(6) “They [KGL Legionaires] had earned a formidable reputation during the grueling campaigns of the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal between 1808 and 1813. While most of the Legion’s battalions wore standard red coats, its specialist light infantry sported the somber dark green uniforms and black leather equipment associated with the British 95th Foot—Wellington’s legendary ‘Rifles.’ They were likewise armed with the stubby Baker Rifle. While far more accurate than the smoothbore muskets used by most of the soldiers at Waterloo, including the Frenchmen who assaulted La Haye Sainte, the Baker Rifle took longer to load and fired nonstandard ammunition."
(a) Peninsular War
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peninsular_War
(1807-1814)
(b)
(i) Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifle_Brigade_%28Prince_Consort%27s_Own%29
(table: 1802–1816 as 95th Rifle Regiment; It was granted the title the "Prince Consort's Own Rifle Brigade" in honour of HRH [His (or Her) Royal Highness] Prince Albert [Queen Victoria's husband], the Prince Consort, the Rifle Brigade's former Colonel-in-Chief)
(ii) official site:
History; An introductory history of the 95th Rifles.
www.95thrifles.com/history-95th-p1.html
(c) Baker Rifle
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_rifle
(table Rate of fire[:] Usually 2+ rounds a minute; section 2 Use)
Quote: "The higher rate of fire (and therefore, volume of fire) of the musket was required when deployed as line infantry, even if this came with a large loss in accuracy. For this reason, ammunition was issued in two forms, one: loose balls, in standard carbine calibre with greased patches for accurate shooting, with loose powder inside a flask equipped with a spring-loaded charger to automatically measure out the correct amount of powder, and two: paper cartridges similar to regular musket ammunition.
(d) musket
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musket
(a muzzle-loaded, smoothbore [qv] firearm)
(7) “This last factor was crucial for the farmhouse’s fate. Despite repeated appeals for fresh ammunition by their commander, Maj George Baring, the beleaguered garrison of 378 men received none to supplement its original issue of 60 rounds per man. For five hours, starting around 1:30 pm, Baring’s soldiers rebuffed a succession of determined assaults, inflicting perhaps 2,000 casualties on their attackers and sustaining 40% losses themselves. But with empty rifles, Baring decided to evacuate his survivors rather than sacrifice them needlessly. As Mr Simms notes, ‘they fought to the last bullet, but not the last man.’ Although La Haye Sainte ultimately fell, he argues that Baring’s dogged riflemen helped to break the impetus of French attacks upon Wellington’s position, so enabling the British to hold on through the afternoon until their Prussian allies could arrive.”
George Baring
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Baring
(1773 - 1848; a German born and died in Germany, whose German name was Georg von Baring)
(8) “The fierce fighting for La Haye Sainte certainly cost Napoleon men he could ill afford to lose. In addition, its sharpshooting defenders prevented the emperor from moving his artillery batteries forward to pummel Wellington’s positions at close range. But Mr. Simms’s claim that events at La Haye Sainte ‘decided’ the outcome of the battle is debatable. An isolated strongpoint, the farmhouse had little real influence beyond the range of its garrison’s rifles. Most glaringly, it failed to deflect a major French infantry assault in the early afternoon, mounted by the Comte d’Erlon’s 1st Corps. Most of his 18,000 men simply bypassed the farm, smashing into Wellington’s line and nearly breaking through before they were countered by the charge of the massed British heavy cavalry of the Household and Union Brigades, and slashed and trampled into rout. * * * By 8 pm, Prussian units were pouring onto the battlefield and the French were in flight. * * * A Cambridge professor with a specialist interest in German history, Mr Simms is aware of previous work, notably by Peter Hofschröer, that argues that Anglocentric historians have deliberately understated the “German” contribution at Waterloo—not least the drain on French manpower imposed by the merciless fighting for the village of Plancenoit from late afternoon. While acknowledging that ethnically even Wellington’s own army was 45% German—with the balance 36% British, 13% Dutch and 6% from what we now call Belgium—Mr Simms prefers to see it as truly ‘European’ and a prototype for NATO. It is unlikely Wellington could have defeated Napoleon without the mounting Prussian pressure exerted during the course of the afternoon. Beyond any doubt, however, is the fact that the Prussians would never have been able to make their decisive intervention if Wellington’s polyglot force—in which the garrison of La Haye Sainte certainly played a distinguished role—had not stood firm for so long in the face of terrible punishment.”
(9) What I fail to comprehend is why the French did not simply bombard La Maye Sainte out of existence, instead of wasting manpower to fight it. At least a commentator concurred with me.
Nick Lipscombe (ed), Waterloo; The decisive victory. Osprey Publishing, 2014, at page 239
books.google.com/books?id=O_RbBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA239&lpg=PA239&dq=la+haye+sainte"+artillery&source=bl&ots=DKpXuwJ9OP&sig=7nvSezchf4l2g56p71PvAuKITgI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=e8TjVMuMGsKxyAS_9YGoDg&ved=0CEgQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=la%20haye%20sainte%22%20artillery&f=false
("Debate still rages as to the basis and detail of the order which set the French cavalry in motion a few minutes before 4 pm but as David Chandler wrote, 'the cavalry should not have been launched prior to the capture of La Haye Sainte' and I doubt there is anyone who would disagree with this statement. John Keegan added that the ratio of men to space in the 'funnel,' created by Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte, denied the French artillery room to accompany the cavalry. That is almost certainly the case but it does not explain why the opportunity was not taken to move artillery up in support of the attacks on La Haye Sainte during the time that flower [meaning cream of the crop] of the French cavalry was wasted engaging the Allied Squares") |
发表于 2-17-2015 15:17:54
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