Today we left our friends at 3CB. They were in the throes of setting up a banquet for their members in the clubhouse — it looks like a very friendly, very active camping club!
We drove the short distance to Butte du Lion, the mound that was built entirely by hand labour between 1824 and 1826, to commemorate those who died on June 18, 1815. It marks the spot where Prince William of Orange, heir to the throne of the Netherlands and commander of the first corps of Wellington's army, was wounded. It's 43 metres high, with 226 steps leading up to the 28 tonne statue of the Lion, placed there to symbolise the return of peace to Europe.
The Battle of Waterloo resonates through history. It is the stuff of legend. It was also one of the most horrific days imaginable. This site has four things of interest — the new Memorial, buried beneath the ground at the foot of the mound; the Panorama of the Battle of Waterloo, a cylindrical painting 12 metres high and 110 metres in circumference, painted by Louis Doumoulin, who finished it in 1912; the Butte du Lion; and, of course, the battlefield itself.
We went down the ramp and into the new Visitor Centre, which leass directly into the Warerloo Memorial. This is a very well set out museum, with a superb collection of actual 1815 materials. There is a comprehensive review of the events leading up to Waterloo — basically, the history of the hundred days between Napoleon's return from exile on Elba and his abdication four days after the Battle of Waterloo.
The Battle itself is handled in superb 3D 180° panoramic movie, which follows the whole day's action in about 20 minutes, and then you come out to a display about the aftermath — the hundred days after, and then the hundred years after. Not many museums put the crucial event into such long-range perspective.
From here, we went across to the Panorama. This has been here for over 100 years, so we saw it when we were last at Waterloo, abot 40 years ago. The painting was completed in 1912, but the full panorama still has a lot of impact. Like a lot of battle paintings, it takes great liberties with the temporal dimension — Marshall Ney, for example, appears at least twice in the painting, at two different, but crucial, parts of the battle.
After this, we went out to climb the mound. 266 steps. Suzie has a little difficulty with climbing, and we were a little worried that she might not make it to the top. But the little trouper came through, with a couple of rest stops on the way up. We spent about half an hour up at the top, looking out over the battlefield. It's fairly flat, but undulating. Wellington took advantage of the terrain, secreting units lying down in the field behind slight rises, so that when the French came over the slight rise, the allies could stand and surprise the French with a withering blast of firepower.
Looking roughly in the direction of the field layout below.
Napoleon towards the clump of trees in the distance.
The whole battle was a close-run thing, however, and it was not until the arrival of General Blücher and his Prussian army was Napoleon finally overwhelmed. Wellington himself described it as ‘the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life’.
Field positions given on a plaque at the top of the mound.
Field positions given on a plaque at the top of the mound.
It was a costly battle. The Allied forces had about 17,000 dead, wounded or captured. The French suffered around 25,000 dead and wounded, and about 8,000 prisoners were taken.
After a day at Waterloo, we continued our driving, aiming now towards Aachen. As we pulled out, we noticed that Gertie was making her presence heard. It was pretty obvious that she had a hole in her exhaust, so we would need to do something about that fairly soon, We called off for the night in a roadside stop at Heverlee in Belgium. This had a restaurant with WiFi, and was a very comfortable stop. We needed the WiFi tomorrow, because we had learned that Sue's Mum had taken a turn for the worse, and was seriously ill at her Aged Care Facility, Oak Towers, back in Melbourne.
Distance driven — today, 39 miles ( 62 km ); to date, 29,279 miles ( 47,120 km )
I keep losing these to cyber space, Sufficient to say that Waterloo was won by dogged persistence of Wellington by keeping his lines in communicative contact with one another until the Prussians could be remobilised from a sortee they were involved with first and dreadfully cut up, and then catch up and take their places in the field and then forming his young foot soldiers into squares and holding these despite terrible attacks by cavalry and bombardment from the French artillery. If you've not read it, there is a wonderful account of it in a historical novel by Georgette Heyer-well researched and brilliantly written. It is entitled An Infamous Army which is what Wellington termed his followers; Thank you for the visual. Must go back to bed=hardlyable to stay awake. Love you Cathy]
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