Waterloo 1815: The British Army's Day of Destiny

A major reassessment of the battle from one of the world's leading authorities, to commemorate the 2015 bicentenary

The Battle of Waterloo is one of the most important moments in military history. This book seeks to not only tell the story of this great battle, but also to challenge conventional thinking about the opposing forces and the British victory. At noon on June 18, 1815, the might of the Imperial French Army under Napoleon faced the Anglo-Allied Army, commanded by the Duke of Wellington and bolstered by the Prussian Army. It has recently been argued that the British Army alone would never have been able to withstand Napoleon’s troops and that the glory for the victory should be laid at the feet of the Prussians, who swept into battle in the evening. Leading Napoleonic expert Gregory Fremont-Barnes is one of the first authors to challenge this stance, proving that the British Army alone was more than equal to the French, and that victory would ultimately have been theirs with or without the arrival of the Prussians. He uses numerous previously unpublished sources to examine both armies and give one of the most insightful accounts of the battle yet to be published.