All language subtitles for Napoleonic-Wars-Battle-of-Waterloo-1815

April 1814.

For ten years, one man has dominated Europe:
Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French.

Under his military genius, France conquered
an empire that spanned the continent. But

finally, he has been defeated by a grand coalition
of his enemies.

Napoleon is forced to abdicate, and exiled
to the tiny island of Elba, while the Bourbon

monarchy is restored to France in the corpulent
form of Louis XVIII.

But rumours soon reach Napoleon that France
would welcome his return the French people

have little love for the monarchy or its hangers-on,
the very people whose excesses led to the

French Revolution 25 years before.

He also learns that at the Congress of Vienna,
his enemies are locked in bitter dispute over

the future of Europe.

Napoleon decides to act. After just ten months
in exile, he returns to France, where the

troops sent to arrest him rally to his cause
instead. Most of France soon follows suit.

But in Vienna, the Coalition immediately put
their differences to one side. They declare

Napoleon an outlaw, and mobilise their forces
for war.

Napoleon knows he must act boldly, before
the Coalition launches a co-ordinated invasion

of France. He counts on winning a quick victory,
and then negotiating peace from a position

of strength.

He targets the Coalition armies within easiest
reach: Prince Bl�cher's Prussian army and

the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-Allied army,
both camped in Belgium.

Napoleon's force is a match for either Coalition
army on its own, but he'll be heavily outnumbered

if they're able to join forces. So he must
keep them apart, and defeat each in turn.

Napoleon's army crosses the frontier near
Charleroi, intending to drive a wedge between

the two Coalition armies.

The next day, Napoleon sends his Left Wing
under Marshal Ney to take the crossroads at

Quatre Bras. There Ney clashes with Wellington's
army, still scrambling into position. The

Allied troops fight off a series of French
attacks, and just manage to hold their ground.

The same day, Napoleon attacks Blucher's Prussian
army with his main force, near the village

of Ligny. The battle is a brutal slugging
match, but the French emerge triumphant.

The 72 year-old Blucher leads a calvary charge
in person, and has his horse killed under

him. He only just escapes capture.

The Prussian army retreats, but it is not
broken.

Napoleon sends his Right Wing under Marshal
Grouchy to keep them on the run, and turns

his own attention to Wellington's army.

The British general doesn't receive news of
Blucher's defeat until the next morning, at

which point he orders a retreat, through heavy
summer showers, to a position 8 miles south

of Brussels, near the village of Waterloo.

There, he receives a promise from Blucher
that the Prussians will march to his aid the

next morning, so Wellington decides to stand
and fight.

Wellington has chosen his battlefield with
care. His troops are behind a gentle ridge,

which will give them some shelter from French
cannon fire. His right flank is anchored on

the farmhouse of Hougoumont, his centre on
the farm of La Haye Sainte, and his left on

the farm of Papelotte. All three are fortified
and garrisoned with elite troops.

Wellington's men need every advantage they
can get. The opposing armies are roughly equal

in size, but his is a ragtag mix of British,
Dutch and German troops, many of whom have

never seen combat before.

They will have to hold off Napoleon's army
of veterans until Prussian reinforcements

arrive, or the battle and probably the war
will be lost.

Sunday dawns bright and fair.

Napoleon has ordered Marshal Grouchy to pursue
the Prussians and keep them busy, while he

defeats Wellington's army at Waterloo, and
opens the road to Brussels.

But it's Grouchy who gets pinned down, fighting
the Prussian rearguard at Wavre: the main

Prussian force eludes him, and is already
marching to Wellington's aid.

At Waterloo, Napoleon delays his attack, waiting
for the ground to dry which will make movement

easier for his troops. But the lost hours
will later prove costly.

The battle begins around 11am, when Napoleon
orders a feint against Wellington's right

flank, at Hougoumont. He hopes Wellington
will commit his reserves here, drawing them

away from the centre where the main blow will
fall. But Hougoumont's British and German

defenders cling on desperately throughout
the day. At one point the French force their

way through the main gate, but its shut behind
them and the intruders are all killed. Wellington

later calls it the decisive moment of the
battle.

Around noon, 80 French cannon open fire against
the main Allied line. Most of Wellington's

men are out of sight on the reverse slope,
but many cannonballs still find their mark,

smashing bloody holes in the Allied ranks.

At 1.30pm, Napoleon sends in his infantry.
The French columns are met by disciplined

musket fire, and then charged by British heavy
cavalry.

The French attack disintegrates, as Napoleon's
men try to save themselves from the crushing

hooves and flashing sabres. Scores of Frenchmen
are ridden down, and two of their famous Eagle

standards are captured.

But the British cavalry, exhilarated by success,
charge too far. They become scattered, their

horses blown. At their most vulnerable, they're
counter-charged by French cavalry and suffer

terrible losses. Among the dead, Major General
Sir William Ponsonby, commander of the Union

Brigade.

Around 4pm, Marshal Ney thinks he sees the
Allies begin to retreat, and leads a mass

cavalry charge to drive home the advantage.
But Ney is wrong. The Allied infantry are

ready, formed in hollow squares with bayonets
fixed. The French cavalry can't break into

these impregnable formations; they can only
circle impotently, until they retreat or are

shot from the saddle.

Ney's failure to support this attack with
either infantry or artillery is a serious

blunder.

Meanwhile Blucher's Prussians have begun to
arrive: they capture the village of Plancenoit,

threatening Napoleon's flank, and forcing
him to send reserves to recapture it.

Around 6pm French infantry finally capture
the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte in the centre

of the battlefield.

It allows the French to bring forward artillery
and blast the Allied squares from close range.

They can't miss the closely-packed formations,
and casualties quickly mount. It begins to

seem that if Wellington's army doesn't retreat,
it will be killed where it stands.

But the situation for Napoleon is also desperate.
The Prussians are arriving in force. And he's

running out of men to throw against Wellington's
army. So he turns to his ultimate reserve,

the elite Imperial Guard the most feared troops
in Europe.

At 7.30pm, 3,000 of these battle-hardened
veterans march past their Emperor and across

the corpse-strewn battlefield towards the
Allied centre. Wellington's redcoats rise

to meet them, and pour devastating volleys
of musket fire into their ranks.

When the Allies fix bayonets and prepare to
charge, the Imperial Guard wavers, and then

retreats.

Wellington, sensing victory, orders a general
advance.

About the same time, the Prussians recapture
Plancenoit.

News of the Imperial Guard's defeat, and rumours
of encirclement by the Prussians, sweep through

the French ranks. Panic breaks out, and the
French army flees the battlefield.

Only Napoleon's Old Guard maintain their discipline,
mounting a heroic but doomed rearguard action.

Napoleon himself is forced to abandon his
carriage, and barely escapes the pursuing

Prussian cavalry.

The battle is won. The Duke of Wellington
and Prince Blucher meet and congratulate each

other outside Napoleon's former headquarters,
an inn called La Belle Alliance. Blucher thinks

it's the perfect name for their shared victory
but Wellington prefers the more English-sounding

'Waterloo', where he has his own headquarters.

The Battle of Waterloo was, in the words of
the Duke of Wellington, 'a damned near run

thing'. It was also one of the bloodiest battles
of the age. Around 50,000 men were killed

or wounded: 23,000 Coalition casualties, 27,000
French. Due to an appalling shortage of medical

care, many of the wounded were left lying
on the battlefield for several days.

Napoleon was utterly defeated. Unable to raise
another army, he surrendered to the British.

They transported him to a second exile, on
the tiny, remote Atlantic island of Saint

Helena. This time there was no escape. He
died there six years later.

Waterloo marked the beginning of a period
of relative peace in Europe - there were no

wars between the great powers for 40 years.
And the British would not fight on the Continent

for another hundred years, until the summer
of 1914.

Forty years after the battle, a pioneer in
the new art of photography captured these

remarkable images. They are veterans of Napoleon's
armies, by then all old men in their seventies

and eighties...

Among them, Sergeant Tania, of the Imperial
Guard.

Moret, of the 2nd Regiment of Hussars.

And Verline, of the 2nd Guard Lancers.

These faces are a tantalising link to the
dramatic events that shaped the course of

history two centuries ago.