Waterloo!

Wed, Jul 1st 2015 at 7:30 pm -

Friend: Jeff Roberts

VOT: Nick Radcliffe

Waterloo! - Clive with his co Warfare Society mate, Mike Holyoake!

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Waterloo! Clive Townsend

Clive had put a lot of time into this evenings talk and presentation. A fascinating subject he had got interested in after joining the Gloucester Warfare Society. We were made to feel even more involved in the Battle with film, pictures and video clips of the battle re-enacted. We were even supplied with maps of the battlefield and a wiki list of the opposing army leaders.

Considering it to be such a momentous event in British history, I was certain looking around the room that we all learnt so much more from Clive than the usual history lessons. Interesting “that like a book on the shelf history repeats itself” – from European leaders getting it wrong about Napoleon’s whereabouts and intentions, to Britain having 1 in 4 working age men employed by the state (as Army, Navy or other militia) and bankrupting ourselves to a state where money withdrawals were stopped from banks. All mixed in with poor roads and an absent French commander (his piles were playing up).

Clive informed us that under Wellington the British army (who were being helped by the Dutch, Prussians and Hanoverians) changed their formation to a two deep simple line across the whole of the 2.4 mile battlefront, against a French army relying on clusters. Combined with lying the troops down just behind the crest of the hill to disguise them, his previously used tactics routed the French. Once the cavalry had been reined in and the only really fortified farmstead at Hougoumont had been secured, it was all over. It was not an uncommon practice to remove teeth from battle victims; there were so many to choose from among the 41,000 French losses that this gave rise to the expression “Waterloo Teeth” (NB Thanks Peter Harris).

If you are looking for an interesting holiday read, especially if you are going to France, as I for one am certainly doing, you will be learning a lot more about a fascinating subject, as Clive has whetted my appetite.

(NB ABBA have got it wrong! Napoleon did not actually surrender at Waterloo)

Nick Radcliffe

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