June 18th 1815. Belgium. Waterloo. Napoleon vs Wellington.

Roughly 70,000 men each. After a few hours, the advantage is slightly for the french Emperor. But Blücher arrives on the battlefield.

Where the hell is Grouchy ??

In February 1815 Napoleon escaped from his exile on the island of Elba and landed in the south of France. He then marched to Paris and resumed the throne as Emperor. In March at the Congress of Vienna, representatives of Russia, Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain declared Napoleon an outlaw and began raising armies to fight him once again as they had for the past ten years.

In just eight weeks, Napoleon assembled 128,000 soldiers in the French Army of the North and on 15 June moved into Belgium (then a part of the kingdom of the Netherlands). Before the large Russian and Austrian armies could invade France, Napoleon hoped to defeat two coalition armies, an Anglo-Dutch-Belgian-German force under the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army led by Prince von Blücher.

Two days before the Battle of Waterloo, on 16 June, Napoleon defeated Blücher at the Battle of Ligny. Convinced that the Prussians were retreating to the East, at the opposite of Wellington’s forces, he sent Marshal Grouchy to pursue them wherever they were going and harry them so that they had no time to reorganise. In the same time, Napoleon marched northwards in pursuit of the Duke of Wellington’s army, who took a defensive position in Waterloo.

And this was the mistake that doomed Napoleon.

Blücher never retreated to the East. After the defeat at Ligny, he withdrew to north west of Wavre, parallel to Wellington’s line.

By the end of 17 June, Grouchy realized and headed towards Wavre. But his detachment was now behind the Prussians, on the far side of the Dyle. This meant that they were incapable of preventing the Prussians moving from Wavre towards Waterloo and too far away themselves to go directly to the aid of Napoleon.

June 18th 1815. Belgium. Sart-Lez-Walhain. 11:30. *Grouchy vs strawberries. *

In a nearby inn, Grouchy is eating some lovely strawberries. One of his officers suddenly hears some gun battle sounds. It is coming from Waterloo.

Gérard, one of the generals, advices to march to the sound of the guns to aid the emperor. But Grouchy prefers to stick to the orders and to pursue the Prussians towards Wavre.

Chill out Gérard, these belgium strawberries are really good.