"The Longest Afternoon: The 400 Men Who Decided ... " Topic

…the Battle of Waterloo.

"Europe had been at war for over twenty years. After a short respite in exile, Napoleon had returned to France and threatened another generation of fighting across the devastated and exhausted continent. At the small Belgian village of Waterloo two large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the future of Europe.

Unknown either to Napoleon or Wellington the battle would be decided by a small, ordinary group of British and German troops given the task of defending the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte. This book tells their extraordinary story, brilliantly recapturing the fear, chaos and chanciness of battle and using previously untapped eye-witness reports. Through determination, cunning and fighting spirit, some four hundred soldiers held off many thousands of French and changed the course of history."

See here
link

Amicalement
Armand

I think the Prussians could argue this point. In my humble opinion Grouchy decided Napoleons fate.

That the battle was decided by the Haye Sante defence is ridicolous imho.

I wonder how much of the "decided the battle" stuff is marketing hype and how much of it is the focus of the book.

Certainly a detailed look at La Haye would make an interesting story regardless.

Suspect we're going to be bombarded by Waterloo related books over the next few months – some will be re-hashes of existing works, some will be just a collection of controversial stuff designed to generate marketing hype and sell copies.

There is a faint hope some might actually introduce new scholarship and research. Its a faint hope though.