french
35:29eventually make small gains into german hill territory progress isn't measured in miles it's measured in yards
35:39and there's always a heavy human cost on both sides by november 18th when the offensive is finally
35:47canceled it has been 141 days since it all began the lines have been moved forward six miles and for
35:57the cost
35:57of an entire generation of young men you exchange a million of them for six miles of craters and mud
36:06in france
36:10imagine one general responsible for as many as six million deaths that's what some historians pin
36:19on napoleon his final battle will be his most famous waterloo in the early 19th century after years and
36:29years and years of vicious and brutal campaigning on an increasingly large scale napoleon had lost the last
36:36round of wars napoleon is finally deposed and they send him to a little island in the mediterranean
36:43that's called elba and they make him the prince of elba fast forward to 1815 napoleon has escaped exile
36:51on elba and returned to power in france europe's leaders gathered in vienna now carving up the post
36:57napoleonic world are shocked they quickly form a new coalition to take this guy down once and for all
37:04the stage is set for combat in a belgian town called waterloo
37:12the battle of waterloo is a matchup of two of the great military minds of its day on one side
37:19you
37:19have napoleon the person who has revolutionized warfare over the past two decades on the other
37:24side you have the duke of wellington who won many victories against some of napoleon's finest generals
37:29the allies have the united kingdom prussia the netherlands on the other side france but they're
37:36pretty evenly matched each side has about 75 000 men the night before the battle there's a heavy
37:43rainstorm the armies at waterloo will clash on a muddy slippery battlefield napoleon knows if he can defeat
37:51the british here before the prussians arrive he knows he can defeat the coalition napoleon has an
37:57advantage in cavalry and in heavy artillery but those don't work well on muddy ground so he is forced
38:02to delay hours those hours cost him napoleon's plan is to smash through wellington's left flank while
38:09keeping his right flank busy but wellington's no fool he's got a lot of his troops hidden behind a ridge
38:14using the reverse slope to shield them from what he expects will open the battle french artillery
38:20fire the noise is deafening and the carnage is bad but not as bad as napoleon had hoped wellington's
38:27troops are hunkered down behind a hillside and it proves effective napoleon attacks a british stronghold
38:33hoping to bait wellington into making a mistake eugamont is a walled farm complex essentially a miniature
38:42castle right in the middle of the battlefield napoleon's plan is to press eugamont just enough
38:47to force wellington to deplete his reserves so that he can create a massive attack on the other
38:53flank but it turns out to be this all-day bloodbath french troops battering themselves against the
38:59farm's walls and british guardsmen somehow managing to hold firm inside napoleon wants to end this battle
39:06before reinforcements reaches enemy around 1 30 pm 14 000 french troops charge wellington's left flank
39:16napoleon has sent his cavalry these are perhaps the best cavalry in history and they are fighting
39:22against perhaps the best trained infantry in history the shots when they fire their muskets it's called
39:28crackling shot it just comes across as a wall of smoke which is a wall of lead coming your direction
39:33people are dying horses are dying people are screaming they're slipping in the mud
39:39just when it looks like napoleon is about to win things start to unravel for him the french cavalry
39:44charges again and again at the british but they can't break through it and each charge means the
39:49casualties melt battlefield medicine at the time is very rudimentary pretty much if you are shot the only
39:55thing they can do is cut off the piece of a shot in one of these field hospitals at a
39:59place called
39:59molse gene there's so many limbs being cut off hundreds of them that a witness describes them
40:04just piling up in all corners of the courtyard despite napoleon's superior artillery and constant
40:10cavalry charges wellington's line holds napoleon knows his time is running out napoleon wants to
40:19defeat wellington so that he can then turn and defeat the 50 000 prussians who are just a couple of
40:23days march away the end of waterloo comes when those 50 000 prussians arrive the battle is effectively
40:29over and so too is napoleon's last throw of the dice his last gamble at remaining the master of europe
40:37napoleon escapes to france but waterloo is his last battle there's as many as 40 000 french casualties
40:44maybe half as many casualties from the coalition it is one of the single deadliest days of the napoleonic
40:49wars this is too large a defeat for napoleon to overcome he abdicates he is sent into exile but this
40:56time not as the prince of elba but as a prisoner on the island of saint helena which is a
41:01tiny island
41:02150 miles off the coast of africa where he lives as a prisoner and dies some six months later
41:10nations have gone to war for many reasons riches territory pride sometimes these battles are so large
41:20and so costly and so costly they can only be counted among history's deadliest
41:25you
Comments