"'A Near Run Thing' - Waterloo Trivia Quiz" Topic

"One of the key battles in world history, it shaped the nineteenth century. Test your knowledge of the the Battle of Waterloo…"

link

Armand

Good fun. I got one wrong Q7……..

NB you do not have to sign up. The answers do follow below

Fun indeed. Q1 caught me out.

A pretty hopeless 1.
But then I never claimed to know much about Waterloo, so no surprise.

Q1 Informed guess incorrect
Couple of other informed guesses correct
Feeling smug

10 out of 10 – it was interesting to see which ones participants overall were likely to get wrong.

I don't understand how you can get 10 out of 10 when one of the answers is wrong. Considering Q4, the French strength committed to the attack on Hougoumont, surely everyone now knows that the whole of 2nd Corps was NOT committed to the attack; just Jerome's division and one brigade of Foy. Reille had 18,000 infantry at the beginning of the campaign and states that he had only 12,000 infantry at Waterloo; Girard's division having fought at Ligny and not rejoined, and the rest of his corps having done most of the fighting and dying at Quatre Bras. Actually, 7,000 is closest to the truth, though it may have been closer to 8,000.

Trefcon, Bachelu's chief of staff, states that his division did nothing until after 6 o'clock when it made, with Foy's second brigade, an abortive attack on the ridge. He admits it was a fiasco and repulsed by Brits (actually KGL) in square. Foy supports this and says his brigade was swept away by Bachelu's routing division. Du Plat's units speak of this attack.

Who actually states that all of Foy's division and that of Bachelu attacked Hougoumont? Just Brits. How did they know? What was/is their reference? It's a long perpetuated myth.

Thanks!

Armand

What was I thinking?

Delort's point is interesting and I gave the correct (ie wrong!) answer at 18,000. Thinking about it, it would have been hard to pitch that many men into the frontage of Hougoumont anyway.

Q7 I was sure it was Metternich……sure.

(smile)

Armand

Not alone Question/Answer 4. The Answer to Question 3 is also wrong; while Byron certainly refers to Waterloo in his "Childe Harold" ("There sunk the greatest, not the worst of men"), the lines quoted more-or-less accurately are from Robert Burns, a Song entitled "My Bonie Mary" and with first line "Go, fetch to me a pint of wine". Burns died in 1796, by the way.

""*[//])

I am an utter failure

Dude…! (smile)

Armand