Question about napoleon and battle of waterloo

Question

Napoleon lost this battle for several reasons. 1)the rain ruined his equipment. 2)he had to face TWO large armies. And 3) his soilders were said to be new and not as experienced as his last...well my question is, if the prussians didn't sneak up on napoleon, do you believe napoleon would've defeated wellington?? Remember although he lost the war, he still fought with tremendous force, that even shocked wellington

Answer 1

First, it rained on BOTH armies, not just Napoleon's. The effect the rain had was essentially on the French Cavalry who were hampered somewhat by the muddy fields, The real key was that Wellington deployed his forces on the far slopes of the low hills which protected his army from most of the French artillery, and also hid them from the view of the advancing French until the rose up and opened fire, taking the French by surprise.  

Th two armies you speak of were the  Prussian Army under Blucher and the Anglo Dutch forces under Wellington; but the French defeated the Prussians at Quatre Bras a day or so before, and the English/Dutch Army faced Napoleon alone for most of the day, holding off the French until Blucher could regroup and finally arrive at the battle.  By then the French had already been defeated and the Prussian arrival essentially sealed the victory,

Napoleon's defeat was due mostly to the bad tactics of Napoleon's commanders, who wasted both men and time by assaulting the fortified positions of Hougemont and LA Haye Saint, wastinf most of the day on pointless frontal attacks, and gave Wellington the time he needed to delay the French for the Prussians to arrive.

Also, The French launched uncoordinated piecemeal attacks, first by the Infantry on Hougemont and La Haye Saint,a and then by mass cavalry charges aganst the Allied infantry squares, formed specifically to repel cavalry charges, By the time Napolean ordered the Old Guard into battle in a last desperate attempt to secure a victory, it was too late. The Prussians arrived and the battle became a rout.

Napolean himself was not the brilliant general he was years earlier. He himself once stated that any military commander has only about ten battles in him  before he loses his abilities as a commander, By the time of the Battle of Waterloo, Napolean was way past his prime as a commander, strategist and tactician, and his army was not the Grand Army that conquered Western Europe, That Army was destroyed in the Russian campaign of 1812;  the Warerloo Army was a mere shadow of the Grand Army of Austerlitz and earlier victories,    

  

Answer 2

The Prussians didn't 'sneak up' on Napoleon, they arrived later than had been expected. The general consensus is that they turned that tide of the battle. Had they not arrived it is very possible that Napoleon would have run. Don't forget that the Duke of Wellington described it as 'a close run thing'

Answer 3

you know, Napoleon's army was as big as his enemy.....so number 2 does not count

Answer 4

Ok to answer one the rain didn't ruin the equiptment what it did was soften the ground which greatly reduced the strength of Napoleon's artillery batteries. This is very important because Napoleon had been heavily relying on large batteries since the 1809 campaign, so overall this is a large disadvantage to the French compared to the allied armies. The worst impact of the weather was the fact that it convinced Napoleon to wait for hours until the ground could dry and gave the Prussians extra time to march to the battle. For two he did face two large armies in the battle which was a major reason why the allies won. Napoleon had not expected 50,000 Prussians to march to the battlefields and if they did he had at least thought that Grouchy whould of pursued them to the battlefield. In order to contain the Prussians Napoleon was forced to send a corp, his entire young guard and two battalions of the old guard. Had those soldiers fought against Wellington its highly possible that the French would have won. As for three this army was better than the armies he commanded in 1813 but not quite of the calliber he commanded in 1812, it has been described as an army composed of veterans and recruits, he did have a decent sized guard contingent which was a bonus and more artillery and cavalry than would of been normal in his 1813 campaigns. So had Blucher never aided Wellington then Napoleon would of won the battle but I can not say he would of routed the allied army, at least as long as he left the command in Ney's hands.

Answer 5

He was suffering from hemorrhoids and was uncomfortable sitting on his horse and distracted by the pain.

The arrival of the Prussians certainly helped in the victory. Waterloo wasn't a war, it was a definitive battle.

Answer 6

Napoleon had beaten the Anglo Dutch and Prussian armies in two earlier battles leading up to Waterloo. He made two errors-he trusted a lack lustre subordinate with harrassing the Prussians and stopping them from rejoining the British; and he had a little lie down in the afternoon, letting Ney take over and waste his heavy cavalry on repeated attacks on the centre of the line.

His plan to weaken the centre with artillery and feint attacks on the flanks led to much of his army fighting for a farm house-he ended up committing more troops to that action than his enemy and it didn't weaken the centre; and his artillery wasn't very effective because the recent rains had soaked the soil, so the shot was absorbed rather than bouncing into the enemy ranks.

His final assault with the Guard failed because it was essentially unsupported and was an attack in column against lines of vets. If he was a little luckier the Prince of Orange would still have been trusted with some troops and he could have mopped up this loser and punched through the line.

As above, the numbers were roughly the same, many of the Dutch contingents were truly abysmal and while new, many of Napoleon's troops were recalled vets.

Even if he'd won, Napoleon would have faced literally a million men invading from the south east (Austria) the south (Spain and Portugal) the east (Prussia and eventually the Russians) and the west (Britain).

By this stage there was no way his enemies would have accepted a negotiated peace.

He tried desperately to join up with his Guard who fought to the last man to let the rest of the army escape-would have been a more fitting end than dying alone on St Helena.

Answer 7

I believe Napoleon and his army might have won the day for there were holding their own and even had advanced but as it is throughout history

when you have to fight on multiple fronts it is definitely to a disadvantage.When the Prussians came on the scene basically at the evening of the day, Napoleon and his army were exhausted and the tide had turned against him.