Free The Battle of Waterloo: Europe in the Balance by Rupert Matthews Page B

of infantry accompanied by cavalry marching towards Ligny. The columns were coming from the direction of Frasnes, just south of Quatre Bras, and were heading towards Wagnelée so as to arrive on the French left flank from behind. The French scouts identified the distant columns as being Dutch and numbering around 20,000 men. The Prussian scouts also counted 20,000 men but identified them as being French.
    This confusion as to who was marching toward Ligny was understandable. Although states dressed their armies in brightly coloured uniforms to make identification easier, the Dutch army had until a few months earlier been allied to the French. They wore short, dark-blue jackets with grey trousers and shako hat that was more or less cylindrical, but higher at the front than the back. The French wore a long, dark-blue jacket with buff trousers and a shako that was wider at the top than the bottom. At close quarters the uniforms were easy to tell apart by the detailing, but at a distance one dark blue jacket could easily be mistaken for the other.
    Vandamme, commanding the III Corps on the French left, was first to receive the reports of the advancing Dutch force. He called off his attack on the Prussians, pulling one division out of the line and turning them to face west to meet the expected attack. Vandamme did some quick calculations regarding his own and the opposing forces and then sent a message to Napoleon saying that unless he was sent reinforcements he would be forced to pull back as soon as the Dutch attack began.
    Napoleon received the reports of the approaching Dutch at a little after 5.30 pm, together with Vandamme’s request for reinforcements. He responded by calling off his planned attack on the Prussian centre. He moved two divisions of the Guard toward his left, ready to support Vandamme if they were needed. Napoleon was, however, puzzled. According to his latest information the Dutch should be engaged fighting Ney at Quatre Bras. He sent his own scouts off to get a good look at the approaching column and to report back as soon as possible.
    Gneisenau and Blücher had by this time also got their reports that a French army was approaching. From where they stood on high ground behind the Prussian army they could not see the advancing troops. They could, however, see Vandamme move troops out of the attack to face west. They concluded that the approaching troops must be those of Wellington, not French after all. Vandamme was a lot closer to the oncoming army than they were and they thought that he was in a better position to identify them.
    When Blücher saw Napoleon move divisions of his Imperial Guard to face west and move toward Vandamme it convinced him that Wellington was approaching in force. He gave orders that the Prussian attack was to go ahead at once.
    As the Prussians were gathering for the assault, Napoleon’s personal scouts came back to report that the approaching troops were, in fact, those of d’Erlon. Napoleon was both relieved and annoyed – relieved to find the new arrivals were French, not Dutch, but annoyed that d’Erlon was arriving on the French flank not on that of the Prussians. D’Erlon’s attack would therefore be less destructive than Napoleon had hoped, but nonetheless useful. He sent orders to d’Erlon to veer to his left, so heading more directly toward the Prussians. Napoleon then began moving his Imperial Guard back into position to launch his planned assault.
     
    Mass attacks
     
    Suddenly, at 6 pm, the Prussian attack surged forward. Leading the way were heavy cavalry, supported by dense columns of infantry and horse artillery. They surged over the stream and into the French positions held by Vandamme. Vandamme was caught reorganizing his defences – having realized it was d’Erlon, not Wellington, coming up on his left. The Prussians, expecting the French to be trapped between two fires, attacked with reckless courage. Vandamme’s men were pushed back and for a while