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Today my wife and I went to Charleroi to pick up a friend that had just flown in. On the way back from the airport we decided to go visit the Waterloo Lion and the site of the Battle of Waterloo. Alas we were late getting there as our friend's flight had been delayed so we only got to see the lion and the panorama of the battle. This was my first visit and the third for my wife, the last time she was here was on the way back from dropping off me at the airport so I could hurry back to look after my very ill brother, while she was at the top of the mound with our youngest son she got a phone call to say that my brother had passed away about the time I got on the aircraft. So it was with this in the back of my mind when I was climbing the stairs to the top of the mound.

Butte de Lion



The mound is made from sand and earth taken from each of the countries that fought against Napoleon

Napoleon


The round house that contains the panorama of the battle of Waterloo


The fields where the battle was fought


Layout of the battle


part of the painting of the panorama, the panorama is 110m long and 12m high and depicts the battle at around 18:00 on the 18th June 1815




In the background you can see Napoleon on his horse Marengo leading his staff


More pictures, including a couple of panoramic shots: https://imgur.com/a/zGoGXW4

Thanks for the post Alicatt very impressive !!

Thanks, we were just too late to be able to go into the museum and also we were too late to take advantage of their VR headsets, you can hire them and then look around the battle site and see the battle unfold in front of you. I have made a note that I have to go back with more time and see the rest of the exhibition.

Forgot to put a link in for the site:
http://www.waterloo1815.be/index.php?page=Home

A most atmospheric and poignant image of the silhouetted mound against a dramatic cloudscape, considering the associations with the passing of your brother Alicatt.

Two years after the mound was constructed, it is said that on visiting, Wellington was outraged, exclaiming, "They have altered my field of battle!".
This post has made me want to re-visit the film again, considered to be one of the most spectacular and authentic historic cinematic works ever made.
Only error I could deduce was the British troops singing 'Boney was a warrior' a naval 'long drag shanty' which wasn't penned until some years after:
Boney was a warrior
Away, a- yah!
A warrior and a terrier
Jean Francois!

Boney fought the Russians
Away, a- yah!
The Russians and the Prussians.
Jean Francois!

Moscow was a-blazing
Away, a- yah!
And Boney was a-raging.
Jean Francois!

Boney went to Elba
Away, a- yah!
Boney he came back again.
Jean Francois!

Boney went to Waterloo
Away, a- yah!
There he got his overthrow.
Jean Francois!

Then they took him off again
Away, a- yah!
Aboard the Billy Ruffian.
Jean Francois!

He went to Saint Helena,
Away, a- yah!
There he was a prisoner,
Jean Francois!

Boney broke his heart and died
Away, a- yah!
Away in Saint Helena
Jean Francois!

I recommend the FutureLearn free online course; "Wellington and the Battle of Waterloo" if anyone is interested in this period of history.

Yeah it was quite poignant, it was my wife's friend that took the pic through the car window as we were driving up, I did slow off so she could get the pic through a gap in the hedge, that was my sum total contribution to the picture
By the time we cot to the mound the clouds had almost passed and all I could get was the Butt(e) of the lion in the second picture, all pics were taken with phones.

"Boney was a warrior" was sung with great gusto in the school I went to, and it was a regular in the music lessons, so I remember it well. I don't have the Waterloo film but I do feel like going and watching Sharpe's Waterloo again.

Outstanding post Alicatt and thanks for posting those pics. You really do need to get the film on DVD. Amazon should have a copy.


As for the battle itself, it does seem that the perception in popular culture is that the battle was fought just between the French and the British.

At Waterloo you had:

17,000 Dutchmen

50,000+ Prussians (yeah ok, they came late to the battle)

17,000+ Germans from other Germanic states besides Prussia

22 June. This morning I went to visit the field of battle, which is a little beyond the village of Waterloo, on the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean; but on arrival there the sight was too horrible to behold. I felt sick in the stomach and was obliged to return. The multitude of carcasses, the heaps of wounded men with mangled limbs unable to move, and perishing from not having their wounds dressed or from hunger, as the Anglo-allies were, of course, obliged to take their surgeons and waggons with them, formed a spectacle I shall never forget. The wounded, both of the Anglo-allies and the French, remain in an equally deplorable state.
— Major W. E. Frye.

Thanks, I was thinking of yourself when I posted the pictures
Film is available on prime so I have it on my list to watch soon, thanks.

Never let a good chance to post this go to waste:

Of course we were singing that on the drive up to the parking at the monument

"Boney was a warrior" was sung by the Brits in the movie "Waterloo".

Thx for sharing !

For some obscure reasons Napoleon Bonaparte is somehow still considered a great head of state in France. That little Corsican despot managed to rack up some 5 millions casualties (military and civilians) during his Napoleonic Wars.
Not too shabby for that time.

Cheers,
Slug

Further grisly outcome from the war was the exploitation of the corpses to produce 'Waterloo teeth' dentures made from the extracted teeth of the dead.

They are not obscure reasons. Ironically, Napoleon was quite the "progressive" for his time. That is why the old established monarchies like the ones in Russia, Austria and Prussia were alarmed by his rise to power. They did not want the ideas of the French Revolution spreading to their empires.

Also the British establishment were alarmed by his progressive ideas and that was one of the main reasons that Britain had to neutralise him.

Having lost the American colonies just a couple of decades earlier, I can't blame the British for being a bit touchy on the subject of revolutions!

I often wonder about Napoleon and his significance. Imagine for a moment that he beat both the Brits and the Russians and established a truly European State. He had no capable successor and the whole edifice would have fallen apart like Alexander's but with less lasting effect on his death.

I can't imagine who the people where who went out into that field and extracted the teeth from the dead. Truly a gruesome scenario.

Thanks for the post. Yet another reason why I still check out SIMHG forum's regularly.

Thanks LB4LB, this site has a lot of good information and a fairly good mix of people with different experiences and stories which I also like to read.

Like yesterday I was in Agusta Treverorum to give it's Roman name which they called it after the Celtic tribe that lived there, but I will start a new thread about it

Universal metric system and democracy.

(I know they were created before, but without Napoleon they would have not spread to the rest of the world so fast.)