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Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900
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The Longest Afternoon (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R434
Discovery Miles 4 340
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The Longest Afternoon (Hardcover)
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List price R531
Loot Price R434
Discovery Miles 4 340
You Save R97 (18%)
Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available.
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In 1815, the deposed emperor Napoleon returned to France and
threatened the already devastated and exhausted continent with yet
another war. Near the small Belgian municipality of Waterloo, two
large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the
future of Europe--Napoleon's forces on one side, and the Duke of
Wellington on the other. With so much at stake, neither commander
could have predicted that the battle would be decided by the Second
Light Battalion, King's German Legion, which was given the
deceptively simple task of defending the Haye Sainte farmhouse, a
crucial crossroads on the way to Brussels. In The Longest
Afternoon, Brendan Simms recounts how these 400-odd riflemen beat
back wave after wave of French infantry until finally forced to
withdraw, but only after holding up Napoleon for so long that he
lost the overall contest. Their actions alone decided the most
influential battle in European history. Drawing on previously
untapped eye-witness reports for accurate and vivid details of the
course of the battle, Simms captures the grand choreography and
pervasive chaos of Waterloo: the advances and retreats, the death
and the maiming, the heroism and the cowardice. He describes the
gallant fighting spirit of the French infantrymen, who clambered
over the bodies of their fallen comrades as they assaulted the
heavily fortified farmhouse--and whose bravery was only surpassed
by that of their opponents in the Second Light Battalion. Motivated
by opposition to Napoleonic tyranny, dynastic loyalty to the King
of England, German patriotism, regimental camaraderie, personal
bonds of friendship, and professional ethos, the battalion suffered
terrible casualties and fought tirelessly for many long hours, but
refused to capitulate or retreat until the evening, by which time
the Prussians had arrived on the battlefield in large numbers. In
reorienting Waterloo around the Haye Sainte farmhouse, Simms gives
us a riveting new account of the famous battle--an account that
reveals, among other things, that Napoleon came much closer than is
commonly thought to winning it. A heroic tale of 400 soldiers who
changed the course of history, The Longest Afternoon will become an
instant classic of military history.
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