1815, the Waterloo Campaign : the German Victory


Book Description

-- Demonstrates the decisive German contribution to victory at Waterloo -- Unpublished German eyewitness accounts and regimental reports -- Covers the battles of Waterloo, Wavre and the taking of Paris Peter Hofschroer, in this second volume of his masterly study of 1815, challenges the accepted version of events at the battle of Waterloo. He demonstrates convincingly that Allied victory was due not to steadfast British infantry repelling the French, but to the timely arrival of Prussian troops who stole victory from Napoleon and sealed the fate of the last Grande Armee. Drawing on previously unpublished accounts, Hofschroer gives not only the Prussian perspective of their march to Waterloo and decisive attack on Napoleon's flank, but also details of the actions fought by some of the 25,000 Germans in Wellington's 'British' army -- more than a third of the Duke's force. A gripping narrative of astonishing detail captures such key episodes of Waterloo as La Haye Sainte, Papelotte, Hougoumont and the Prussian struggle with the Imperial Guard for Plancenoit. In addition, Hofschroer examines the battle at Wavre, the Allied offensive into France, the taking of Paris and the sieges across northern France. 1815: The Waterloo Campaign-The German Victory is a definitive work on an epic confrontation by one of today's leading military writers.




Journal of the Waterloo Campaign Kept Throughout the Campaign of 1815


Book Description

The author of this book was commander of 'G' Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, in Wellington's army, who jotted down notes on the events of the day each evening. It is an account of what he saw and felt from leaving Colchester for Belgium on 8 April 1815 to his final return to England at the end of January 1816. It is a remarkable and compelling account, especially of the three days which ended the career of Napoleon.




Waterloo


Book Description

The concluding volume of this work provides a fresh description of the climatic battle of Waterloo placed in the context of the whole campaign. It discusses several vexed questions: Blucher's intentions for the battle, Wellington's choice of site, his reasons for placing substantial forces at Hal, the placement of Napoleon's artillery, who authorized the French cavalry attacks, Grouchy's role on 18 and 19 June, Napoleon's own statements on the Garde's formation in the final attack, and the climactic moment when the Prussians reached Wellington's troops near la Belle Alliance. Close attention is paid to the negotiations that led to the capitulation of Paris, and subsequent French claims. The allegations of Las Cases and later historians that Napoleon's surrender to Captain Maitland of the Bellerophon amounted to entrapment are also examined. After a survey of the peace settlement of 1815, the book concludes with a masterly chapter reviewing the whole story of the 1815 campaign.




The Longest Afternoon


Book Description

From the prizewinning author of Europe, a riveting account of the heroic Second Light Battalion, which held the line at Waterloo, defeating Napoleon and changing the course of history. In 1815, the deposed emperor Napoleon returned to France and threatened the already devastated and exhausted continent with yet another war. Near the small Belgian municipality of Waterloo, two large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the future of Europe-Napoleon's forces on one side, and the Duke of Wellington on the other. With so much at stake, neither commander could have predicted that the battle would be decided by the Second Light Battalion, King's German Legion, which was given the deceptively simple task of defending the Haye Sainte farmhouse, a crucial crossroads on the way to Brussels. In The Longest Afternoon, Brendan Simms captures the chaos of Waterloo in a minute-by-minute account that reveals how these 400-odd riflemen successfully beat back wave after wave of French infantry. The battalion suffered terrible casualties, but their fighting spirit and refusal to retreat ultimately decided the most influential battle in European history.




The Waterloo Campaign, June 1815


Book Description

June 1815




Waterloo Campaign


Book Description

Albert Nofi has used his many years of research to produce an account of the battle of Waterloo that has all the grandeur and military detail one could want, but which never loses its interest in individual human experience. Here Napoleon rides forward to take personal command of a small detachment of French Marines to fight his way across the Sambre river on the way to Waterloo. Hanoverian exiles who have been fighting Napoleon for a decade under English command are surrounded and wiped out in a classic "last stand" at the hour of victory. The Waterloo Campaign also covers the death of the Duke of Brunswick, the reconciliation of Napoleon and his estranged brother Jerome in the crucible of battle, and the tragic loss and miraculous delivery of many ordinary people.In addition to its popular appeal, Albert Nofi's The Waterloo Campaign has found favor with the most demanding of military enthusiasts. Waterloo is a Military Book Club Main Selection in the U.S. and has been selected for a special European edition. Special features of The Waterloo Campaign include the most complete orders of battle available for the British, French and Prussian armies, a detailed comparison of artillery and musketry capabilities, sidebars profiling many of the personalities of the campaign, weather conditions for each hour of the battle and the best-informed estimates available on unit strengths and casualties, for horses as well as humans, during the campaign.New York educator Albert Nofi appeared frequently as a radio and TV military commentator during the Persian Gulf War, always balancing the grand principles of command against the individual human drama. He is the author of numerous books, including The Spanish American War 1898, The Marine Corps Book of Lists, and The War Against Hitler.




Journal of the Waterloo Campaign


Book Description




The Campaign of Waterloo


Book Description

The Campaign of Waterloo is the complete account of the climatic campaign and battle of the Napoleonic Wars abstracted from Sir John Fortescues monumental A History of the British Army.Issued as an independent volume, The Campaign of Waterloo chronicles the events from Napoleons exile to Elba on 28 April 1814 to his departure from France on 15 July 1815 and exile on St Helena.Between those dates was the Campaign of Waterloo and the final, ferocious battle of 18 June 1815 which destroyed Napoleons power. Fortescues analytical approach, strips away the mysterious and complexities of the campaign to allow readers a clear understanding of this short but epoch-changing series of events.The classic history Anthony Bruce, A Bibliography of the British Army




Waterloo: The Campaign of 1815, Volume 1


Book Description

This, the fourth volume in Andrew Field's highly praised study of the Waterloo campaign from the French perspective, depicts in vivid detail the often neglected final phase the rout and retreat of Napoleon's army. The text is based exclusively on French eyewitness accounts which give an inside view of the immediate aftermath of the battle and carry the story through to the army's disbandment in late 1815. Many French officers and soldiers wrote more about the retreat than they did about the catastrophe of Waterloo itself. Their recollections give a fascinating insight to the psyche of the French soldier. They also provide a firsthand record of their experiences and the range of their reactions, from those who deserted the colors and made their way home, to those who continued to serve faithfully when all was lost. Napoleons own flight from Waterloo is an essential part of the narrative, but the main emphasis is on the fate of the beaten French army as it was experienced by eyewitnesses who lived through the last days of the campaign.




Napoleon Victorious!


Book Description

It is June 1815 and an Anglo-led Allied army under the Duke of Wellington’s command and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher is set to face Napoleon Boneparte near Waterloo in present-day Belgium. What happens next is well known to any student of history: the two armies of the Seventh Coalition defeated Bonaparte in a battle that resulted in the end of his reign and of the First French Empire. But the outcome could have been very different, as Peter Tsouras demonstrates in this thought-provoking and highly readable alternate history of the fateful battle. By introducing minor – but realistic – adjustments, Tsouras presents a scenario in which the course of the battle runs quite differently, which in turn sets in motion new and unexpected possibilities. Cleverly conceived and expertly executed, this is alternate history at its best.