Battle of Waterloo

Don`t tell us who wins and spoil it for us

My my.

I missed it...but was a great film I remember

Very good performance from Rod Steiger as Napoleon

Not one of Napoleon's finest battles. The weather went against him, he had to wait until the ground dried before starting,

so he could use his cannon.

His decision to dispatch 30,000 troops to keep Blucher off was poor, the general he entrusted it to was never up to it,
and failed miserably

He was also ill and absent from the field of battle for some hours when he was most needed.

I think Napoleon was a gifted man, but 'megalomania' got him in the end.
ended his life miserably on St Helena

still win some , lose some.

An enormous number of Frenchman died fighting for him.

But they always loved him for all that.

Is it a two-legged affair?

yes the return, next year

He was actually murdered Gerry by his captors ob St Helena. Slowly poisoned.

1.Lost almost an entire army in Russia
2.Abandoned what was left of another  army in Egypt.
3.Met his Waterloo at .....

Three catastrophic defeats all forgotten because
he duffed up the Austrians.

I believe you are right mightymac.....arsenic

We were terrified he might off St Helena and back to France

Yes but he did that so well at Austerlitz Sica Dan...it was a thing of beauty.
and he occupied most of Europe at one time or another.

He left his army in Egypt, because of Nelson's defeat of the French navy. He has little choice.

In Russia it was 'megalomania'...and he was warned of the Russian winter before his campaign, but chose to ignore it

He was also  a good very ruler of France, he was a very intelligent and gifted man in my opinion

but definitely megalomanic

I thought the boffins had changed their minds and decided Napoleon died of cancer, not arsenic poisoning.

Battle Of Waterloo between Millwall and Pompey was a good one

Yes you are right Ramruma, latest theories point to stomach cancer. Arsenic was found in his body, but latest

research suggests he may have been exposed to arsenic throughout his life from things like glues and dyes.

There is still some debate thought.

I cannot but think that Napoleon's physical condition would not have affected him at Waterloo.

Feeling ill, I doubt his mind was at his sharpest, he was also older and had not fought a battle for some years.

Also Wellington was an extremely capable commander himself. He had also pre selected Waterloo as a possible place for a battle

years before.

We must also acknowledge Blucher gave us a hand.

Is this thread about ABBA?

Germans are taught that die Schlacht bei Waterloo is one of the finest moments in their military history. Wellington had 25,000 Germans under his command, and it was the arrival of Bluecher's men from Berlin on the French flank which decided the battle.

One of Wellington's more desperate remarks, which is more famous in Germany than over here, was: "Night or the Prussians must come."

so that's what our German au pair was on about.

Waterloo (Russian: Ватерлоо) is a 1970 Soviet-Italian film directed by Sergei Bondarchuk and produced by Dino De Laurentiis. It depicts the story of the preliminary events and the Battle of Waterloo, and is famous for its lavish battle scenes.

It stars Rod Steiger as Napoleon Bonaparte and Christopher Plummer as the Duke of Wellington with a cameo by Orson Welles as Louis XVIII of France. Other stars include Jack Hawkins as General Thomas Picton, Virginia McKenna as the Duchess of Richmond and Dan O'Herlihy as Marshal Ney.

The film includes some 15,000 Soviet foot soldiers and 2,000 cavalrymen as extras—it was said that, during its making, director Sergei Bondarchuk was in command of the seventh largest army in the world. Fifty circus stunt riders were used to perform the dangerous horse falls. These numbers brought an epic quality to the battle scenes.

It failed to recoup costs at the box office ...... especially in France.

"Don`t tell us who wins and spoil it for us Crazy"


Abba won! They did have huge resources to call on, their records sold more than any other Swedish export in the mid seventies I believe this is how they financed their armed conflicts.

It failed to recoup costs at the box office ...... especially in France.
I wonder why

I thought it was very well made, deserved better

Wellington commanded a mixed force

of British, Prussian and Dutch ad Belgium troops

of the 67,000 troops under Wellington's command only 25,000 were British,
27,000 mixed German and 17,000 Dutch/Belgium..........all fought bravely

It was a credit to Wellington he held them together, very much a mixed bag

Blucher had about 50,000 Prussians...which of course are also German

did Germany exist then ?

Blucher!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5IWHt4OoNk

Germany was unified in 1871 under Bismark, but the greater part of Germany was Prussia

curious cat

The Prussians were always fine soldiers, but perhaps never had the commanders,
although they defeated the French in Franco-Prussian wars

It is after Bismark that we start to see the modern Germany which rapidly became the dominant
power in Europe

Leading to two World Wars and their current strong economic position

ps

They even beat us at football now

2001

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWxjjMwYuN0

Michael Owen hat-trick in Munich

other than this a sadly wasted era in English football when we had the players but not the manager.

The film was shown at 4 hours in length in the USSR.

Great film, made for big modern tellies - very impressive. Didn't know that Wellington was also Prime-Minister.

yes 1828 - 1830 Velasquez

He passed the Catholic emancipation law, giving Catholics same rights as Protestants
but opposed Jewish emancipation

He was a Tory, opposed electoral reform and against repeal of corn law

He never much liked the lower classes including his own soldiers

He was Anglo Irish himself, an exceptional military commander not quite as good PM

I think he was offered command of our forces in North America, in the war of 1812, but declined

He had enough of war after Waterloo
also he had already made his reputation, to fight in North America meant he had everything to lose nothing to gain

We sued for peace in that war, which saw the Americans repelled form Canada, but they defeated us
when we tried to take back America

Ta, ebulGery - looked at the troop numbers the other day...about 25,000 British troops according to Wiki...it doesn't seem like a big army compared to the French...does anyone know what the strength of the entire British army was?

It had been around a quarter of a million men at the height of the Peninsular War a couple of years earlier. It declined in numbers after that, with Napoleon exiled on Elba, but still would have been a healthy 6-figure number by Waterloo. But remember the British Army of the time was full of foreign regiments formed of allies and refugees from Napoleon's earlier conquests, particularly Germans and Dutchmen.

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If aka looks in, it`s Napoleon at the Saint Bernard Pass by Jacques Louis David

..... not that other guy

Other guy...When I was a kid I used to do portraits of the other guy for £25 in coloured pencils. Great way to make pocket money - sell tat to Rangers fans...as Mike Ashley well knows.

David had a large tumour on his face and suffered from stammering. BBC showed a great film about him in the mid 80s but it was never repeated.

I used to print and sell quality Polo Shirts for Old Firm fans with tri-colour or red hand flags on them.

£9.99P for Celtic fans

.... £17.50p for Rangers fans

I cannot but think that Napoleon's physical condition would not have affected him at Waterloo.

Feeling ill, I doubt his mind was at his sharpest, he was also older and had not fought a battle for some years.

He'd fought a battle the day before

Also unlikely Wellington turned down command of the 1812 war because Waterloo had made him sick of war as Waterloo was in 1815

apart from that some good points

The war of 1812 did not end in 1812..that is when it started

You probably caught me bluffing, he was offered command in America, in may have been before Waterloo

I regarded the loss of America as a great tragedy for us

But what would we have done with all these Yanks? 

Waterloo was a desperate gamble by Napoleon. He was always likely to lose as he was fighting the British,the Prussians,the Austrians,the Russians and a few others. A gamble he had to take however as his backing in France was by then largely limited to the army. He needed another glorious victory like Austerlitz.

Interesting that he and Blucher have footwear connections. Blucher commissioned (some say designed)a shoe made of one piece of leather for his troops, we call it a Derby the yanks call it a Gibson it's the most widely worn piece of footwear ever......... God I've got some useless info spinning around my empty skull.

Wellie had what has to be the coolest address ever Number 1 London. Apsley house at Hyde Park Corner,. ...end of useless info.

very true Salmon Spray

Napoleon was addicted to power, he could not give it up.

I still admire Napoleon, despite the appalling death tolls from his wars, he was a great commander.

Wellington is regarded as one of the great defensive commanders, he hid his troops expertly, a master of reading
the land, great attention to detail, he introduced line rather than column tactics better suited to defence.

Yet strangely we still rate him below Marlborough as our greatest soldier(Churchill's ancestor)

I liked that info boxingthefox

Wellington won.  That's it.  Good Prussian input.  Do you claim your piles disadvantaged you?  Of course you do, because you've been utterly corrupted by slimy lawyers.