WATERLOO: The Truth At Last: Why Napoleon Lost the Great Battle

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The genesis of this book started in Oct 2016 when the author found still sealed records from 1816 and received permission to break them to read the roughly 200 accounts within.

These contents challenge some widely held views: The start of the battle was delayed because of the state of the ground - not so. Marshal Ney destroyed the French cavalry in his reckless charges against the Allied infantry squares - wrong. The stubborn defense of Hougoumont, the key to Wellington's victory, where a plucky little garrison of British Guards held the farmhouse against the overwhelming force of Jerome Bonaparte's division and the rest of II Corps - not true. Did the Union Brigade really destroy d'Erlon's Corps, did the Scots Greys actually attack a massed French battery, did La Haie Sainte hold out until late in the afternoon? Most significantly of all is the revelation of exactly how, and why, Napoleon was defeated.