On this day in 1815

[UK_Widowmaker]

We Brits (with some welcome help from the Austrian's) put paid to the 'Little Corporal' and sent him packing.

 

He was an amazing chap Napoleon...but very naughty...so we had to smack his Botty...HUSSAH!

(here's a pic of our Chaps, giving the Cocky fellow a bunch of Fives)

Edited June 18, 2010 by UK_Widowmaker

[Slartibartfast]

Huzzah... and I am in Austria at present so thats a double Huzzah...

[UK_Widowmaker]

Huzzah, Huzzah indeed! (you on Holiday?)

[Slartibartfast]

No the company I work for thought it would be good for me to come out here and work in our Vienna office for 3 months... started out as a 1 week help out... one of the IT guys here then broke his leg and the other one quit so alls rosy for me as one of the very attractive translators here has invited me out for lunch next week to practice her English on me... and for me to practise my German on her... :drinks: tis a shade warm here as well...

[Capitaine Vengeur]

Really, I am always amazed to hear the Brits claim Waterloo as a British victory (at best, with some welcome help from other miscellaneous nations). Let's have a closer look to Wellington's Allied army' strengths: 25,000 British from the Isles; 16,000 Hannoverian Germans wearing the King's uniform; 10,000 other Germans from Brunswick or Nassau; 17,000 Dutch and Belgians. Don't forget the about 53,000 oncoming Prussian (not Austrian!) reinforcements that could reach the battlefield before dusk on the French right flank and decide the fate of the day. Add the fact the if Blücher, commander of the Prussian army, hadn't confirmed that he would keep on fighting in spite of having been defeated two days before, all the Iron Duke would have done would have certainly been a splendid Dunkirk-style re-embarkation, letting his Allies on the Continent take care for themselves. Add all that data, and Waterloo would rather be called a German victory. Well, at least, just call it a French disaster rather than a British triumph.

 

I usually prefer to remember another June 18, 1429, when Joan of Arc's captains blasted John Fastolf's English army at the battle of Patay (100 casualties to 2500, a reversed Agincourt). Perhaps am I some chauvinist?

 

"Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won." (Wellington on the battlefield of Waterloo)

[Von Paulus]

Really, I am always amazed to hear the Brits claim Waterloo as a British victory (at best, with some welcome help from other miscellaneous nations). Let's have a closer look to Wellington's Allied army' strengths: 25,000 British from the Isles; 16,000 Hannoverian Germans wearing the King's uniform; 10,000 other Germans from Brunswick or Nassau; 17,000 Dutch and Belgians. Don't forget the about 53,000 oncoming Prussian (not Austrian!) reinforcements that could reach the battlefield before dusk on the French right flank and decide the fate of the day. Add the fact the if Blücher, commander of the Prussian army, hadn't confirmed that he would keep on fighting in spite of having been defeated two days before, all the Iron Duke would have done would have certainly been a splendid Dunkirk-style re-embarkation, letting his Allies on the Continent take care for themselves. Add all that data, and Waterloo would rather be called a German victory. Well, at least, just call it a French disaster rather than a British triumph.

These are all truths indeed. And if you add bad Napoleon's judgments, the soft ground, Welligton's good choice of the battlefield, etc, all this elements together helped the British victory. But, Capitaine, in the end it was a full British victory. The empire who got more beneficts with the French's defeat was the British.

[UK_Widowmaker]

Then of Course, there was Agincourt, Crecy, Poitiers, Trafalgar....I could go on.......

 

The only time France have won, they had a Woman leading them!

Edited June 18, 2010 by UK_Widowmaker

[Slartibartfast]

Then of Course, there was Agincourt, Crecy, Poitiers, Trafalgar....I could go on.......

 

The only time France have won, they had a Woman leading them!

 

One could say thats a bit below the belt...

[Von Paulus]

Well, in the Batlle of Hastings the Normands were lead by Duke William. I think we can say that the Normands are French, right?

After that the British weren't never the same.

Edited June 18, 2010 by Von Paulus

[UK_Widowmaker]

Indeed .. And my ancestors were among them...So, I spose it all negates itself really

[+Typhoid]

1815 was certainly a year of decision. I'm more partial to January 8th though.....................

 

[+Gepard]

"I wish it would be night or the Prussians would come!" Wellington.

 

And the Prussians came.

[+streakeagle]

If you have a sense of humor and are not French, then:

 

Go to http://www.google.com

Type in the search window: French Victories

Click on the "I'm feeling lucky" button.

Follow the suggested "did you mean" link on the resulting page.

Edited June 19, 2010 by streakeagle

[shotdown]

First you let the russians do the dirty work and then you and your allies (who actually outnumber you at least two to one) claim victory against the remaining enemies . A repeating pattern

Capitaine Vengeur, at least people remember Napoleon and the french actually fought that war. Look a t us (just like US independence war, by the way).

Edited June 19, 2010 by shotdown

[Capitaine Vengeur]

Indeed Shotdown, the Spanish people (and Portuguese soldiers also) also made a large part of the dirty work for years (especially dirty work when speaking of guerillas and Zaragoza 1809), and they are nonetheless largely underestimated in the British accounts of the Peninsula War. I think that's a constant at the Iron Duke.

[macelena]

Indeed Shotdown, the Spanish people (and Portuguese soldiers also) also made a large part of the dirty work for years (especially dirty work when speaking of guerillas and Zaragoza 1809), and they are nonetheless largely underestimated in the British accounts of the Peninsula War. I think that's a constant at the Iron Duke.

 

For this and some other reasons, here Nelson as an enemy is far more respected than Wellington as a supposed ally.

Edited June 21, 2010 by macelena

[UK_Widowmaker]

And Nelson was nothing without Collingwood