Waterloo

By The Late Captain J.W.E. Donaldson R.A.F., P.S.C.

And

Captain A.F. Becke, Late R.A.F.

LONDON, Hugh Rees, Ltd., 119 Pall Mall, S.W.

1907

The above work, which I herewith present with full original text, was given to me by my old friend and mentor, the late Brigadier Peter Young. Peter purchased the book (which had been withdrawn from the Royal United Services Institution) in 1965.

For many years the book was sitting among my dusty military tomes, and only recently, after attempting to catalogue each one in some form and order, did I come to realise what a splendid little work Donaldson and Becke’s appraisal of Waterloo really is – I hope you will agree!

“C’est un principe qui n’admet pas d’exception, que toute junction de corps a’armée doit s’opérer en arriére et lion de l’ennemi.” – Napoléon.

 PREFACE

Owing to Waterloo being the Campaign set for Promotion examinations in next November, and also again in May 1908, it has been suggested that this short study, which forms Chapter V, in the second edition of Military History applied to Modern Warfare, by the late Captain Donaldson and myself, might prove useful to officers studying these campaigns, and who may not require the larger work. As this short study treats the subject from a somewhat different standpoint from that of the ordinary works that are being studied on this campaign, it has been decided to issue it separately, in the hope that it may perhaps supplement the knowledge of the campaign gleaned from a perusal of the usual text-books.

No three days in the world’s history have perhaps been more written about than those which saw the Great Emperor hurled from his throne by the victorious Allies on the field of Waterloo – the battle that should have been named “ La Belle Alliance” – and the most that is claimed for this work is that it perhaps presents to the military reader how the campaign may be advantageously studied, with a view to extracting from it useful lessons that are applicable to modern warfare, for that is the real reason for all study of military history.

Inasmuch as the work is merely to supplement other and larger works, no copies of orders or detailed composition of the various armies are given; for this information, under the circumstances, is assumed to be in the reader’s possession already

A.F. Becke 

PUTNEY, S.W.

August, 1907.