At this time 200 years ago, the attack was going in on La Haye Sainte, while Napoleon's heavy

[Berni]

cavalry were keeping the British infantry in squares that were being viciously pounded by French artillery.

'Hard pounding, gentlemen', as the Duke said.

[Classic Jorge]

[Pokster]

basically he is pimping his mum out to AWIMB

[Berni]

He had a tiny little vestigial tail. Did you know that?

[Classic Jorge]

[Classic Jorge]

Is this Trafalgar we're on about here? I'm a little rusty on the whole business of military history, being as I am a little too grown up to care about that sort of thing.

[Pokster]

[Pokster]

does that work?

[Classic Jorge]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

he was alternately dunking his bottom in bowls of cold and warm water in an effort to alleviate his terrible bumgrapes :-(

Remember how tiny Marengo's skeleton was?

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

superfluous to you.

Best stick with the comics, j. A deep understanding of Batman and The Incredible Hulk is much more worthwhile. :thumbup:

[Berni]

This - as you well know - is Waterloo. An event that profoundly shaped world history, leaving Britain the pre-eminent European power for a century and free to expand its imperium and trade all over the world largely unopposed. There is no merit in ignorance of it.

Wellington wasn't tall, but is believed to have been one or two inches taller than Napoleon. However, a mutual lover of them both described Wellington when asked as 'le plus fort' in that department. Huzzah!

[Berni]

did - you'd never have heard about it. A gentleman's bottom is his own private business, after all.

[Classic Jorge]

Science and arts are the key things, you cant define a civilisation by its barbarism

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

pushes his bayoney through your neck?

[Berni]

After all, Darwin would have had a job sailing to the Galapagos if we hadn't ruled the waves at the time. That was down to winning the Napoleonic wars. Indeed, most of Britain's scientific, economic and industrial pre-eminence in the 19th century (which pretty much shaped the modern world, whether you like it or not) would have been impossible without military pre-eminence.

Besides which, you're rather ignoring the fact that so many of our scientific, medical and technological advances spring from war. You'd know that if you bothered your arse studying the subject.

[Classic Jorge]

[the splendor of antigone]

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Klee%2C_paul%2C_angelus_novus%2C_1920.jpg

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

nations on earth because Tommy made it so, right? If not, your ignorance is beyond sad and into the realms of scary.

[Berni]

Irish catholics made up a disproportionate number of the British army throughout the Napoleonic Wars and indeed the British Empire.

Other ranks, mind.

[Snin]

http://www.the-ironduke.com/

[Snin]

[Berni]

Did you do it yourself?

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

this 'Basingstoke', which I assume is as ghastly as it sounds, the further chances of my entering a public house are beyond infinitessimal.

I thank you for your recommendation, however.

[the splendor of antigone]

something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress."

Taking a bit of interpretive freedom there, I find. :hehe:

[Snin]

totally rural, wellington country park and as nice as new forest or something..and its not like a pub..more restaurant ..you big woof

[Berni]

He had voted for George W Bush and was very keen that Al Gore did not win. With hindsight, he was probably right.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Berni]

up when he realised it wasn't very good to make himself look clever.

[redgunamo]

[Berni]

English Civil War took place.

[the splendor of antigone]

[Berni]

What is it? A battle re-enactment in the back paddock with the brood?

[Berni]

Sorry, s. Cricket joke.

[Classic Jorge]

It's blood and **** and bile and vomit

[Classic Jorge]

And I'm not about to thank this country for anything, at best we're about even

[Snin]

http://www.stratfield-saye.co.uk/

and basing house..sounds interesting terrible website :)

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/museum/basing-house and basing house seems to be about 10 miles south of stratfield

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

:loony:

[Berni]

I tend to see war as the birthing throes of history - ghastly, gory, smelly and a bloody noisy, but the offspring can be vaguely interesting.

[Ashberto]

And did not Wellington a little bit photoshop them out of the credits when the batting averages were totted up?

I know nothing of Waterloo tbh, I just STR some historians mentioning this last night.

[redgunamo]

A sort of homemade brandy grog-thing for the parents.

[the splendor of antigone]

subverter-of-Western-civilization-and-decency. If it makes you feel any better, he killed himself :-)

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

No. We (and some Dutch and Russian mercenaries) did the hard graft all day.

Well, in truth, the Dutch lads legged it.

[Jake]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/18/customers-fil med-scrabbling-on-floor-over-cheap-food-in-tesco (http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/18/customers-filmed-scrabbling-on-floor-over-cheap-food-in-tesco)

lol

[Berni]

This idea that Wellington had his arse saved by the Prussians is arrant nonsense. The battle of Waterloo was only fought on the basis that that Prussian and Anglo-Dutch forces would unite. It's a bit like saying that a football team in a close match was saved by its goalkeeper - nonsense because the goalkeeper is part of the team.

As to the credit, Blucher was not one of history's great generals (to say the least) and, had he been rather better, might have got to Waterloo a bit earlier. However, Wellington never to my knowledge underplayed the crucial Prussian role in the battle. If history did, it was because the Prussians were very much the junior partners in the alliance since a/ Britain was paying for everything at the time and b/ Wellington was the superior general (having never lost a battle and having beaten all of Napoleon's marshals) and the British army the superior force

[Berni]

The King's German Legion put up a damn good show that day, though. And they were virtually your lot, weren't they?

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

[Classic Jorge]

[Berni]

It still makes me laugh that there are battles on the Arc de Triomphe that are indisputable British victories. :hehe:

[Berni]

We've all been led astray by the Portuguese at some point, surely?

[Berni]

the whole thing could have gone a different way and the reasons why they didn't are surely a reasonable subject for an intelligent chap to study.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Last week I fell into company in a bar with a Yanqui who claimed to be Portugese. He must have been the boringest c**t ever born of woman.

They're like that though, aren't they? Sort of Mediterranean, but actually on the north Atlantic. Sort of Spanish but talk like Russians. Confused. And dull.

[Billy Goat Sverige]

all be hung. f**king filth.

[Classic Jorge]

I do hope our suspicions of eachother's mutual lunacy doesnt come between us lampost chamberpot.

[Berni]

like I had 'made pee-pee' in my damp swimming shorts. :furious:

Indeed, of the two, it's the latter who still most riles me.

[Classic Jorge]

But military history just leaves me so very cold I simply cannot pay attention

[Berni]

behaviour.

[Berni]

You can't look at the history of the 20th century, just sort of skip the war bits and hope to understand the rest of it. You just can't.

[Billy Goat Sverige]

Quote:



I'm not surprised living in Tory controlled Britain is hard for lots of people. People are desperate to make savings, though the reductions Tesco make are not that big. Little wonder people are deserting them, they get better value, and often better quality at Lidl or Aldi.

[Berni]

[TRENT COLTON]

Wellington would've been appalled.

[Berni]

and flogged the backs off them the moment they stepped out of line.

'Put the French in front of them and the fear of God behind them and they'll stand and fight."

He also drilled them. They could fire three to four rounds a minute in line. No other army in Europe could match that. And, as Wellington said: 'No man fears to do that which he knows he does well.'

Quite the student of human moves was Sir Arthur.