Plancenoit

“Give me nightfall, or give me Blücher.” Napoleon’s attacks had not been skillfully conducted, but Anglo-Allied losses were heavy and mounting. Wellington had serious doubts that his remaining forces could hold without assistance. Finally the Prussians appeared on the far …

1815-06-18

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“Give me nightfall, or give me Blücher.” Napoleon’s attacks had not been skillfully conducted, but Anglo-Allied losses were heavy and mounting. Wellington had serious doubts that his remaining forces could hold without assistance. Finally the Prussians appeared on the far right of the French near the village of Plancenoit. Bülow’s fresh IV Corps led the advance and bled itself white battling with Lobau’s VI Corps to enter Plancenoit. The Prussian advanced stalled, until Pirch’s II Corps came forward and pushed the depleted French forces out of most of Plancenoit, including the fortress-like church. Napoleon sent a division of Young Guard to aid Lobau, and they managed to retake most of the village. Still, superiority in numbers began to tell, and renewed Prussian assaults forced the French back out of the church and most of the village. Napoleon was in a desperate situation, for he knew if Plancenoit was not retaken, his right flank could collapse. He sent two battalions of Old Guard to the village. The guardsmen stormed through the village pushing the Prussians before them. The French line was stabilized for a time and Napoleon again turned his attention to Wellington. Meanwhile in Plancenoit for the next few hours no quarter was asked and none was given. The level of slaughter, it was said, even surpassed that of Hougoumont. As the battle went against the French elsewhere and the retreat commenced, the few French Old Guard survivors in the church broke out with heavy loss to rejoin their compatriots who had formed square.

Plancenoit, Belgium

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in Belgium, part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands at the time. A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: A British-led coalition consisting of units from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick and Nassau, under the command of the Duke of Wellington, referred to by many authors as the Anglo-allied army or Wellington's army, and a Prussian army under the command of Field Marshal von Blücher, referred also as Blücher's army. The battle marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

Wikipedia: Battle of Waterloo

French

Prussians

Seventh Coalition