Download or read book Wellington s Waterloo Allies written by Andrew W. Field and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2022-05-05 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For almost 200 years, the British perception of the Battle of Waterloo was that it was a great British victory gained over the French tyrant Napoleon which was achieved in spite of, rather than because of, the allied contingents in the Duke of Wellington’s army. Eyewitness accounts by British soldiers, encouraged by the doubts expressed in Wellington’s despatches, denigrated and vilified the courage and prowess of these allies. But in the last twenty years modern historians, with better access to the accounts and archives of the allied nations, have tried to put the record straight, and their efforts have been rewarded by changing attitudes and a greater understanding of the significant part the allies played. Andrew Field, in this the latest of his series of pioneering books on Waterloo, makes a powerful contribution to this continuing debate by analyzing in forensic detail the records of these allied forces throughout the campaign. In his balanced, nonpartisan reassessment he describes the make-up of these forces, their training and experience, and their military capability. Included are graphic accounts of their actions and performance on the battlefield. His work is essential reading for all students of the Waterloo campaign.
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 On Wellington written by Carl von Clausewitz and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle of Waterloo has been studied and dissected so extensively that one might assume little more on the subject could be discovered. Now historian Peter Hofschröer brings forward a long-repressed commentary written by Carl von Clausewitz, the author of On War. Clausewitz, the Western world’s most renowned military theorist, participated in the Waterloo campaign as a senior staff officer in the Prussian army. His appraisal, offered here in an up-to-date and readable translation, criticized the Duke of Wellington’s actions. Lord Liverpool sent his translation of the manuscript to Wellington, who pronounced it a “lying work.” The translated commentary was quickly buried in Wellington’s private papers, where it languished for a century and a half. Now published for the first time in English, Hofschröer brings Clausewitz’s critique back into view with thorough annotation and contextual explanation. Peter Hofschröer, long recognized as a leading scholar of the Napoleonic Wars, shows how the Duke prevented the account’s publication during his lifetime—a manipulation of history so successful that almost two centuries passed before Clausewitz’s work reemerged, finally permitting a reappraisal of key events in the campaign. In addition to translating and annotating Clausewitz’s critique, Hofschröer also includes an order of battle and an extensive bibliography.
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 1815 the Waterloo Campaign written by Peter Hofschröer and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Wellington s Belgian Allies 1815 written by Ronald Pawly and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-03-20 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The army commanded by the Duke of Wellington at Quatre-Bras and Waterloo included two infantry divisions and three cavalry brigades of the newly-unified Netherlands (or 'Dutch-Belgian') army. The part played by these troops in the two battles, under experienced officers many of whom had seen long service in Napoleon's campaigns, has often been unjustly dismissed by British commentators. The organisation, uniforms, and battle record of the Belgian units are explained here in detail by an experienced researcher in Continental archives, and illustrated by a specialist in the period, who actually lives at Waterloo.
Download or read book Wellington s Dutch Allies 1815 written by Ronald Pawly and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-03-20 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A concise, illustrated study of the Netherlands troops that fought at Quatre-Bras and Waterloo. The forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington at Quatre-Bras and Waterloo included two infantry divisions and three cavalry brigades of the newly unified ('Dutch-Belgian') army of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, mostly led by veteran officers who had served under Napoleon. The part played by these troops - particularly in holding the vital crossroads of Quatre-Bras, at the insistence of their own commanders - has often been unjustly dismissed by British commentators. In this book the history, organisation, uniforms and battle record of the Dutch units of this army are explained and illustrated in detail by two experienced researchers in Continental archives, and accompanied by many rare portraits as well as meticulous colour plates.
Download or read book Wellington at Waterloo written by Jac Weller and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2010-10-18 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jac Weller studies every move and counter-move of the battle, recreating not only the actions and tactics of the two great leaders but the epic engagements and clashes between the troops themselves that were pivotal for the victory or defeat. The author also studies the related battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny. He takes the reader with him onto the battlefield of Waterloo, a terrain whose features are still recongnisable today, and which is bought to life for the reader by detailed maps and by the authors vivid and riveting descriptions of the progress of the fighting.This completely original approach, appreciated by the Times Literary Supplement on the books first publication, strikes as fresh today, and this new edition, with an introduction specially written for it by the author, will be eagerly read by military enthusiasts and general reader alike.
Download or read book Wellington and Waterloo written by R. E. Foster and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2014-02-03 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The events which unfolded south of Brussels on 18 June 1815 conferred instant immortality on those who took part in them. For the Duke of Wellington, Waterloo consummated victory in a long battle for what he considered to be his due recognition. Whilst he guarded that reputation jealously, he also jeopardised it by his decision to enter politics in what proved to be an especially partisan age. Even the outpouring of national grief which accompanied his death in 1852 could not totally obscure the ambivalence he had aroused in life. The memory of Waterloo, meanwhile, followed its own trajectory. Travellers initially flocked to the battlefield as if drawn by a magnet. What the triumph meant for Britain, and the wider world, moreover, became a battle in itself, one fought variously in the political, literary and artistic theatres of war. As the nineteenth century advanced, it was only Waterloo's less-exalted participants who, relatively, faded from view – or were ignored. Drawing on many under-utilised sources to illuminate some less familiar themes, this timely study offers fresh perspectives on one of Britain's best-known figures, as well as on the nature of heroism. The reader is also given pause for thought as to appropriate forms of commemoration and how national celebrations are prone to manipulation, for their own purposes, by those in government.
Download or read book A Desperate Business written by Ian Fletcher and published by Spellmount, Limited Publishers. This book was released on 2001 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 'desperate business' was how the Duke of Wellington described the Battle of Waterloo following the Allied victory there on 18 June 1815. Here, historian Ian Fletcher tells the story of the Waterloo Campaign and illustrates just how desperate the battle was, with Wellington's Anglo-Dutch army hanging on grimly to the ridge at Mont St Jean until their Prussian allies arrived to put the seal on one of the most decisive victories in military history. A Desperate Business differs from many of the books on Waterloo for two reasons; first, it tells the story, not only of the three days' battle from 15 to 18 June, but of the entire campaign, from its beginning in March 1815, right up to the Allie's entrance into Paris three months later. Second, whilst acknowledging the part played by their Dutch-Belgian, Hanoverian and Prussian allies, it sets out to tell the story from the point of view of Wellington and the British Army only. Making extensive use of eye-witness accounts, the book examines how the British Army, a pale shadow of that which had served in the Peninsula, fared against the French Army in what was the first and only encounter between the two great commanders of the age, Wellington and Napoleon.
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 Wellington s Campaigns Peninsula Waterloo 1808 15 written by Charles Walker Robinson and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 826 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Wellington s Smallest Victory written by Peter Hofschröer and published by . This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Peter Hofschröer tells the remarkable story of William Siborne, a Lieutenant in the British Army and expert in topography, who was commissioned to make a vast scale model of Waterloo, incorporating seventy-five thousand tin-lead soldiers and stretching over four hundred square feet. Buy why - at a time when celebrations of England's finest hour at Waterloo were so in vogue, and Wellington's fame was at its peak - did this exquisite model gain Siborne the enmity of the Duke and ultimately lead to his own ruin? If history is always written by the victor, never was this more true than Waterloo. Now, to correct a long injustice, Peter Hofschröer reveals the truth of one man's all-consuming and ruinous passion for historical accuracy.
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 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 Wellington s Belgian Allies 1815 written by Ronald Pawly and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-03-20 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The army commanded by the Duke of Wellington at Quatre-Bras and Waterloo included two infantry divisions and three cavalry brigades of the newly-unified Netherlands (or 'Dutch-Belgian') army. The part played by these troops in the two battles, under experienced officers many of whom had seen long service in Napoleon's campaigns, has often been unjustly dismissed by British commentators. The organisation, uniforms, and battle record of the Belgian units are explained here in detail by an experienced researcher in Continental archives, and illustrated by a specialist in the period, who actually lives at Waterloo.
Download or read book Wellington s Wars written by Huw J. Davies and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-26 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, lives on in popular memory as the "Invincible General," loved by his men, admired by his peers, formidable to his opponents. This incisive book revises such a portrait, offering an accurate--and controversial--new analysis of Wellington's remarkable military career. Unlike his nemesis Napoleon, Wellington was by no means a man of innate military talent, Huw J. Davies argues. Instead, the key to Wellington's military success was an exceptionally keen understanding of the relationship between politics and war.Drawing on extensive primary research, Davies discusses Wellington's military apprenticeship in India, where he learned through mistakes as well as successes how to plan campaigns, organize and use intelligence, and negotiate with allies. In India Wellington encountered the constant political machinations of indigenous powers, and it was there that he apprenticed in the crucial skill of balancing conflicting political priorities. In later campaigns and battles, including the Peninsular War and Waterloo, Wellington's genius for strategy, operations, and tactics emerged. For his success in the art of war, he came to rely on his art as a politician and tactician. This strikingly original book shows how Wellington made even unlikely victories possible--with a well-honed political brilliance that underpinned all of his military achievements.
