History Buffs: Waterloo

Hello and welcome

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lovers, my name is Nick Hodges and I may seem a bit hipster to you for saying this, but they don't do it like they used to. Of course, I'm talking about Waterloo if you're like me and you're getting tired of this oversaturation of CGI in our Hollywood movies, so I have a movie for you. Waterloo is without a doubt one of the best historical war movies you will ever see in your life. May 2, 1970 from Soviet director Sergei Bondarchuk this is an extremely faithful screen adaptation of the Battle of Waterloo and when I say faithful I mean exactly that, as if taken from the pages of

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and presented on the screen, are the real confrontations , the formations, cavalry charges and tactics used by the Duke of This is a Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte film that even the most die-hard history buff can enjoy and the amount of work that went into it is nothing short of amazing.

Filmed entirely in Ukraine, the filmmakers used 16,000 Soviet Red Army soldiers as background extras. That means every soldier you see on screen at any given moment is a real person. This is the largest and most accurately recreated battle you will ever see from the Napoleonic era. This is Waterloo after 20 years of almost constant war. The first French. The Empire was on its last stages in March 1814, the combined armies of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia had invaded France and were almost at the gates of Paris and yet only two years before Napoleon's Empire Bonaparte was at his peak, almost all of Western Europe was under his total dominion while he ruled the lives of our sixty million subjects, not since the days of the Roman Empire had such a thing been achieved at any time.

Napoleon's military genius had crushed the most powerful nations in Europe, the only one that continued. The one who challenged him was Great Britain and his original plans to invade the stubborn island nation were scrapped after a spectacular defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar with much of his Navy destroyed, the French Emperor decided to go after his bitter rival with a very different strategy. . Arms Economy Napoleon introduced the highly unpopular Continental System, which was a foreign policy that prohibited all conquered nations and allies of France from trading with Britain. The idea behind this was that Britain would eventually sue for peace or suffer economic collapse and be weak. enough to be invaded later, however, this embargo proved more damaging to the economies of France and her allies in comparison, it was largely ineffective against British trade.

The reason for this was that trade still entered the continent once also through Spain. and Portugal, which of course helped spark the Peninsular War and by 1810 Russia had also reopened trade with Britain. This actor defines as Napoleon's main incentive to commit the most serious mistake of his career, against the advice of his friends and loved ones, he declared war. about Russia do not go to Russia of your glory from Portugal to Poland almost all of Europe is yours you govern the destiny of the 60 million men on June 24, 1812 Napoleon's Grand Army invaded Russia with more than 600,000 men apart from some battles For the French, the Russian army focused on trying and applying scorched earth tactics, burning crops, towns and villages, denying Napoleon's army the ability to live off the land and rely solely on their overextended supply line as the French were increasingly attracted.

In Russia, they finally caught up with the Russian army at Borodino, a small town 70 miles from Moscow. This was to be the largest and bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic War so far. Russian resistance was fierce and Napoleon relied heavily on his usual brilliant military strategy. As much as they funneled more and more French soldiers into the massacre, both sides were suffering massive casualties until finally the retreating Russian army was once again able to slip into the night, although Napoleon had taken Borodino, he had achieved the decisive victory he needed. desperately afterwards. After the battle, the Grand Army advanced to the city of Moscow, but found it almost completely abandoned and the streets eerily quiet.

Later that night as Polian and his army rested after months of marches and fierce fighting, hundreds of arsonists set alight. fire to the city, not even the holy capital was exempt from the tsar's scorched earth policy; Two thirds of the city would burn to the ground, thus proving Napoleon, but the Russians would never surrender and a decisive victory was not in sight, the great army was forced to retreat and began the long march back to France. , things only went from bad to worse when the Russian winter hit, temperatures fell well below freezing and the French died by the thousands as they froze and starved.

Of the 600,000 men who entered Russia, only 28,000 returned. This was to be the beginning of the end of Napoleon's Empire, as Prussia and Austria would declare war once again. Napoleon would fight a failed defensive campaign for the next two years until finally the armies of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia were now on French soil and this is where the film begins where the once powerful Grand Army was virtually destroyed. Napoleon's generals declared that the situation was hopeless and that the only option now was to abdicate the throne. We are defeated, sir, but we followed him for 20 years.

A path of glory has been made through Europe we cannot even say the suburbs of Paris the Austrians there in Versailles a context they are watering the horses in it you can hear the pressure in Canada more map there are four nations four armies for France against us abdicate your enemies will allow you to retreat to the island of elba with a personal guard of a thousand men he is an honorable exiled father napoleon reluctantly signed the treaty renouncing the throne in a heartfelt ceremony napoleon chose his most loyal soldiers from the old guard and said goodbye to the rest of the soldiers of my old guard, after 20 years, I have come to say goodbye to fallen France, so remember me, although I love you all, I cannot hug you all and so, in May 1814, the Emperor of France set out on a British warship and became Emperor of a small island in the Mediterranean to live the rest of his life in isolation, this really should have been the end of his story, but for one of the fates most dramatic Swiss in history, Napoleon had one more fight left, this would take place in In a field near Waterloo, when Napoleon abdicated the throne, the Allied Coalition wasted no time in restoring the old French monarchy, placing Louis XVIII as king At first, the French people welcomed the peace, as they were frankly fed up with Napoleon's endless wars, but eventually King Louis became extremely unpopular with many of the changes he had made, such as demobilizing the army, increasing taxes. to help solve France's poor economy and the royalists were threatened with rescinding many of the political reforms made during the revolution, but in quite possibly the greatest comeback of all time on February 26, 1815 Napoleon and his personal guard fled from Elba and sailed to France.

He had correctly calculated that his return would be immediately welcomed and supported by the French people once again. King Louie immediately ordered Field Marshal Ney to stop Napoleon on his march towards Paris on March 14. Field Marshal Neigh's regiment engaged Napoleon and his personal guard just as the fighting was about to begin. Napoleon ordered his men to lower their arms and something incredible happened if you want to kill your emperor. Here I am. Wow, that's amazing! I know, but this is exactly what happened and not just this time, when King Louie found out that Marshal Ney and his men had abandoned him, he would send more troops and the exact same thing would happen over and over again.

Napoleon's numbers increased from a few regiments to an entire regiment. army, all of them marching towards Paris, King Louie finally realized at the end that it probably wasn't a good idea to stay and fled the country. Napoleon's gamble had paid off and he had retaken France, all without firing a single shot, the people welcomed him. his old Emperor with open arms when the news reached the rest of Europe Britain's old allies Austria Prussia and Russia were initially stunned Napoleon sent letters to each and every one of them asking for peace they of course rejected it because they knew that their pony was just stalling for time and he just wasn't ready to fight yet, so instead they sent him their polite reply.

Well, they have. They declared me an enemy of humanity. All of Europe has declared war on me, not on France, but on me. They dignify us. By making your nation not as tough as you have to be for an entire continent to declare war on you, Napoleon knew he had little time before the old allies mobilized a new coalition against him anyway, while they only had They organize their armies together. Napoleon had to practically build one from scratch and in three months he had gathered almost 200,000 men; However, the allies he would face had gathered over half a million who were preparing to attack France from multiple directions, so Napoleon, being Napoleon, decided that the best defense was a Good Offense, he hopes that if he could face each allied army individually before moving on to the next, then their request for peace would have to be accepted and so, on June 15, 1815, Napoleon crossed the Belgian border with almost one hundred and thirty thousand.

The men to reach the Allied armies near Brussels were the Prussians led by Marshal Blucher and the Anglo allied army led by Sir Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon had to make sure that they did not band together and overwhelm him with their greater numbers at first. The divide and conquer strategy seemed to be working on June 16th she crushed a small Prussian force sending them into a complete retreat she takes 30,000 minutes 30,000 men a third of my army you take them and chase them you understand you chase Blucher don't let them regroup, do not let them consolidate and, above all, do not let them meet the Prussian army apparently out of the way that Napoleon then focused and reached the British allies on June 17.

Wellington had put his army on top. of a Ridgeline overlooking a valley near the village of Waterloo, in the valley were the two more googa chateaus and LaHaye saw that these two fortified farms would be occupied by British and Allied snipers, their objective was to delay any French advance of the main army now With these two defensive positions, the ridge line provided a natural shelter from French artillery fire, all Wellington had to do was hold his ground and wait for the Prussians, as the French army had taken up position during the night. . Wellington largely expected the battle to begin at dawn.

Surprise, although the French made no such move as the hours began to lengthen, the reason for this was that the heavy rain the previous night had left the ground too muddy to get the guns into position. Napoleon had no choice but to wait until the ground dried, which cost him valuable time the longer he waited the more time Wellington had to receive reinforcements when the battle finally began it was already after 11:00 the French army began to attack ogre ma to Wellington's right flank this was just a faint although Napoleon expected Wellington to do so. send their reserves for support and in the process we can reach their center where the main attack was coming from, but Wellington had predicted this move as he had studied many of Napoleon's victories in the past and was not going to fall into the trap that the teacher seems to intend. and what he does will be as different as the White Knight and the Black Bishop, we quickly move ninety-five down, sir.

I have no intention of running like a wet chicken. However, the mole saw some of the most intense and continuous fighting throughout the battle. the Allied garrison did not relent despite being greatly outnumbered when a Polian saw that Wellington had not taken the bait, he ordered an all-out artillery bombardment after softening them up and sent his infantry to crush the Allied center despite having been heavily bombarded. before. The British line was able to hold out and inflict heavy casualties on the marching French columns as the French retreated. The British heavy cavalry charged after them, but in the heat of battle, the Gray Scots had charged too much and were hit by French cannon fire before being destroyed.

They themselves counterattacked by the French cavalry were able to return to the ridge had sufferedTerribly at this point thousands of lives had already been lost but neither side had gained ground while Marshall was growing up she was still chasing the Prussians my god lord the kanima calling us a lot at the sound of weapons we have a third of the army our duties not to presume to teach me my duty General Gerard my orders from the Emperor were precise to keep my sword in Booker's back what grew she had not What I still realized was that her force had been chasing the Prussian rearguard and the rest of the army de Blucas had escaped him. if you're paying attention no, it's not Berlin Ted, of course, it's the Prussians, that's not necessary, that's not necessary, like the Prussians, but as far as you and I and the army are concerned, they are on the moon, that It is understood, yes, sir, this Wellington. makes war in a new way fight sitting on his butt where we will have to take him out later field marshal ney saw the allies moving behind the ridge line thinking they were retreating he ordered a mass letter of 12,000 cavalry with hoping to cause a defeat among Wellington's faltering army, what he did not know was that the allies were waiting for them on the other side of the ridge and had laid a trap in their overzealous attempt when glory on the battlefield had committed a terrible mistake without infantry. and artillery support, their men were easy targets, this is because the British square formations were the perfect defense against cavalry, the reason for this was because the horses simply refused to charge a line of men with bayonets and muskets. ;

Instead, they will ride around the squares, leaving them vulnerable to musket fire from other square formations without being able to break through the squares they had no choice but to retreat. At this point, Napoleon was desperate because the Prussians had finally arrived and were closing in on the right flank of his army. He sent troops to stop the Prussians and ordered an infantry attack on LaHaye Somme, which had been defended by the German kings. The Legion, despite their valiant efforts, were overwhelmed by the French and taken. The Chateau Napoleon was now free to begin his final attack that would wipe out the Allies.

Now the old guard were Napoleon's best soldiers. They were all veterans and during the Napoleonic Wars they had never surrendered or been defeated in battle, however, that was probably because Napoleon didn't really like using them, just their presence on the field was a huge morale boost for the rest of the army, usually did not want to test the myth of invulnerability. but on this occasion he had no choice, the old guard marched towards the allied center and with LaHaye seen safe in French hands there seemed to be very few obstacles in their way, but Wellington had one last ace up his sleeve, those first volleys were devastating at the time. -The blank range wiped out 20% of the old guard in one go and this amount of firepower would prove to be too much at first, the old guard began to retreat, but when the rest of the French army saw that the myth of his invulnerability was shattered, the retreat caused.

Let the entire army panic and defeat. Damn the expert. If I ever saw 30,000 men run a race before the entire line advanced, in what direction would His Excellency my straight forward to visualize any semblance of order in the French army evaporate us both the Allies and the Prussians? They pounce on them. Napoleon had to accept the truth that he had been defeated and fled in the carriage back to Paris after nine hours and nearly 70,000 dead on both sides, the battle of Waterloo finally ended normally when I make these historical videos. Accuracy is always at the forefront of my mind, in fact it dominates my reviews.

However, researching Waterloo has been quite difficult, in fact you could say they have been wonderfully frustrated by how accurate this film is. I love it. this movie because of that, but it gives me very little to work with as a writer for the most part, what you see on the screen is more or less exactly how everything happened now, of course there are some inaccuracies here and there, but nothing that stands out. compare to what we usually find in other historical films is a point of view of them as examples, but to be honest, they don't really bother me, like for example Waterloo shows us the famous ball of the Duchess of Richmond that really took place on the 15th.

June in Brussels, so what is the inaccuracy here? It didn't take place in a lavish ballroom like we see in the movie, but in something more like a converted garage or barn, so yeah, I couldn't care less about that, I mean, as far as inaccuracies go, it's Quite Another is when we see the British soldiers sing a song about Napoleon, so this song is inaccurate because it is a song that details the entire story of Napoleon's life from his early school days to Waterloo and his exile in st. Helena was actually written in the 1820s and could have been sung at Waterloo.

He was born and sent away in St. Elina, again, accuracy like these doesn't really bother me unlike others, the only other major inaccuracy in the movie that I can think of that I didn't miss anyway is the incredible rude scene with the brits ask the old man. guard to deliver his grace the Duke of Wellington invites them to save their lives they will agree to surrender now so that the guy who destroyed the meltdown is the historical figure Pierre can brown supposedly destroyed merde which means in French or said please excuse my poor French a bar minister's hump with one leg up, meaning the guard dies and doesn't surrender.

This was reported by a journalist named Rougemont, however, Pierre did not die at Waterloo as shown in the film, he was taken prisoner and stated until the day of his death that he never said so. Either statement, but what's really funny is that when Pierre died, the French just ignored him and beat him on his statue anyway, it was like they were saying no, no, no, no, you said it, Look, we put it on your statue, now it's written in stone. So, once again, this doesn't bother me because it's a really cool scene. I love the fact that even the inaccuracies are somewhat based on history.

It just shows how much the filmmakers cared about this time period and, for the most part, they accurately reflect it. life I don't think we will ever see so much care and attention in a historical film again from a production point of view, it is crazy to recreate the battlefield, they razed two hills, planted 5,000 trees, reconstructed Morton LaHaye's song and built five miles of road. and using the Soviet Army's 16,000 soldiers, they spent months teaching Napoleonic drill formations how to march accurately, something that many movies certainly don't bother with, and teaching them how to load and fire muskets and cannons, if this were to be done.

Nowadays this would all be CGI and look like shit, nothing can compare to the real thing. The little details with sunlight shining on an army's weapons wouldn't even occur to computer animators, and what's ultimately sad is that they never will. to make a film like Waterloo again in the last 46 years. I haven't seen any other film that has come close to what this one has achieved, which is why Waterloo has such a special place in my heart that it even inspired me to come up with the concept of the story. Buffs the Great Scottish Burden is one of my favorite paintings and when I saw it recreated on film it always stayed with me, it was like watching history come to life.

Well that's it, my name is Nick Hodges and thanks for watching history

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. and remember, if you like the show, help the channel grow, don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe and let me know in the comments section what you think about Waterloo and of course what historical movie should I check out next while So, take a look. This trip stop by Twitter and Facebook pages for new updates until then. See you next time.