WATERLOO

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 47, 18 June 1915, Page 2

WATERLOO

Exactly one hundred years ago today, and in the very locality in which tur soldiers have for months past achieved the impossible and held back the onrush of the supposed irresistible German army, the meteoric career of Napoleon Bonaparte was ended tor ever by t> mere handful of English troop*, i idiffierentl? assisted by Dutch and Belgians, and re-inforced at the closs of the day by Blucher's Germans. Waterloo has always been justly ranked with Marathon and Metaurus as one of the three moat important battles known to history, inasmuch as upon it the fate of a whole contintent hung.

For twenty years Napoleon, incomparably the greatest toldier of modern times, a statesman of no mean capacity, and with a genius almost amounting to inspiration for geiting out of his subordinates the beat Ihcy had in them, had kept all Europe ii a ferment, The Continent had been trodden under his heel, end his puppets sat ori half the tlrones of Europe. His short retirement to Elba had only served to entrench him still more strongly in the hearts of the Freneh people, and when at Waterloo he found for the tirdt time nia great protaganist, Wellingtor, he had behind him nearly 80,000 veterans who had f llowed his standard to victory a score Df times.

Against th(sj seasoned troops Wellington had less than 24,000 Butieh s'.-ldijr?, many of them raw Suesex and Surrey lads fresh from the lough, and about 12,000 Brunswickers and Hanoverians. The rest of his army was composed of Dutchmen, Belgians and Nassauers, who proved worse than worthless when the test came. Ii field he had 156 to oppose t) Napoleon's 246. But he had the advantage if position, wLich he had chosen with consummate skill, and his men were flushed with their victory at Quatre Bras two days Lefore, where they had defeated Marshal Ney's greatly superior force, and were eager to faca the victors of Marengo, Ulm, Austerlitz and Wagram. The field of Waterloo was a valley nearly three miles I >ng End of aa average width of half-a-mile. Ua Ihe chain of low hills on its iorthem fide Wellington's army was in position on this eventful Sunday morning, June 18th, 181b. Before the English front two tarmhouses, La HBye Leir.te and Hougoumont were strorgly garriconed by riflemen who had orders to hold their positions at ary cost, and whose devotion to their duty proved no inconsiderable factor In deciding the fate of the day.

It was nearly noon wh:n tbe batth commenced by an attack upon Huugoumont, Column after column of French infantry assailed it with fiery valour, but every attack was beaten tff by the gallant defenders. A little later a column of 18,000 French it.fantry, supported by tbe massed fire of the artillery was launched against the Duke's left, wlii h was composed of Dutch ard

Belgians and Picton's civislin of British troops. The Belgians and Dul'M II d as the French advanced,

leaving I'icton with only uOOO infantry to meet six times their number. liie thin, two dfcp line, j did not hesitate for a momctt.

After firing a Eingle volley at j thirty yards it charged with the bayonet. The enemy ret led hack in confusion, and at this physiological moment a brigade of our heavy cavalry, the Royals, the Scots, Greya and the Inniskilliogs rode through them like a whirlwind. On and on galloped the horsemen till they reached the advanced batteries of French artillery. They sabred the gunners and killed the horses, putting 74 guns out cf action for the rest of day. In the meantime, further up the valley a desperate and most sanguinary hard to hand tight was going on between cur Household Brigade of cavalry ard the steelclad Cuir saiers. In the end ths physical superiority of the AngloSaxon prevailed, and the enemy were scon in full flight. By threa o'clock, Napoleon realised that horse. loot and artillery alike had failed against our left wing. Hougoumont and La Haye *till held out in the centre a?ai:st the mo3t determined attacks. If he cculd break the Duke's right tie fortunes of the day mUht be retrieved. With this object he threw all thst could be collected of tia cavalry ucon that quarter of the field. The furious charge of ten thousand hirses seemed wtll-n : gh irresistible, and the British gunnera were forced for the moment to leave their pieces, but the squadrons broke vainly upon th; steel-tipped British sq jares, and the French cavalry wss practically destroyed. As th.y receded from the top less attack th? British gunner rushed from the shelter of the hollow squares and fired salvo al't;r salvo after thsrr, completing their discomfiture.

It was late afternoon. La Haye had fallen, but Hougoumont still held out. and the English held the ridges as firmly as ever. Napoleon had still one card to play. The ten thousand veterans of the old Guards, saaasoned Holdiers one and all, were launched at the Duke's centre, between La Haye and Hougoumont. Heralded by a tornado of round-shot and grape from the Frencn guns they advanced rapidly up the gentle slope. When they reached the top not a British soldier was in sight, only a small knot of mounted officers— Wellington and his staff. Suddenly he gave the order: "Up, Guards, and at them," and from the yards in front rose Maitland's brigade of Britisti Guards. A single deadly volley was fired, and the next moment the Grenadiers, the Golcfstreams and the Fusiliers, all men much above the average height and weight, were upon them with the bayonet For a moment the old Guard bravely strove to meet tticm, then broke in Cisorder and fled precipitately. It was the climax of the battle.

Ihe sua was setting, and Blucher with bis 40,000 Prussians was in sight. Bonaparte saw that the battle was inst. He tbrew forward his few remaining reserves, and then, accompanied by a few or his staff, galloped from the field, leaving the remains of his army in an indiscribable condition of coniusion and rout. Fear and distrust ol the Prussians a Utile later induced him to surrender himself to the captain of a British frigate, and he was ultimately interned for the rent of his life on the lonely island of bt. Helena.

Waterloo, like bo many of our victories, was mainly won by the British bayonet, which, in spite of the wide-spread belief that the days of cold steel were gone for ever is still winning us victories as great and as sanguinary if not so decisive, in Flanders and the North of France. Long-range rifles and high explosive shells make all men equal, but when the British soldier can get near enough to his eDemy to use the fourteen inch blade on the end of his rifle be is still, as ever, irrisistibl'.