DOC Waterloo 1815: Wavre; Plancenoit and the Race to Paris by Peter Hofschroer in History

Description

German troops formed the majority of Wellington’s forces present at the Battle of Waterloo including those of Nassau; Brunswick; Hanover and the King’s German Legion; and they have left a large number of first-hand accounts of their role in the battle.The actions of the King's German Legion – an integral part of the British Army and partly officered by British soldiers – has been published in English; but to a limited degree: Herbert Siborne published letters written to his father; Ompteda and Wheatley have had their memoirs published; and History of the King’s German Legion included a small number of letters; including the oft-misquoted account of the defense of La Haye Sainte by Major Baring. This forms a tiny proportion of the German material available. Therefore it is not surprising that early British histories of the battle have largely sidelined the achievements of the German troops; and this has been regurgitated by most that have followed. This situation did not change until the 1990s when Peter Hofschroer published his two-volume version of the campaign from the German perspective; which included snippets of German documents published in English for the first time. But even this proved not totally satisfactory; as it did not provide the whole document to allow full interpretation.There is a great need to provide an English version of much of the original German source material to redress the imbalance; this volume is intended to remedy that situation by publishing sixty of these reports and letters fully translated into English for the first time; giving a clearer insight into the significant role these troops played.