The Battle of Waterloo: Europe in the Balance (17 page)

The French attack on La Haye Sainte in the early evening. The farmhouse is on the left, the sandpit on the right. The outbuildings are wreathed in smoke and barely visible. Wellington’s position on the hill behind has been brought forward by the artist, in reality he was several hundred yards away.

The Hanoverians in La Haye Sainte saw three divisions marching against them, preceded by a heavy artillery barrage that smashed holes in the walls. Baring’s main problem, however, was a lack of ammunition. A man was sent running up the slope to Baring’s senior, General Baron Ompteda. But after all the fighting on the ridge, Ompteda was short of ammunition himself. He sent off for ammunition from the rear, but for whatever reason it never arrived.

After an hour Baring’s Hanoverians ran out of ammunition. They fell back on their bayonets, while some men threw stones and tiles down on the French from the roof. After attempting a last stand in the farmhouse, Baring and his surviving men retreated back up the slope to join Ompteda. Many of Baring’s men were unfit for further duty due to wounds and were sent off to the medical teams working in the rear. Baring did a quick count. Of the 400 men he had had at dawn, only 42 now stood beside him.

The farmhouse had fallen. French artillery was brought up fire up at Wellington’s centre at close range, while a final assault to smash its way to Brussels was drawn up.

Wellington redeploys his troops

These moves made it clear to Wellington that Napoleon was once again going to try to penetrate his centre. He had expected Napoleon to use his skills at manoeuvring, but this had not happened. Wellington decided to take the risk of weakening his flanks to strengthen his centre. The 3rd Dutch Division had been placed more than 1.5 km to the west to keep open Wellington’s line of retreat. Those 6,000 men were now moved to the centre, as were the 2,000 light cavalry of Vivian and Vandeleur who had been out on the far left.

An immediate result of these changes came at the eastern end of the battlefield. Count Durutte, commanding the 4th Division of d’Erlon’s corps, had not been heavily engaged so far – having acted as a flank guard during the great advance earlier. Now he saw the movement to the British centre and took the opportunity to attack Papelotte overlooking the dip of the Smohain stream. Sending forward infantry under cover of an artillery barrage, Durutte captured Papelotte without much difficulty and began barricading the buildings.

Further south, Lobau was holding his own. He was, however, losing men and watched with some alarm as more Prussians came marching out of the woods. These were the lead units of Pirch’s II Corps, which meant that Lobau was now seriously outnumbered. He sent to Napoleon, announcing he could not hold Plancenoit much longer. Napoleon responded at 6.40pm by sending to Plancenoit his Young Guard. This was the most junior division in the Imperial Guard, but it still contained 4,200 veterans. The arrival of the Young Guard stabilized the position and pushed the Prussians back.

At La Haye Sainte, the advanced French artillery and infantry were having a devastating effect on the centre of Wellington’s position. Ney had brought up several regiments of heavy cavalry, who forced the defenders to form square. Into these dense formations the French gunners were pouring a torrent of fire. The Inniskillings were down to 218 men, having started the day with 700 while the 1st Nassau Regiment had lost 70 per cent of their men while the 5th Netherlanders had lost more than 90 per cent of its men and its colours. The surviving officers of the British 30th Foot were so worried that they cut their regimental colours from their poles, handed them to a sergeant and told him to head to the rear, find a horse and be ready to flee to the safety of the Royal Navy.

Ney, watching these events unfold, decided that the time had come to crush Wellington. He sent a message to Napoleon requesting extra men with which to win the battle. Ney’s message arrived just after Napoleon learned that his Young Guard had been pushed out of Plancenoit by new Prussian reinforcements. Prussian artillery were beginning to send occasional balls over the main road, threatening Napoleon’s line of retreat.

Napoleon snapped back at Ney’s messenger ‘Men? Where does he expect me to get them? Does he think I can make them?’

Old Guard retake Plancenoit

Instead, Napoleon ordered two battalions of his Old Guard – the elite of the elite – to recapture Plancenoit. Napoleon ordered that his Guard should not fire their muskets but must use their bayonets. He fully understood the morale effect that these older veterans in their towering bearskins hats and elaborate uniforms would have on the Prussians. The Old Guard was composed only of men over the age of 35 who had 10 years’ experience and had fought in at least three battles. They were trained in advanced fighting techniques and given the very finest equipment. Moreover, the Guard battalions each had 200 more men than a normal battalion.

The Old Guard did not disappoint. They deployed into line and marched on Plancenoit with their drums beating. After some desultory resistance, the Prussians turned and fled. In all 14 Prussian battalions fled in front of two from the Old Guard, tumbling back in confusion. Spurred on by this success, the Young Guard charged forward and completed the rout of the Prussians. Bülow and Pirch were back where they had started.

With his right flank and line of retreat now secure, Napoleon could pay attention to Wellington again. At about 7.15pm Napoleon received two messages. The first came from Lobau. He had seen columns of men to the south-east and identified them as being Grouchy’s French. With Grouchy attacking Blücher’s rear the Prussians would be unable to interfere any further. The second was brought by Ney himself who emphasized the shattered state of Wellington’s centre.

Fresh French assault

Newly galvanized, Napoleon threw himself into the final destruction of Wellington’s army. He allocated Ney five battalions of the Old and Middle Guard, with orders to attack in column up the slope to the left of La Haye Sainte, where the defences were seen to be weakest. Accompanying them were the horse artillery of the Guard. Napoleon sent orders to Reille that he was to send any of his men not committed at Hougoumont to act as a flank guard on the Guard’s left. D’Erlon was to attack up the slope to the right of La Haye Sainte. Heavy cavalry were to bring up the rear, ready to charge forward to exploit the gap that was going to be opened up by the Guard infantry.

The grand battery again roared out its hail of balls and shell to deluge the survivors on Wellington’s ridge with a new onslaught of death. Under cover of the cannon fire, the Guard advanced with drums beating and flags waving. On battlefields across Europe the advance of the Guard had heralded inevitable victory. Enemies had fled at the mere sight of the bearskins on the march. Morale in the French army soared and there was a general movement forward.

Wellington, however, had not been idle. He had seen the smoke over Plancenoit and guessed it meant that Blücher was arriving. Leaving only a few Dutch troops to watch the French at Papelotte, Wellington abandoned his left and drew those troops to his centre. The Brunswickers were similarly moved from the right to the centre.

Senior commanders were not immune: the Prince of Orange was hurt, de Lancey was mortally wounded and Wellington’s staff was reduced to just a single officer – Captain Shaw.

As the five battalions of the Middle Guard marched forward, Napoleon rode up to salute them as they passed. The three battalions of the Old Guard stayed beside their emperor to act as a mobile reserve while Ney rode at the head of the attacking columns.

Ney divided his force into two. The 1/3rd and 4th Grenadiers went straight up the hill just west of La Haye Sainte, while the 2/3rd Chasseurs and both battalions of the 4th Chasseurs inclined slightly to the west so that a gap opened up between the two columns. Halfway up the slope, Ney’s horse was shot dead so the marshal continued on foot.

The first column reached the crest of the ridge where they met what was left of the British 30th, 33rd, 69th and 73rd infantry regiments. Those redcoats were being pushed back when out of the smoke there came galloping the horse artillery of Chassé’s Dutch 3rd Division. They unlimbered and poured into the 1/3rd Grenadiers a salvo of deadly canister shot at almost point blank range. More than 100 French went down in that first blast, and more when the second salvo was fired.

British and Dutch resistance

Hidden behind the artillery smoke the 6,000 infantry of the Dutch 3rd Division had formed up in several dense columns, then fixed bayonets. Now they came storming out of the smoke, screaming defiance and plunged into the decimated ranks of the 1/3rd Grenadiers – and caught the 4th Grenadiers as they were deploying to meet them. The 1/3rd Grenadiers fell back in disorder, while the 4th Grenadiers also fell back but in good order, managing to hold the Dutch off.

Meanwhile the other column of the Guard had also crested the ridge. The 2/3rd Chasseurs came up first and saw ahead of them nothing but empty fields with some cavalry wheeling in the distance. Wellington, who was nearby on his horse, shouted ‘Up, Guards and at them,’ at which the British Foot Guards sprang to their feet and poured a devastating volley into the Chasseurs. The guards had been lying down among the standing rye to try to avoid the French cannon fire. Their sudden appearance, as much as their musketry, halted the French.

Seeing the French hesitate, the British guards cheered, then charged with the bayonet. The 2/3rd Chasseurs fell back in some disorder, with the British Guards after them. As the two battalions of the 4th Chasseurs came up the British Guards fell back in disorder, their light companies skirmishing in an effort to cover their withdrawal. The 4th Chasseurs now crested the ridge, firing a volley to cut down the Dutch gunners who had done so much damage to the Grenadiers, while firing steadily at the retreating British Guards.

At this point John Colborne – in command of the British 52nd Light Infantry, to the right of the British guards – realized that there were no French units in front of his men. Without orders he marched his regiment down the slope then wheeled to the left to bring his men in line facing the left flank of the 4th Chasseurs. It was now that the professional training of the British infantry proved crucial. Able to fire four volleys a minute, compared to the two or three of other armies, the British could put down a massive volume of fire. Colborne now poured this awesome fire into the flank of the Chasseurs.

The Prince of Orange is wounded while a British dragoon carries a captured French standard past him. Despite the heroic stance of the Prince in this picture, the impact of the bullet in his left shoulder actually threw him from his horse and dumped him on his back in the mud.

Recognizing a crucial moment when he saw one, Wellington spurred over. ‘Go on, Colborne,’ he shouted. ‘They won’t stand.’

Colborne’s men fixed bayonets and charged as a regiment of Hanoverians came up on their right to threaten the rear of the Chasseurs. With that, the Chasseurs turned and retreated, pursued down the slope by Colborne, the Hanoverians and the British guards.

Prussians confer

Meanwhile, Müffling had been called to the extreme left flank beyond Papelotte, where the Dutch 28th Foot was in difficulties. This regiment was still dressed in the blue jackets and wide-topped shakos they had worn when in French service. Some Prussian artillery had, perhaps understandably, thought that they were French – and opened fire. Müffling went galloping over to order the Prussians to cease fire.

Having restored order, Müffling met Reiche, chief of staff to Zeiten and the Prussian I Corps. Muffling explained the dire situation in Wellington’s centre with the Imperial Guard advancing, and urged Reiche to march directly west to reinforce Wellington. Reiche promised to do so, at which Müffling rode off to report to Wellington. Reiche sent an order to General Steinmetz, who commanded the lead units of I Corps, to halt until the rest of the corps came up and then himself went to find Zieten who was in the rear hurrying his slower units.