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00:10history is full of killer stories people places and events so lethal so downright shocking that
00:20we just can't forget them tonight pinned down by nazi tanks frozen americans fight to their last
00:29story stories from the battle of the bulge become the stuff of legend spanish conquistadors take
00:36on a mighty empire and pay a terrible price the aztecs capture several conquistadors who are taken
00:46to the top of the great pyramid their beating hearts are ripped from their chests in a surprise
00:51attack on a u.s marine base unleashes hellfire from above just like the water pours over niagara
00:58falls the bombs just rain from the sky these are battles so destructive so disastrous and so
01:07devastating they can only be among history's deadliest
01:18it's 216 bc a brilliant young general from carthage is about to launch a killer attack against rome
01:26it'll kill thousands of soldiers
01:33we're near the town of cannae in southern italy on one side are the romans on the other side
01:38they're drastically outnumbered carthaginians but the carthaginians have an advantage they're led by
01:43a man named hannibal hannibal has been planning this confrontation for over two years and is ready
01:51to enter iberia modern-day spain rome sends troops to southern italy to prepare against a possible
01:59carthaginian invasion hannibal knows that in order to win he needs to take the war into italy itself
02:05but between iberia and rome are thousands of enemy soldiers and ships so hannibal makes a bold move to
02:14avoid his enemy hannibal hatches an amazing plan to bring infantry cavalry and 37 elephants across
02:21the alps into italy walking war elephants over the alps the whole plan is crazy that's why it's so
02:29brilliant but it does put hannibal where the romans don't expect him to be roman troops are in the wrong
02:36position entirely they have to scramble to assemble their legions to confront this enemy that has suddenly
02:42arrived at the back door meanwhile hannibal raids villages and roman supply lines but when he attacks
02:49the supply depot near the town of cannae the roman senate finally says enough the roman senate send an
02:58army that is the largest they've ever assembled 80 000 men hannibal has a plan he places himself directly
03:05at the center of his formation with his weakest troops his iberian and celtic foot soldiers
03:12hannibal knows that his foot soldiers cannot win the battle against rome what he does have is a massive
03:18advantage in cavalry the numidian cavalry incredibly skilled horse people incredibly skilled with the
03:25javelin incredibly skilled at maneuvering what hannibal does is this kind of pincer movement where his
03:31infantry in the center fall back the romans are lured in and that's when hannibal closes the vice
03:38the carthaginian cavalry springs into action and they seal the last possible escape for the romans
03:45they're now completely encircled there's sounds coming from all sides people screaming slipping in
03:51the mud you can barely defend yourself panic begins to spread through the roman army and hannibal's
03:56soldiers pick off group after group row after row an estimated 65 000 are killed that's 20 percent of
04:05the fighting age men in rome at the time lost in a single day hannibal on the other hand only
04:14loses
04:14about 8 000 men it is one of the greatest military victories a human being has ever won and from
04:22the
04:22roman perspective one of the greatest military defeats anyone has ever suffered some daring schemes bring
04:31victory others disaster take what happens when japan battles against american troops on one pacific island
04:45october of 1944 the allies have the germans on the run in europe but in the pacific there's no indication
04:53the japanese in it quit anytime soon for the americans a crucial step towards defeating the japanese is
05:01retaking the philippine islands the hub of japan's war supply pipeline it's october 20 of 1944 and douglas
05:09mccarthur is returning to retake the philippines from the japanese with a major invasion at late gulf
05:15the japanese navy is completely outgunned by the american forces japanese have 67 ships or aircraft
05:22carriers the united states has three or four hundred ships they've got 16 large fleet carriers they have
05:29hundreds of different support ships the american forces don't know is that the japanese have a plan
05:34been laying in waiting and laying in waiting and it starts with the largest naval battle in history
05:39it's known as shogo one and it's the brainchild of japanese vice admiral takio karita it will divide
05:47the japanese fleet into three patillas that will attack the american invasion force from three different
05:53directions the key of shogo one is for them to send their few remaining aircraft carriers north of late
06:01as a decoy they're hoping the american admiral bull halsey will take the bait and pull away his third
06:08fleet from later and give chase that will leave the ships that are supporting macarthur's invasion in late
06:15undefended then two other forces one coming from the center and one coming from the south will then
06:19converge on those karita to the north will come together in a pincer movement and they will meet
06:25at late gulf and overwhelm the american amphibious landing but almost immediately the elaborate plan
06:32begins to unravel they are spied by two u.s submarines as a matter of fact the ship that
06:38kirita is on is sunk by one of the submarines he has to be fished out of the water while
06:47the japanese
06:47scramble to recover american recon planes spot a target they've been searching for japan's notorious
06:55super battleship named after the most famous samurai who ever lived the musashi
07:01is the biggest most powerful naval ship in the world ever it is engaged by u.s naval aviation
07:10hellcat fighters hell divers and avenger torpedo planes attack that force 19 torpedoes 17 bombs direct
07:21hit she starts the list and she capsizes and she takes 1 000 imperial navy souls with her
07:30and she takes the ship to the ship to the ship to the ship to the ship to the ship
07:35to the ship
07:35the americans become convinced that that central force has been defeated and turned back
07:42halsey turns his attention to the japanese aircraft carriers in the north he takes all the warships
07:48leaving the base vulnerable karita's force reverses course leaving the americans to believe that they
07:55have been repulsed they reverse course again and then move through san bernardino strait to approach
08:00late from the north there's an american naval force there providing protection but it's lightly armed
08:07the small american escort vessels are no match for karita's battleships but just as victory is at hand
08:15for the japanese karita flinches charita becomes convinced that he is outnumbered he thinks that the
08:23plan has failed and that halsey is coming for him and just at the point when they have the advantage
08:28karita orders them to turn around and sail back through san bernardino strait macarthur would later
08:34call this piece of luck nothing short of divine intervention the japanese southern force retreats
08:42into a trap laid by the u.s navy seventh fleet in a matter of hours the southern force is
08:48sunk
08:49thousands of lives lost and the salt water stained with blood and oil in the wake of the battle of
08:55late gulf the japanese navy is shattered the cost of the conflict is an estimated 15 000 dead in just
09:04a few days making it the deadliest naval battle in history late is the last time that we know that
09:12battleships shoot at battleships it is the end of an era the beginning of a new one
09:21that's the end of an era it's the summer of 1942 and the nazis are racing towards stalingrad hitler is
09:29determined to capture the city his obsession will cost over one million lives
09:40it's july 1942 the german blitzkrieg rumbles and roars towards stalingrad they seem unstoppable
09:49it's got 600 000 access troops 1 000 tanks and 1600 aircraft hitler expects russia to fall in a matter
09:58of
09:58weeks hitler is convinced that conquering stalingrad will break the soviet spirit stalin agrees which is
10:06why he's ready to do whatever it takes to hold it stalin issues special order 227 on july 28 1942
10:14and that
10:14order states that no one shall take a step backward soviet soldiers are told that they even retreat a
10:21single step they will be executed on site not bluffing and this order applies not just to the soviet
10:28military but civilians the civilian population particularly of the city of stalingrad
10:35the german luftwaft begin their bombardment of the city on august 23rd dropping a thousand tons of bombs
10:43on stalingrad in a single day this is a literal hellscape the fighting spills all over the city they
10:52are fighting down inside the sewers and the streets everywhere you can imagine even the people of stalingrad are
10:57mobilized toward the defense of the city they help in placing obstacles around the city streets they
11:04are involved in raising anti-tank guns to the roofs of buildings the life expectancy of a german soldier
11:11in stalingrad is a mere three days correspondingly the life expectancy of a soviet soldier is but 24 hours
11:19by november the germans controlled 90 percent of the city and seemed like the one big push away from
11:27victory then the soviets identify a weakness in the enemy's army the flanks of the german offensive in
11:36stalingrad are not held by german soldiers they're held by auxiliaries coming from places like italy and
11:42hungary and elsewhere and the soviets correctly identified their flanks as being a weak position that they can
11:48attack within days the german sixth army with over 200 000 men is completely surrounded the invaders
11:57are now trapped hitler is not pleased to learn this information and issues in order that says the sixth
12:04army will hold their position to the last man in the last round only weeks later in late november the
12:11soviets welcome their deadliest weapon a long time ally they call zima aka winter temperatures drop to
12:21minus 49 degrees the german advance falters and freezes in its tracks machines and men break and shatter on
12:30the ground they eat all their horses they eat rats and there are rumors of cannibalism commander of the german
12:386th army friedrich paulus pleads with berlin to let him surrender but hitler has another idea to stall
12:46an inevitable soviet victory adolf hitler promotes paulus to field marshal with the full knowledge that
12:53no german field marshal has ever surrendered in combat adolf hitler reminds paulus of that fact
12:59paulus is then ordered you fight to the last cartridge general paulus defies hitler's orders and
13:06surrenders the 90 000 nazi soldiers who surrender are sent to the gulag and of those only 6 000 are
13:14ever returned to germany in the end 850 000 axis forces are casualties of stalingrad the soviets lose
13:21over a million this is a meat grinder in any conversation about history's deadliest battles
13:28stalingrad stalingrad stands alone the carnage hundreds and thousands of acres of burning bodies
13:37and tanks corpses scattered across endless fields nothing compares to it it is the truest definition of
13:51horror 500 years before the battle of stalingrad another kind of horror is unleashed an entire empire
14:00is laid to waste by an almost invisible weapon its use isn't deliberate but its impact is undeniable
14:10in 1520 spanish explorer ernan cortez is occupying the aztec capital of tenochtitlan present-day mexico
14:18city he and his conquistadors have taken it in a bloodless coup cortez and moctezuma the king become
14:25friends but at the same time cortez is saying i'm looking for gold and moctezuma is sending out his
14:32people to collect this gold and to give it to him many aztecs resent the spanish invaders and when
14:40brutal fighting breaks out 600 of cortez men are killed trying to flee he's left with just half his
14:48army he's been chased out of the city but then cortez cannot surrender he has to bring back the gold
14:55from tenochtitlan cortez is vastly outnumbered but he sees that other nearby tribes are tired
15:03of moctezuma and his brutal regime so he recruits 200 000 of them to fight alongside him cortez takes
15:12his spanish troops and his massive indigenous army and parks it right on the shores of lake tushkoko
15:20on may 22nd 1521 cortez launches his siege of tenochtitlan the spanish and the aztecs clog up the
15:31causeways in brutal hand-to-hand combat fighting is non-stop 24 hours a day the aztecs are skilled and
15:41brutal warriors but spanish steel and gunpowder prove more formidable the new aztec leader the king
15:49decides that his only chance here is to make a frontal assault to try to finally wipe out the
15:54camps of the spanish that are besieging the capital it's a calculated risk leaving tenochtitlan exposed
16:02and the spanish forces are able to breach the city's walls this is inside a city with twisting streets
16:09the aztecs know the streets the spaniards do not the aztecs capture several conquistadors who are taken
16:15to the top of the great pyramid they are in full view of their comrades below their beating hearts
16:20are ripped from their chests the fighting inside tenochtitlan is devastating to both sides but the
16:28aztecs are whittled away by a weapon cortez didn't even intend to deploy they're under siege
16:36from another european weapon smallpox and measles and mumps cortez and his men burst through the
16:43defenses to find people piled up along the streets somewhere between 100 000 and 240 000 aztecs die from
16:52a combination of combat disease and starvation after 93 days the aztecs are done fighting
17:00when tenochtitlan falls it is the fall of the aztec empire in a matter of just a few weeks the
17:07spanish
17:08gravely outnumbered have completely changed the direction of the continent and the people on it
17:21it's august of 1950 and the korean peninsula is under siege
17:27one bloody fight becomes the most infamous battle of the korean war
17:35at the end of the second world war on the korean peninsula they simply divided at the 38th parallel
17:41the north supported by the russians and the chinese the south is supported by the united states
17:46and the united nations by 1950 it's no longer saber rattling or a shouting match it's a shooting war
17:55the north korean people's army attacks with the goal of taking the entire korean peninsula
18:01they have t-34 tanks which are some of the best tanks at the time
18:06in a matter of weeks the north korean army absolutely steamroll their way down the korean peninsula
18:13united nations is driven back to a very small perimeter around the port city of pusan and they
18:19know they have to defend that because if they lose that they've lost korea august 4th 1950 the north
18:27koreans make a vicious push to crack the line
18:33the north korean army fields a hundred thousand troops they attack the south korean positions on
18:40multiple fronts at masan in the west hong in the east and daigu near the naktong river an endless barrage
18:48of
18:49shelling that reduces entire cities and towns to rubble the fierce combat soon descends into one of the
18:58worst atrocities of the war it is the bloody gulch massacre 75 u.s troops are captured they surrender
19:06more than 50 of them are crammed into a small house and then machine gunned to death the rest are
19:14just
19:15lined up alongside of the road shot in the head and rolled into a ditch
19:20the fighting escalates and u.n troops and equipment start to pour into pusan the north koreans decide to go
19:30all in on september 1st the north koreans launch a massive attack to push through the pusan perimeter
19:39the fighting is brutal at every level grenades bayonets assault rifles and tanks blowing each other to
19:48smithereens
19:50the u.n forces holding the port of pusan have stood resolute and it's starting to pay off
20:01on september 15th general douglas macarthur launches a daring amphibious assault at incheon far behind
20:09the enemy lines this amphibious assault is massive it's got 75 000 troops and 261 ships the intention
20:17here is to once and for all cut off the north korean supply chain their supply lines are cut they
20:23fall into headlong retreat and this massive 100 000 person force that nearly took the peninsula
20:29ends up being nearly annihilated
20:35the korean forces are destroyed of the original 100 000 troops only 25 000 make it home alive
20:42the allies suffer serious casualties as well 12 000 dead
20:5017 years after pusan u.s forces face another communist enemy this time in south vietnam
21:02the vietnam conflict is another of these cold war proxy war conflicts the north vietnamese are supported by
21:09the chinese and the soviets the south vietnamese are supported by the united states the north vietnamese
21:15are attacking and they supply themselves through a jungle trail that's called the ho chi minh trail
21:20america believes that if they can cut off the ho chi minh trail they can cut off the north vietnamese
21:24attacks and so they build a base called caisson the nva are unhappy with that so what do they do
21:30they send 30 000 nva soldiers and lay siege to caisson the base of 6 000 marines is slammed non
21:42-stop with
21:43rocket mortar and artillery fire there's a point during the siege where an ammunition dump is set off
21:55it kills 14 marines and wounds 43 others caisson has been surrounded
22:04the north vietnamese are successful in cutting off ground-based supply lines
22:08so the marine corps takes to the air and they start running supplies to and from caisson using air
22:13transportation but the u.s planes do more than drop supplies
22:20they drop bombs lots of them it's called operation niagara ii just like the water pours over niagara
22:29falls the bombs just rain from the sky 350 fighter bombers are making frequent sorties 60 b-52 super
22:39fortresses are hammering the nva wherever they can find them
22:45as the americans pour on the pressure from above the north vietnamese have a plan for a ground attack
22:52on january 30th 1968 about a week into the siege on caisson the north vietnamese launched the ted
22:59offensive this surprise attack opens up a whole new front on the battlefield taking the north vietnamese
23:04fight directly into southern vietnam everything suggests the battle for caisson is really just a
23:11distraction but general westmoreland the overall commander of all u.s forces in vietnam
23:16doesn't think so in fact even as the ted offensive expands he throws everything he has into saving that position
23:27hundreds of marines are dying at caisson and the american media is putting the carnage on the evening news
23:34for president lyndon johnson he starts to understand that what's happening at caisson is a pr nightmare
23:42in late march of 1968 president johnson orders caisson held at all costs americans commit 30 000 troops
23:53and south vietnamese soldiers to relieve the siege of caisson the huge surge of manpower succeeds and the siege is
24:01broken
24:04then weeks after the siege ends caisson is abandoned so caisson where all these marines die and all these
24:13north vietnamese die and a month later we leave it becomes a desperate deadly reminder of the futility
24:21of this war the casualties on the north vietnamese side are astounding they lose something between five and
24:2915 000 troops during the four-month siege on caisson combat base the actual number of u.s troops lost
24:36in
24:36defense of caisson exceeds 1 000 people which makes the siege on caisson combat base one of the deadliest
24:43conflicts in the vietnam war december 1944 allied troops pushed towards berlin adolf hitler unleashes a last
24:56ditch offensive what follows is the single deadliest american battle of world war ii
25:07allied forces are charging headlong into europe after their successful landings in normandy
25:14they've liberated almost all of france belgium and luxembourg but their lines are stretched thin
25:19and so they set up a defensive perimeter in the ardennes forest to resupply catch their breath
25:26but on december 15th 1944 the serenity of the belgian forest is suddenly shattered the allied troops
25:35hear a rumble in the distance and don't really compute or understand what it is at first this is a
25:42force of
25:42400 000 german attackers supported by a thousand panzer tanks supported by 2500 pieces of artillery
25:53the enemy objective is to recapture antwerp they push all the way in creating a battlefield that's
26:001500 square miles the german breakout obscene from the air we mentioned on a map
26:05it bulges out into this enormous area roughly 50 by 75 miles and that's how the battle of the bulge
26:12gets its name
26:15during the first three days of the battle of the bulge it's estimated that there are somewhere between
26:20eight and ten thousand soldiers that are killed wounded or captured the fiercest fighting takes place
26:27in and around the town of baston where all seven of the area's main roads come together if you want
26:35to
26:35get to antwerp you have to take the town of baston and that means the allies cannot afford to lose
26:42baston
26:44eisenhower sends in the 101st airborne to hold the town they are lightly equipped they don't have a ton of
26:50ammunition they don't even have cold weather clothing and it is cold minus 20 degrees fahrenheit
27:00by december 20th this group of 11 000 american soldiers in baston get completely encircled by the
27:07germans the 101st holds baston for six days many men are down to the last two or three rounds of
27:16ammo
27:16but christmas finally comes when general george patten and the powerful third army break the siege
27:24on december 26th 1944 this was hitler's last roll of the dice and those dice just got crushed under the
27:32boots of general patten by the latter stages of this month of january 1945 u.s forces have driven the
27:40enemy back to germany the americans suffer 85 000 casualties and the germans even more stories from
27:50the battle of the bugs become the stuff of legend as they're told and retold and movies and television
27:55shows most famously band of brothers and the reason they're told and retold is because this is true
28:01heroism the battle of the balls is the last major german offensive of world war ii 80 years earlier there's
28:12another all or nothing conflict this time in the united states two armies are waging the deadliest battle
28:21of the battle of a fort on american soil in may of 1863 confederate general robert e lee has just
28:31delivered a crushing defeat to union forces near chancellorville virginia it's the biggest rebel
28:38victory of the civil war so robert e lee puts all his chips on invasion to the north the goal
28:45is to
28:46take harrisburg pennsylvania which is a major northern supply hub on june 28 1863 lee gets news that the
28:56union's army of the potomac is much closer to rebel positions than he thought lee decides to give up his
29:05plans for harrisburg pennsylvania instead he has his forces regroup at cashtown just eight miles from a
29:11little place called gettersburg on june 30th one of the confederate brigades at cashtown is sent to
29:17scout gettersburg and also to look for desperately needed supplies they're hoping to find a shoe
29:22factory or a boot maker so they can reshoe their armed forces there's no boot factory in sight but the
29:30scouts do spot a group of union cavalry approaching from the south confederate commanders become convinced
29:38oh it can't be the union army it must be just some local militia we shouldn't just stop for some
29:43local
29:44militia sun comes up on july 1st 1863 two brigades of rebel soldiers are making their way into gettersburg
29:54to beat the heck out of some ragtag pennsylvanian militia the rebels are met by union cavalry under the
30:02command of john buford a union soldier fires at an enemy officer on horseback he misses but his shot
30:11rings out across the valley it's difficult to convey how quickly the conflict escalates on day
30:20one we have 50 000 soldiers converge in gettersburg the fighting is brutal and by the start of the
30:31second day the south has taken control of gettersburg but union reinforcements control the high ground
30:37from culps hill to cemetery ridge within 24 hours there are 70 000 confederate troops and almost a
30:45hundred thousand union troops lee thinks the south is on the brink of victory he thinks that if he has
30:51a massive attack on the center that he can get the federal troops to break and that this will be
30:56the
30:57to him the end of the war you know who likes this plan no one all his generals say don't
31:06do this we
31:07cannot pull this off lee's decides he's going to send all but 500 of them across the open battlefield
31:13to attack the union troops the union is really dug in they've been holding their artillery in reserve
31:23and they just bombard the advancing confederate soldiers over and over again the charging southerners
31:31are caught in a pocket of death bullets and bombs coming in from all sides his men's casualty rate
31:39is 50 percent lee's disastrous strategy goes down in history as pickets charge named after one of lee's
31:47subordinates who opposes the tactic the crushing defeat hobbles lee's army permanently the civil war has
31:56battles with horrific death tolls but gettersburg dwarfs them all 8 000 fatalities and a staggering 43 000
32:06wounded or missing the battle proves to be a major turning point in the civil war and the chances of
32:13victory shift decisively in favor of the union july 1916 british and french soldiers are bogged down in
32:27trenches fighting the germans in belgium and france to break through britain launches one of the bloodiest
32:34battles in history the allies are going to take on the germans near the somme river 60 miles north of
32:44paris the reason that the battle of the somme occurs where it does is because it is thought that this
32:49will
32:50be the perfect place to apply pressure to the enemy while they're trying to fight a vicious battle to the
32:55south at verdun that's where the allied forces are being bled dry by these relentless german attacks
33:03the site of the allied assault is a muddy bomb cratered killing field 23 miles long on the other
33:12side the germans dug in and ready for a fight the german front consists of three long trenches protected by
33:20an innovation that has been used a lot in this war barbed wire british field marshal douglas haig
33:28intends to blast through the german line and he'll try with units of volunteers called
33:35pals battalions pals battalions are a great way to elevate morale all of the men from one village go
33:43down to one recruiter they form them into a battalion and it provides this powerful obligation that compels
33:49men forward in combat the british and the french spent a week launching heavy artillery fire
34:00million and a half artillery shells are fired toward the german lines
34:05they want to destroy the barbed wire fences and and soften up enemy positions this barrage is directed
34:12against a 23 mile long section of the western front that's a lot of coverage even for a million and
34:19a half
34:19rounds and the result is that they don't hit absolutely everything
34:26july 1st 1916 dawn breaks whistles blow and the battle of the sum begins
34:38british soldiers charged towards the enemy and are mowed down by the thousands entire villages of young
34:47men who've all volunteered and trained and deployed together they're wiped out in minutes it quickly
34:54becomes apparent that the week-long artillery barrage had practically no effect the shrapnel shells meant to
35:01break up the barbed wire explode too high rendering them harmless haig is using 19th century tactics in a
35:1020th century war the brave charge towards the enemy which has been a tactic for centuries is now a suicide
35:17mission it's the deadliest day in british military history 57 000 casualties 19 000 killed
35:25the battle rages on for months the british and french eventually make small gains into german hill territory
35:35progress isn't measured in miles it's measured in yards and there's always a heavy human cost on both sides
35:45by november 18th when the offensive is finally cancelled it has been 141 days since it all began
35:53the lines have been moved forward six miles and for the cost of an entire generation of young men
36:02you exchange a million of them for six miles of craters and mud in france
36:12imagine one general responsible for as many as six million deaths that's what some historians pin on
36:20napoleon his final battle will be his most famous waterloo in the early 19th century after years and
36:30years and years and years of vicious and brutal campaigning on an increasingly large scale napoleon had
36:36lost the last round of wars napoleon is finally deposed and they send him to a little island in the
36:44mediterranean that's called elba and they make him the prince of elba fast forward to 1815 napoleon has escaped
36:52exile on elba and returned to power in france europe's leaders gathered in vienna now carving up the post
36:59napoleonic world are shocked they quickly form a new coalition to take this guy down once and for all
37:06the stage is set for combat in a belgian town called waterloo
37:14the battle of waterloo is a match-up of two of the great military minds of its day on one
37:20side you
37:20have napoleon the person who has revolutionized warfare over the past two decades on the other
37:25side you have the duke of wellington who won many victories against some of napoleon's finest generals
37:31the allies have the united kingdom prussia the netherlands on the other side france but they're
37:37pretty evenly matched each side has about 75 000 men the night before the battle there's a heavy rain
37:45storm the armies at waterloo will clash on a muddy slippery battlefield napoleon knows if he can defeat
37:53the british here before the prussians arrive he knows he can defeat the coalition napoleon has an
37:58advantage in cavalry and in heavy artillery but those don't work well on muddy ground so he is
38:04forced to delay hours those hours cost him napoleon's plan is to smash through wellington's left
38:10plank while keeping his right flank busy but wellington's no fool he's got a lot of his troops hidden
38:15behind a ridge using the reverse slope to shield them from what he expects will open the battle french
38:21artillery fire the noise is deafening and the carnage is bad but not as bad as napoleon had hoped
38:28wellington's troops are hunkered down behind the hillside and it proves effective napoleon attacks
38:33a british stronghold hoping to bait wellington into making a mistake huguermont is a walled farm complex
38:42essentially a miniature castle right in the middle of the battlefield napoleon's plan is to press huguermont
38:48just enough to force wellington to deplete his reserves so that he can create a massive attack on the other
38:54flank but it turns out to be this all-day bloodbath french troops battering themselves against the
39:00farm's walls and british guardsmen somehow managing to hold firm inside napoleon wants to end this battle
39:08before reinforcements reaches enemy around 1 30 pm 14 000 french troops charge wellington's left flank
39:18napoleon has sent his cavalry these are perhaps the best cavalry in history and they are fighting
39:24against perhaps the best trained infantry in history the shots when they fire their muskets it's called
39:29crackling shot it just comes across as a wall of smoke which is a wall of lead coming your direction
39:34people are dying horses are dying people are screaming they're slipping in the mud
39:40just when it looks like napoleon is about to win things start to unravel for him the french cavalry
39:45charges again and again at the british but they can't break through it and each charge means the
39:50casualties melt battlefield medicine at the time is very rudimentary pretty much if you are shot the only
39:57thing they can do is cut off the piece of a shot in one of these field hospitals at a
40:00place called
40:01molse jean there's so many limbs being cut off hundreds of them that a witness describes them
40:05just piling up in all corners of the courtyard despite napoleon's superior artillery and constant
40:12cavalry charges wellington's line holds napoleon knows his time is running out napoleon wants to
40:20defeat wellington so that he can then turn and defeat the 50 000 prussians who are just a couple of
40:25days march away the end of waterloo comes when those 50 000 prussians arrive the battle is effectively
40:31over and so too is napoleon's last throw of the dice his last gamble at remaining the master of europe
40:38napoleon escapes to france but waterloo is his last battle there's as many as 40 000 french casualties
40:45maybe half as many casualties from the coalition it is one of the single deadliest days of the napoleonic
40:51wars this is too large a defeat for napoleon to overcome he abdicates he is sent into exile but this
40:58time not as the prince of elba but as a prisoner on the island of saint helena which is a
41:02tiny island
41:03150 miles off the coast of africa where he lives as a prisoner and dies some six months later
41:12nations have gone to war for many reasons riches territory pride sometimes these battles are so large
41:21and so costly and so costly they can only be counted among history's deadliest
41:27you
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