By Brendan Simms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The true story, told minute by minute, of the soldiers who defeated Napoleon<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Europe had been at war for over twenty years. After a short respite in exile, Napoleon<\/a> had returned to France and threatened another generation of fighting across the devastated and exhausted continent. At a small Belgian village, the Battle of Waterloo<\/a> would take place and two large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the future of Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unknown either to Napoleon<\/a> or Wellington<\/a> the battle would be decided by a small, ordinary group of British and German troops given the task of defending the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte<\/a>. This book tells their extraordinary story, brilliantly recapturing the fear, chaos and chanciness of battle and using previously untapped eye-witness reports. Through determination, cunning and fighting spirit, some four hundred soldiers held off many thousands of French and changed the course of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although a very short read (160) pages, it’s packed with detail about a very specific part of the Battle of Waterloo<\/a>, which is the fighting in and around La Haye Sainte<\/a>, farmhouse which was adjacent to the Brussels to Charleroi road where, following a battle at Quatre Bras<\/a>, the combined British, Dutch, Belgian, German and Prussian forces fought Napoleon<\/a> and the French army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whilst Waterloo<\/a> was a big battle involving thousands, the book focuses on on a small band of light infantry made up of the 95th Rifles<\/a> (think Sharpe) and the King’s German Legion<\/a> that hold off thousands of French attackers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The book suggests that the farmhouse was pivotal in many ways to the successful outcome and goes minute by minute through events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s plenty of books on the subject but there’s also a great movie:<\/p>\n\n\n\n