Download or read book How the French Won Waterloo or Think They Did written by Stephen Clarke and published by Random House. This book was released on 2015-06-04 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published in the 200th Anniversary year of the Battle of Waterloo a witty look at how the French still think they won, by Stephen Clarke, author of 1000 Years of Annoying the French and A Year in the Merde. Two centuries after the Battle of Waterloo, the French are still in denial. If Napoleon lost on 18 June 1815 (and that's a big 'if'), then whoever rules the universe got it wrong. As soon as the cannons stopped firing, French historians began re-writing history. The Duke of Wellington was beaten, they say, and then the Prussians jumped into the boxing ring, breaking all the rules of battle. In essence, the French cannot bear the idea that Napoleon, their greatest-ever national hero, was in any way a loser. Especially not against the traditional enemy – les Anglais. Stephen Clarke has studied the French version of Waterloo, as told by battle veterans, novelists, historians – right up to today's politicians, and he has uncovered a story of pain, patriotism and sheer perversion ...

Download or read book The Road to St Helena written by J. David Markham and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the life of Napoleon after the Battle of Waterloo, his fall from power, and the politics surrounding his surrender.

Download or read book Waterloo The Truth At Last written by Paul L. Dawson and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2017-09-30 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During October 2016 Paul Dawson visited French archives in Paris to continue his research surrounding the events of the Napoleonic Wars. Some of the material he examined had never been accessed by researchers or historians before, the files involved having been sealed in 1816. These seals remained unbroken until Paul was given permission to break them to read the contents.Forget what you have read about the battle on the Mont St Jean on 18 June 1815; it did not happen that way. The start of the battle was delayed because of the state of the ground not so. Marshal Ney destroyed the French cavalry in his reckless charges against the Allied infantry squares wrong. The stubborn defense of Hougoumont, the key to Wellingtons victory, where a plucky little garrison of British Guards held the farmhouse against the overwhelming force of Jerome Bonapartes division and the rest of II Corps not true. Did the Union Brigade really destroy dErlons Corps, did the Scots Greys actually attack a massed French battery, did La Haie Sainte hold out until late in the afternoon?All these and many more of the accepted stories concerning the battle are analysed through accounts (some 200 in all) previously unpublished, mainly derived through French sources, with startling conclusions. Most significantly of all is the revelation of exactly how, and why, Napoleon was defeated.Waterloo, The Truth at Last demonstrates, through details never made available to the general public before, how so much of what we think we know about the battle simply did not occur in the manner or to the degree previously believed. This book has been described as a game changer, and is certain to generate enormous interest, and will alter our previously-held perceptions forever.

Download or read book 1000 Years of Annoying the French written by Stephen Clarke and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2012-03-20 with total page 764 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of A Year in the Merde and Talk to the Snail offers a highly biased and hilarious view of French history in this international bestseller. Things have been just a little awkward between Britain and France ever since the Norman invasion in 1066. Fortunately—after years of humorously chronicling the vast cultural gap between the two countries—author Stephen Clarke is perfectly positioned to investigate the historical origins of their occasionally hostile and perpetually entertaining pas de deux. Clarke sets the record straight, documenting how French braggarts and cheats have stolen credit rightfully due their neighbors across the Channel while blaming their own numerous gaffes and failures on those same innocent Brits for the past thousand years. Deeply researched and written with the same sly wit that made A Year in the Merde a comic hit, this lighthearted trip through the past millennium debunks the notion that the Battle of Hastings was a French victory (William the Conqueror was really a Norman who hated the French) and pooh-poohs French outrage over Britain’s murder of Joan of Arc (it was the French who executed her for wearing trousers). He also takes the air out of overblown Gallic claims, challenging the provenance of everything from champagne to the guillotine to prove that the French would be nowhere without British ingenuity. Brits and Anglophiles of every national origin will devour Clarke’s decidedly biased accounts of British triumph and French ignominy. But 1000 Years of Annoying the French will also draw chuckles from good-humored Francophiles as well as “anyone who’s ever encountered a snooty Parisian waiter or found themselves driving on the Boulevard Périphérique during August” (The Daily Mail). A bestseller in Britain, this is an entertaining look at history that fans of Sarah Vowell are sure to enjoy, from the author the San Francisco Chronicle has called “the anti-Mayle . . . acerbic, insulting, un-PC, and mostly hilarious.”

Download or read book Waterloo written by Bernard Cornwell and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 Bestseller in the U.K. From the New York Times bestselling author and master of martial fiction comes the definitive, illustrated history of one of the greatest battles ever fought—a riveting nonfiction chronicle published to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s last stand. On June 18, 1815 the armies of France, Britain and Prussia descended upon a quiet valley south of Brussels. In the previous three days, the French army had beaten the Prussians at Ligny and fought the British to a standstill at Quatre-Bras. The Allies were in retreat. The little village north of where they turned to fight the French army was called Waterloo. The blood-soaked battle to which it gave its name would become a landmark in European history. In his first work of nonfiction, Bernard Cornwell combines his storytelling skills with a meticulously researched history to give a riveting chronicle of every dramatic moment, from Napoleon’s daring escape from Elba to the smoke and gore of the three battlefields and their aftermath. Through quotes from the letters and diaries of Emperor Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington, and the ordinary officers and soldiers, he brings to life how it actually felt to fight those famous battles—as well as the moments of amazing bravery on both sides that left the actual outcome hanging in the balance until the bitter end. Published to coincide with the battle’s bicentennial in 2015, Waterloo is a tense and gripping story of heroism and tragedy—and of the final battle that determined the fate of nineteenth-century Europe.

Download or read book On Waterloo written by Arthur Wellesley and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2010 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book at last makes available in English a penetrating exchange between two of history's most famous soldiers concerning the dramatic events of the Waterloo campaign of 1815. The Duke of Wellington is one of the greatest military commanders in British history; General Carl von Clausewitz is widely regarded as the greatest military thinker in the history of Western civilization. Both men had vast experience in the Napoleonic Wars, and both were prominent participants in the campaign. Wellington commanded the Anglo-Dutch-Belgian army; the much younger Clausewitz was chief-of-staff to Prussia's 3rd Corps. Wellington went on to become prime minister of Great Britain and commander-in-chief-for-life of the British Army. Clausewitz went on to author VOM KRIEGE (ON WAR), a seminal and still hotly debated treatise on the theory and philosophy of war. He also became the founder of modern, "scientific" military history, via the work of his disciple, military historian Hans Delbrück. Oddly, Clausewitz's study of the campaign of 1815 was never published in English, and Wellington's once-famous response to it has been strangely but studiously ignored by British military historians since 1914. Hence this book. It contains Wellington's initial battle report; Clausewitz's post-battle letters to his wife Marie; correspondence within Wellington's circle concerning Clausewitz's work; Clausewitz's strategic analysis of the entire campaign (not just the Battle of Waterloo); Wellington's memorandum in response; and enlightening essays by prominent experts on Clausewitz, Wellington, and the Battle of Waterloo. Major General [U.S. Army] David T. Zabecki, Ph.D., writes in the April 2011 edition of The Journal of Military History: "Long overdue, we now have two English translations of [Clausewitz's] The Campaign of 1815 [i.e., Peter Hofschröer's translation of Clausewitz's study and Bassford, Moran, and Pedlow's edition of the full Clausewitz-Wellington exchange]. Either of these volumes would be a welcome addition to the bookshelf of any serious student of military affairs, but On Waterloo: Clausewitz, Wellington, and the Campaign of 1815 is clearly the richer of the two." Napoleonic expert Bruno Colson wrote [in War in History 19(3)] that Pedlow "convincingly resurrects Wellington's ideas and actions, and gives a final and excellent reply to the arguments of Peter Hofschröer, while remaining balanced, recognizing the latter's merits and quoting him courteously. Waterloo 'was neither a British victory nor a Prussian victory; it was an Allied victory, ' says Pedlow (p. 282). For Waterloo enthusiasts, this essay alone justifies buying the book." Noted Clausewitz scholar Jon Sumida (U.Md) writes that "On Waterloo is essential reading for those seeking an understanding of Clausewitz's distinctive approach to historical case study as the basis of practical knowledge of armed conflict. Clausewitz's history of the campaign of 1815 incorporates methods of critical analysis explained in Book II of On War, which were addressed primarily to the observation and assessment of past cases of strategic and operational decision-making by commanders-in chief. The Bassford, Moran, and Pedlow edition provides a highly readable translation of a work previously accessible only in German that illustrates Clausewitz's approach to the replication and evaluation of the experience of high command." The Editors: Christopher Bassford is Professor of Strategy at the National War College, in Washington, DC. Daniel Moran is Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey, CA. Gregory W. Pedlow is Chief of the Historical Office at NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), near Mons, Belgium.

Download or read book The Longest Afternoon written by Brendan Simms and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2015-02-10 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book 1815 the Waterloo Campaign the German Victory written by Peter Hofschröer and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: -- 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.

Download or read book Napoleon s Hemorrhoids written by Phil Mason and published by Castle Books. This book was released on 2013-03-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book about tiny events that had huge impacts. Some of these small events even changed the world. As you'll see here in Napoleon's Hemorrhoids, much of history turns out to be the consequences of small acts of fortune, accident or luck, good or bad. In the historical anecdote which lends its name to book, Napoleon's painful attack of hemorrhoids on the morning of the famous battle of Waterloo keep him from his usual practice of inspecting the battlefield. You'll learn that Marie Antoinette might have avoided execution if she hadn't changed her escape plan at the last minute and how Nixon's White House taping system which caused his downfall in the Watergate scandal was revealed by an aide accidentally. Along with history, this book also covers the fields of science, arts, sport and business. Each area is bursting with instances of major achievement coming from the smallest of beginnings. You'll also learn that one of the world's greatest nuclear scientists became a physicist only because he chose the wrong line while registering for his college classes. You'll discover how Gone with the Wind, one of the most successful novels in publishing history, came about because Margaret Mitchell, laid up with an injury, had to give up her job and stay home. How Scooby Doo, the famous cartoon dog, got his name when chance when its creator heard Frank Sinatra singing the chorus for Strangers in the Night which contains the words ‘Scooby-scooby-do' and how the Russians arrived late for at one early Olympics because they forgot they were on a different calendar and that Coca-Cola's most famous advertisement, launched in 1971 was inspired by an unplanned all night layover at an Irish airport.

Download or read book Wellington s Hidden Heroes written by Veronica Baker-Smith and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2015-10-19 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An excellent account of the contribution of the newly formed (and short-lived) United Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Allied victory” (HistoryOfWar.org). The Dutch-Belgians have been variously described as inexperienced, incompetent, and cowardly, a rogue element in the otherwise disciplined Allied Army. It is only now being tentatively acknowledged that they alone saved Wellington from disaster at Quatre Bras. He had committed a strategic error in that, as Napoleon advanced, his own troops were scattered over a hundred kilometers of southern Belgium. Outnumbered three to one, the Netherlanders gave him time to concentrate his forces and save Brussels from French occupation. At Waterloo itself, on at least three occasions when the fate of the battle “hung upon the cusp,” their engagement with the enemy aided British recovery. Their commander—the Prince of Orange—has been viciously described as an arrogant fool, “a disaster waiting to happen,” and even a dangerous lunatic. According to the assessment of Wellington himself, he was a reliable and courageous subordinate. This book reveals a new dimension of the famous campaign and includes many unseen illustrations. For the first time, a full assessment is made of the challenge which Willem I faced as king of a country hastily cobbled together by the Congress of Vienna, and of his achievement in assembling, equipping, and training 30,000 men from scratch in eighteen months. “An extraordinary and impressively researched, written, organized and presented history that sheds considerable new light on one of the most influential battles of 19th century Europe.” —Midwest Book Review “A fascinating read.” —Military Heritage

Download or read book All for the King s Shilling written by Edward J Coss and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The British troops who fought so successfully under the Duke of Wellington during his Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon have long been branded by the duke’s own words—“scum of the earth”—and assumed to have been society’s ne’er-do-wells or criminals who enlisted to escape justice. Now Edward J. Coss shows to the contrary that most of these redcoats were respectable laborers and tradesmen and that it was mainly their working-class status that prompted the duke’s derision. Driven into the army by unemployment in the wake of Britain’s industrial revolution, they confronted wartime hardship with ethical values and became formidable soldiers in the bargain These men depended on the king’s shilling for survival, yet pay was erratic and provisions were scant. Fed worse even than sixteenth-century Spanish galley slaves, they often marched for days without adequate food; and if during the campaign they did steal from Portuguese and Spanish civilians, the theft was attributable not to any criminal leanings but to hunger and the paltry rations provided by the army. Coss draws on a comprehensive database on British soldiers as well as first-person accounts of Peninsular War participants to offer a better understanding of their backgrounds and daily lives. He describes how these neglected and abused soldiers came to rely increasingly on the emotional and physical support of comrades and developed their own moral and behavioral code. Their cohesiveness, Coss argues, was a major factor in their legendary triumphs over Napoleon’s battle-hardened troops. The first work to closely examine the social composition of Wellington’s rank and file through the lens of military psychology, All for the King’s Shilling transcends the Napoleonic battlefield to help explain the motivation and behavior of all soldiers under the stress of combat.

Download or read book Wellington s Foot Guards at Waterloo written by Robert Burnham and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2018-11-30 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Waterloo Campaign, Wellington had only one division that was composed entirely of British infantry, the 1st Division. This consisted of two brigades of the most famous regiments of the British Army the three regiments of Guards.The exploits of the Guards at Waterloo have passed into legend. On that day, Wellington entrusted the most crucial part of his line to the men he knew would hold their position at all cost. That vital position was the Chteau d'Hougoumont, and those men were the Guards.As the great battle unfolded, the French threw more and more troops at the walls of Hougoumont, setting some of the Chteaus buildings on fire and almost forcing their way in through its northern gateway. Though almost an entire French corps was engaged in the struggle for Hougoumont, the detachment of the Guards valiantly resisted every attack.Then, as the battle reached its climax, Napoleon launched his Imperial Guard at the centre of Wellingtons line. Just as the French believed that victory was in their grasp, up stood the 1st Guards Brigade to deliver a devastating volley, followed by a ferocious bayonet charge from which the French never recovered.The experienced duo of Robert Burnham and Ron McGuigan have compiled the first comprehensive study of the Guards Division throughout the entire Waterloo campaign, from the initial deployment in Belgium to the Occupation of Paris. The book also includes an explanation of the organisation and composition of the two brigades and personal details of many of the Guards officers the men who saved the day at Waterloo.

Download or read book Strange Victory written by Ernest R. May and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dramatic narrative-and reinterpretation-of Germany's six-week campaign that swept the Wehrmacht to Paris in spring 1940. Before the Nazis killed him for his work in the French Resistance, the great historian Marc Bloch wrote a famous short book, Strange Defeat, about the treatment of his nation at the hands of an enemy the French had believed they could easily dispose of. In Strange Victory, the distinguished American historian Ernest R. May asks the opposite question: How was it that Hitler and his generals managed this swift conquest, considering that France and its allies were superior in every measurable dimension and considering the Germans' own skepticism about their chances? Strange Victory is a riveting narrative of those six crucial weeks in the spring of 1940, weaving together the decisions made by the high commands with the welter of confused responses from exhausted and ill-informed, or ill-advised, officers in the field. Why did Hitler want to turn against France at just this moment, and why were his poor judgment and inadequate intelligence about the Allies nonetheless correct? Why didn't France take the offensive when it might have led to victory? What explains France's failure to detect and respond to Germany's attack plan? It is May's contention that in the future, nations might suffer strange defeats of their own if they do not learn from their predecessors' mistakes in judgment.

Download or read book Napoleon Bonaparte written by and published by Pelangi ePublishing Sdn Bhd. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is suitable for children age 9 and above. Napoleon Bonaparte was the first emperor of France. He was a very successful military general and he led his army into many victorious battles. This is the story of how a lawyer's son rose to become a powerful emperor.

Download or read book Napoleon and Wellington written by Andrew Roberts and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2010-12-16 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dual biography of the greatest opposing generals of their age who ultimately became fixated on one another, by a bestselling historian. 'Thoroughly enjoyable, beautifully written and meticulously researched' Observer On the morning of the battle of Waterloo, the Emperor Napoleon declared that the Duke of Wellington was a bad general, the British were bad soldiers and that France could not fail to win an easy victory. Forever afterwards historians have accused him of gross overconfidence, and massively underestimating the calibre of the British commander opposed to him. Andrew Roberts presents an original, highly revisionist view of the relationship between the two greatest captains of their age. Napoleon, who was born in the same year as Wellington - 1769 - fought Wellington by proxy years earlier in the Peninsula War, praising his ruthlessness in private while publicly deriding him as a mere 'sepoy general'. In contrast, Wellington publicly lauded Napoleon, saying that his presence on a battlefield was worth forty thousand men, but privately wrote long memoranda lambasting Napoleon's campaigning techniques. Although Wellington saved Napoleon from execution after Waterloo, Napoleon left money in his will to the man who had tried to assassinate Wellington. Wellington in turn amassed a series of Napoleonic trophies of his great victory, even sleeping with two of the Emperor's mistresses.

Download or read book Waterloo written by Andrew W. Field and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2012-10-24 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Talavera, an extensive history of the Battle of Waterloo from the losing side’s point of view. The story of the Battle of Waterloo—of the ultimate defeat of Napoleon and the French, the triumph of Wellington, Blücher, and their allied armies—is most often told from the viewpoint of the victors, not the vanquished. Even after 200 years of intensive research and the publication of hundreds of books and articles on the battle, the French perspective and many of the primary French sources are under-represented in the written record. So, it is high time this weakness in the literature—and in our understanding of the battle—was addressed, and that is the purpose of Andrew Field’s thought-provoking new study. He has tracked down over ninety first-hand French accounts, many of which have never been previously published in English, and he has combined them with accounts from the other participants in order to create a graphic new narrative of one of the world’s decisive battles. Virtually all of the hitherto unpublished testimony provides fascinating new detail on the battle and many of the accounts are vivid, revealing, and exciting.

Download or read book Napoleon on the Art of War written by Jay Luvaas and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2001-07-11 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Napoleon. The passage of time has not dimmed the power of his name. A century and a half after his death, Napoleon remains the greatest military genius of the modern world. Yet unlike Machiavelli, Clausewitz, or Sun Tzu, his name has not crowned any single literary work. The subject of thousands of biographies and treatises on warfare, he is the author of none. Until now. The great general and conqueror of Europe may not have written any books, but he was a prolific writer. Thousands of his missives to subordinates survive, and these documents reflect the broad range of a fearless and incisive mind. From them, military historian Jay Luvaas has wrought a seamless whole. Luvaas has spent decades culling, editing, and arranging Napoleon's thoughts into coherent essays and arguments. In the remarkable result. Napoleon speaks without interruption in a work that will forever change the way we view him. Luvaas covers every subject Napoleon wrote about, from the need for preparation -- "Simply gathering men together does not produce real soldiers; drill, instruction, and skill is what makes real soldiers." -- to the essence of victory -- "To win is not enough: It is necessary to profit from success." On education, leadership, strategy and history, Napoleon speaks with an authority unique to those who have ruled a continent. In these pages lies the wisdom of a giant who knew life's greatest achievements and its lowest lows: triumph and conquest, exile and disgrace. Whether you are a student of military strategy or a business professional eager to learn from the greatest manager of personnel that the world has ever known, Napoleon on the Art of War has something for you. From the specifies of Napoleon's use of cavalry and unique reliance upon artillery to an all-encompassing vision of life from a man of supreme confidence and success, you'll find it here. This is the only straightforward explanation of Napoleon's campaigns and philosophy by the man himself.