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Map 1 Early morning
18th June 1815 This map shows the position of the various army groups in the early morning of 18 June 1815. During the previous evening there had been heavy rain which delayed the battle. |
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Map 2 11 am - 3 pm This map shows the initial engagement with Napoleon's troops making a feiting attack on Wellington's army at the left of the front. Grouchy continues marching north in search of Blücher's Prussian army.
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Map 3 3 pm - 6 pm This map shows Wellington and Napoleon engaged in very heavy fighting in a frontal attack. The British sustained 7000 casualties in the six-hour battle but the line held. Grouchy continues marching north in search of Blücher's Prussian army and is oblivious of the main battle |
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Map 4 6 pm - 9 pm Final map shows Blüchers Prussian army linked up with Wellington's right flank, causing Napoleon to open up a dog leg front from which he was progressively being squeezed in. Grouchy's force never did find the Prussians. |
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This is an overview of the final battle against Napoleon. It is not meant for a detailed study, but a help to grasp the main factors that affected the outcome. It may encourage some to seek further information on the subject. Several conclusions here are subjective, and further study is recommended. Of course this is over simplified. What do you expect when we only have your attention for three minutes? Napoleon was the bad man of Europe from 1803 - 1815. An Alliance of Nations - including almost all the countries of Europe - had hastily formed several armies to do battle with him. Three days before Waterloo a section of the Alliance army had engaged in an initial battle with Napoleon some 20 miles to the south, at Quatre-Bras, but these troops fell back under pressure towards Brussels. The British army under the Duke of Welington took up positions 8 miles south of Brussels. The Prussian troops commanded by Field Marshal Blücher were about15 miles to their east but were marching west to join them. Russian and Austrian armies were also on their way to join the Alliance army but arrived three days too late. Wellington's 70,000 strong British, German, Belgium and Dutch army was in position at Mont St. Jean. atop an east-west ridge that continued towards Wavre, 8 miles to the east. The ridge afforded him out-of-sight movements and kept his reserves unseen. Blücher's Prussian army was marching westward and making its way to positions at Wavre to the east of Wellington's position at Mont St. Jean. Napoleon was a brilliant stragegist and knew that he would be hard pressed if a Wellington-Blücher combined army link-up took place, although he seems to have believed that a link-up was unlikely. It was Napoleon's plan to engage and destroy Wellington before Blücher could arrive and combine with the Alliance Army. The evening before the battle had seen heavy rainfall and this delayed his attack until the next morning, the 18th, thus losing valuable time. Nevertheless from his 100,000 strong army marching north-west to engage Wellington he despatched a 30,000 force under Marshal Grouchy to march north with orders to find and engage and thereby delay Blücher's Prussian army from making a link-up with Wellington. I
have sub-titled this piece 'My Republic for a cell
phone' because keeping contact between Napoleon's
two army groups just 15 miles apart in those days
had to be carried out by horseback despatchers and
it is recorded that at times it took 6 hours for
despatches to reach Marshal Grouchy's group and
return. Of course they had to take care not to be
captured en route which doubtless slowed them down
somewhat. Grouchy's force became virtually
non-combatants in the battle as they were not able
to find or delay Blücher's Prussian army yet
depleted Napoleon's main force of 30,000 valuable
troops which might have tipped the balance in the
fight against Wellington. If you want to learn more, I suggest you read 'Waterloo - Battle of Three Armies' edited by Lord Chalfont. Links -............Waterloo Battlefield Tours .....................The Battlefield Guide Our newest site - 'The Allards' |
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