How Napoleon Lost at Waterloo
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Date: 2022-12-29
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Comments and reviews: 20
Joseph
First of all let me be the first to agree that Napoleon made significant mistakes at Waterloo. But so did almost every general conducting any battle in the history of man. I would contend that his eventual loss at Waterloo were due more to his subordinates than to himself.
First of all Grouchy. His assignment was not simply to follow Blucher, it was to harry him. If so he failed miserably. When Blucher reached the fatal crossroads where he had to decide to continue retreating away from Wellington or turn westward and try to reunite the Allied armies. Given that Grouchy was no where near him and could not significantly apply force regardless of which move he made, he could turn to support Wellington without real regard for Grouchy's forces. Essentially he could then provide one side of a double envelopement against Napoleon.
As far as Napoleon is concerned, we should consider 2 factors.
Napoleon's health. Waterloo was the only battle he conducted where he did NOT conduct a ride over the potential battlefield. Due to his hemmerhoids he had to settle for looking at maps.
Secondly he had never faced the British line in action and had no real idea of it true effectiveness.
Wasting time and more importantly men, he should have ignored the various farmhouses. Small forces could have contained them inside the buildings and the majority of his forces could have used their mobility advantage to conduct flank attacks.
But Napoleon's greatest disability was Ney. The great marshall launched a great cavalry assault which succeeded beyond expectations. Unfortunately as is noted in the famous poetry rhyme, For want of a nail the battle was lost. The attack produced no real results because a) it was not coordinated with an infantry assault. British tactics demanded that infantry assemble in square to repel a cavalry attack, but had to reform in line to repel an infrantry attack.
Ney swept the British cavalry completely from the field. In doing so he literally captured the majority of the British artillery. Without spikes he could not put the artillery out of action, and without infantry he could not maintain possession of said artillery.
Finally in what may have been the decisive factor, Napoleon had never personally observed the British line in action. As a result he had no personal understanding of how effective it could be in action and what should be done to minimize its effectiveness.
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First of all let me be the first to agree that Napoleon made significant mistakes at Waterloo. But so did almost every general conducting any battle in the history of man. I would contend that his eventual loss at Waterloo were due more to his subordinates than to himself.
First of all Grouchy. His assignment was not simply to follow Blucher, it was to harry him. If so he failed miserably. When Blucher reached the fatal crossroads where he had to decide to continue retreating away from Wellington or turn westward and try to reunite the Allied armies. Given that Grouchy was no where near him and could not significantly apply force regardless of which move he made, he could turn to support Wellington without real regard for Grouchy's forces. Essentially he could then provide one side of a double envelopement against Napoleon.
As far as Napoleon is concerned, we should consider 2 factors.
Napoleon's health. Waterloo was the only battle he conducted where he did NOT conduct a ride over the potential battlefield. Due to his hemmerhoids he had to settle for looking at maps.
Secondly he had never faced the British line in action and had no real idea of it true effectiveness.
Wasting time and more importantly men, he should have ignored the various farmhouses. Small forces could have contained them inside the buildings and the majority of his forces could have used their mobility advantage to conduct flank attacks.
But Napoleon's greatest disability was Ney. The great marshall launched a great cavalry assault which succeeded beyond expectations. Unfortunately as is noted in the famous poetry rhyme, For want of a nail the battle was lost. The attack produced no real results because a) it was not coordinated with an infantry assault. British tactics demanded that infantry assemble in square to repel a cavalry attack, but had to reform in line to repel an infrantry attack.
Ney swept the British cavalry completely from the field. In doing so he literally captured the majority of the British artillery. Without spikes he could not put the artillery out of action, and without infantry he could not maintain possession of said artillery.
Finally in what may have been the decisive factor, Napoleon had never personally observed the British line in action. As a result he had no personal understanding of how effective it could be in action and what should be done to minimize its effectiveness.
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BigSmiler
You ask what other military commanders made blunders. I wish more Americans knew the major screw ups we did during the Normandy invasion. Yeah, we won but it took us six hours to take Omaha Beach while the British, Canadians, and Irish quickly succeeded. Our leaders told the Bombers to Wait (while they discussed whether the tanks which never arrived because Our Navy dumped our Tanks into the ocean. could pass through bomb craters) WITH THE ASSUMPTION THAT AIRPLANES COULD STOP while they waited. [ouch, complex sentence] Then our leaders commanded the bombers to Drop your bombs NOW--when those planes were now twenty miles from the battle. Our bombers didn't blast the German bunkers and our tanks never arrived to support the soldiers. The invasion started with Battleships targeting the guns on the bunkers--semi-effective, but took far too long for the leaders, realizing the aircraft hadn't bombed the bunkers, to have the battleships once again try to hit the bunkers -- which led to some of our own troops dying from that less accurate targeting. And there's more you can tell us.
-- AND there was the Italy invasion where our General Clark had our soldiers land on a beach free from German's resistance -- then had them dig in to a defensive position and WAIT for the German to arrive--up on the higher ground, so there could be a nice bloodbath. All instead of landing on the beach and advancing before the Germans got there.
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You ask what other military commanders made blunders. I wish more Americans knew the major screw ups we did during the Normandy invasion. Yeah, we won but it took us six hours to take Omaha Beach while the British, Canadians, and Irish quickly succeeded. Our leaders told the Bombers to Wait (while they discussed whether the tanks which never arrived because Our Navy dumped our Tanks into the ocean. could pass through bomb craters) WITH THE ASSUMPTION THAT AIRPLANES COULD STOP while they waited. [ouch, complex sentence] Then our leaders commanded the bombers to Drop your bombs NOW--when those planes were now twenty miles from the battle. Our bombers didn't blast the German bunkers and our tanks never arrived to support the soldiers. The invasion started with Battleships targeting the guns on the bunkers--semi-effective, but took far too long for the leaders, realizing the aircraft hadn't bombed the bunkers, to have the battleships once again try to hit the bunkers -- which led to some of our own troops dying from that less accurate targeting. And there's more you can tell us.
-- AND there was the Italy invasion where our General Clark had our soldiers land on a beach free from German's resistance -- then had them dig in to a defensive position and WAIT for the German to arrive--up on the higher ground, so there could be a nice bloodbath. All instead of landing on the beach and advancing before the Germans got there.
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SkipnScoop's
The War of 1812 was America's weirdest war.
James Madison started with 16 ships and less than 7000 men scattered across hell and back, spent much of the war getting his ass handed to him by Federalists and Republicans, bankrupted the country, and in the end accomplished basically nothing at all on paper, and still achieved every single thing he set out to achieve.
It would really be a great episode.
I recommend Donald Hickey's 1812 and Gordon Wood's Empire of Liberty (Chapter 18) for research
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The War of 1812 was America's weirdest war.
James Madison started with 16 ships and less than 7000 men scattered across hell and back, spent much of the war getting his ass handed to him by Federalists and Republicans, bankrupted the country, and in the end accomplished basically nothing at all on paper, and still achieved every single thing he set out to achieve.
It would really be a great episode.
I recommend Donald Hickey's 1812 and Gordon Wood's Empire of Liberty (Chapter 18) for research
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alitlweird
Died of stomach cancer? He was only 51 years old. Shame. Totally preventable.
He should have had a esophagogastroduodenoscopy (and colonoscopy) screening around age 45 or so. I would imagine that he would have been symptomatic for stomach cancer a few years earlier. Bloody stools, abdominal pain/discomfort. There would have been warning signs. Early detection is key for surviving gastrointestinal cancers. Very sad.
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Died of stomach cancer? He was only 51 years old. Shame. Totally preventable.
He should have had a esophagogastroduodenoscopy (and colonoscopy) screening around age 45 or so. I would imagine that he would have been symptomatic for stomach cancer a few years earlier. Bloody stools, abdominal pain/discomfort. There would have been warning signs. Early detection is key for surviving gastrointestinal cancers. Very sad.
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NITIN
First thing is that The greedy person Napoleon wanted to rule the whole world. And he became king of French and defeating other countries. He is so bad he kills so many people and who said that he is brave or he has muscle power. Mere Sath aa jaye khusti mein Fir pata lage. I dislike him very much he changes the system from democracy to monarch. I hate him so much Aur people's say that uske bahaduri ke kisee.
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First thing is that The greedy person Napoleon wanted to rule the whole world. And he became king of French and defeating other countries. He is so bad he kills so many people and who said that he is brave or he has muscle power. Mere Sath aa jaye khusti mein Fir pata lage. I dislike him very much he changes the system from democracy to monarch. I hate him so much Aur people's say that uske bahaduri ke kisee.
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mzs114
Tbf, during waterloo, if Grouchy had fixed or kept the purssians busy, then Napoleon could have focused on reinforcing Ney against the British. To face this conundrum play the game of 'Battle for wesnoth', you need to take risks and many times play safe. Ultimately plan for contingencies, but you don't have the enough resources all the time to have contingencies in place.
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Tbf, during waterloo, if Grouchy had fixed or kept the purssians busy, then Napoleon could have focused on reinforcing Ney against the British. To face this conundrum play the game of 'Battle for wesnoth', you need to take risks and many times play safe. Ultimately plan for contingencies, but you don't have the enough resources all the time to have contingencies in place.
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Stephen
All said & done. Napoleon by far one of the greatest (if not the greatest) Generals to have ever lived. It's weird to hear people still call him the little dictator even though he was average height. A writer spent his career calling him 'little' because of his own distaste for him. Either way such a fascinating historical figure.
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All said & done. Napoleon by far one of the greatest (if not the greatest) Generals to have ever lived. It's weird to hear people still call him the little dictator even though he was average height. A writer spent his career calling him 'little' because of his own distaste for him. Either way such a fascinating historical figure.
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pendragon
When you got to imitate his voice in a quote, that's when you dropped the soap in credit given the benefit of some doubt AND masculine standing.
Please, go back to comic books or color colorizing books, and stand up comedy in front of live audiences if ever growing a pair
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When you got to imitate his voice in a quote, that's when you dropped the soap in credit given the benefit of some doubt AND masculine standing.
Please, go back to comic books or color colorizing books, and stand up comedy in front of live audiences if ever growing a pair
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Tashi
hey get ur facts right, he didn't declare war all the time as u stated. He defended French new found system, thanks to that, we are not ruled by kings and queens today. lot of errors in this shitty documentary. Read the book by Dr. Robert Andrew.
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hey get ur facts right, he didn't declare war all the time as u stated. He defended French new found system, thanks to that, we are not ruled by kings and queens today. lot of errors in this shitty documentary. Read the book by Dr. Robert Andrew.
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Angelo
As someone who's from St Helena island myself his house where he lived and died is still there plus the grave where he was buried but one of his marshals came to St Helena took his body back to France where he was buried again.
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As someone who's from St Helena island myself his house where he lived and died is still there plus the grave where he was buried but one of his marshals came to St Helena took his body back to France where he was buried again.
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Javier
Napoleon was a god amongst men. I cringe every time Englishmen and Americans mock the man who had a Continent declare war against him. Let's remember what rights citizens had in the nations that opposed him.
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Napoleon was a god amongst men. I cringe every time Englishmen and Americans mock the man who had a Continent declare war against him. Let's remember what rights citizens had in the nations that opposed him.
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Darth
Even if Napoleon had won, he still would have had to face a united Russo-Austrian army that he could potentially defeat, and the fact the Congress of Vienna had declared him an outlaw.
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Even if Napoleon had won, he still would have had to face a united Russo-Austrian army that he could potentially defeat, and the fact the Congress of Vienna had declared him an outlaw.
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Athish
Why is the comment filled with French texts and crying emojis and can someone tell me what vive la means because after these two words they always include napoleon for some reason
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Why is the comment filled with French texts and crying emojis and can someone tell me what vive la means because after these two words they always include napoleon for some reason
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Bernie
Blucher was not at Waterloo, the British were waiting for him, Napoleon fell ill over night and failed to give his army the order to go against the British, this account id false.
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Blucher was not at Waterloo, the British were waiting for him, Napoleon fell ill over night and failed to give his army the order to go against the British, this account id false.
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Kevin
Im concerned about using a French accent in a mocking way in the narrative. I know its popular to mock the French in America but this childish behaviour just discredits your work
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Im concerned about using a French accent in a mocking way in the narrative. I know its popular to mock the French in America but this childish behaviour just discredits your work
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Jack
Funny that John Dickinson, the Founding Father of the US, also was a British cavalryman at Waterloo. Even funnier that he had been dead for 7 years at that point.
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Funny that John Dickinson, the Founding Father of the US, also was a British cavalryman at Waterloo. Even funnier that he had been dead for 7 years at that point.
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Kyle
Did he just say Napoleon started wars with almost every country in Europe? Lots of those countries declared war on Napoleon, and then he brought the thunder.
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Did he just say Napoleon started wars with almost every country in Europe? Lots of those countries declared war on Napoleon, and then he brought the thunder.
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Jimbobjim
This is filled with factual errors and contradictory statements. Nothing more than entertainment pretending to be history.
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This is filled with factual errors and contradictory statements. Nothing more than entertainment pretending to be history.
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Theo
Napoleon in the thumbnail looks like he wanted to do something productive that day, but all he did was looking at his phone.
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Napoleon in the thumbnail looks like he wanted to do something productive that day, but all he did was looking at his phone.
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Bernie
Was his piles sudden or did he have a history, piles could not come on so painful so suddenly, this had to be divine.
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Was his piles sudden or did he have a history, piles could not come on so painful so suddenly, this had to be divine.
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