Prelude to Waterloo: Quatre Bras: The French Perspective

British historian Andrew Field, who earlier explored the French perspective to the Battle of Waterloo, now turns his methodical approach to the preliminary Battle of Quatre Bras. His carefully reasoned analysis suggests how and why Napoleon failed to achieve his objectives on 16 June 1815, and how that affected the outcome of 18 June 1815. If this is familiar ground to many readers, Field's perspective is a worthwhile change of pace, with some interesting insights.In a brisk 200 pages, Fields examines Napoleon's opening moves in the Waterloo campaign and his initial success in wrong-footing his opponents. Blucher elected to fight at Ligny with only three of his four corps. Wellington only just held his ground at Quatre Bras, thanks to just-in-time reinforcements and to a series of painful mistakes on the French side. The nature of those mistakes come back largely to Marshal Ney, a courageous fighter but a man recalled to commanded only hours before the fight and working at cross purposes with his commander. The narrative captures the excitement of a close-fought battle. The text is enhanced by a nice selection of pictures and battle diagrams. The content is accessible to the general reader while having much to appeal to the student of the campaign. Recommended.

I immensely enjoyed Andrew Field’s Waterloo: The French Perspective, and the author doesn’t disappoint here. In many ways, the Battle of Quatre Bras set the stage for the Battle of Waterloo itself, and the author presents a comprehensive view of the former engagement. The broader strategic implications for the entire campaign are covered of course, and the author gives a terrific background on Napoleon’s Hundred Days and his grand strategy for the campaign.A careful analysis of the Allied and French movements / concentration is given, and the author paints a very colorful (and convincing) picture of the timidity of the French commanders, the communications breakdown, and the growing cracks in the French Army’s morale. Some space is devoted to various military tactics of the French Army and how the infantry-cavalry-artillery collaboration was carried out. Saliently, the author devotes a lot of space to the infamous marches and countermarches of D’Erlon corps during the day, and the (hesitant) participation of two divisions from that corps at Ligny (a much-ignored fact!) is analyzed. The book also illustrates just how close Wellington came to being captured, wounded, or killed. Moreover, we learn quite a bit about the key events before the battle – the nature of Wellington’s promises to the Prussians and the alleged meeting between Napoleon and Ney. In short, buy this book!

This book is an engaging s study of decisions and results of action and, critically, lost opportunities, making the desperate battle of Waterloo unavoidable. The perspective of the participants cannot be known for certain, as the author makes clear. Field shows an army rife with desperation, looking over their shoulder, and lacking crucial elements and leaders, such as Murat and Davout, and relying on such as Ney who instead performed as he had in previous battles (such as Eylau, Bautzen and most of the time in the Peninsular War). I am next reading the book Waterloo: The French Perspective.

"Prelude to Waterloo" describes how Pack's brigade, the Scottish Highlanders, suffered serious casualties, around 40 percent at the Battle of Four Arms. Two days later when Pack's Brigade was confronted by the 45th Regiment de ligne, Marconget's Division, the Highlanders were "in confusion"; "overpowered" by the volume of French musketry. This tactical advantage resulted in the charge of the British heavy cavalry and the repulse of the I Corps. As the battle developed, this counters attack proved decisive.http://napoleonlive.info/see-the-evidence/see-the-evidence-photographs/

Field is an excellent historian. He brings a serving officer's viewpoint and does a great job of filling out a lot of details that, even after years of studying Napoleonic military history, were relatively obscure to me. At the same time, this is a very readable book which will be very interesting and enjoyable to the general reader.

Informative, and really gives a sense of the hours leading up to Waterloo. Depicts the mistakes and courage of both the French and Allied Armies. Wellington was lucky. Napoleon was too concerned with destroying the Prussians. Ney, the "bravest of the brave", was a battle commander and not an overall strategic commander and this possibly lead to the French defeat. The author does a great job depicting this and Napoleon's mistake of not going to Ney's aid

Very engaging and well written. The chaos of a fluid battle, with no one really knowing what was going on and who was gonna show up or when, orders lost and orders countermanded, is brought to life in this gem of a book.

This is a very detailed description of the battle with a good review on it the only thing I didn't like was no maps of the troop movements

I enjoyed reading this book, as a lover of Napoleonic history I was intrigued by the battle of Quatre Bras. I quite quickly became fascinated by the narrative, as this was from certainly the English point of view the prelude to Waterloo (the Prussian historians may disagree). I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the Waterloo or Hundred days campaign. Well written and as far as I can tell well researched.

Informative and delivers as promised ("the French perspective"). The text description of togography and distribution of the various fighting units involved becomes heavy going. Not a criticsm of the material - it suffers from the drawbacks inherent in a Kindle edition. Supporting diagrams and maps are too small to be useful. Hence only three stars - four for material, two only for Kindle.

A superb account, very readable and highly recommended.The author gives a clear and fascinating account of what is often seen merely as a "preliminary " skirmish to the main event of Waterlo and by so doing gives this rather desperate battle to the status it deserves.Wargamers and students of the period will not be disappointed.

There are so many books on the Waterloo Campaign nevertheless this author brings a fresh approach by taking the French Perspective. This book would suit both those who have read a lot about the battle from the Allies point of view and those who do not know the events of Quatre Bras well. Few surprise revelations for the knowledgeable but a fresh look with the eye of a professional soldier. I'm glad i read it.

Great in-depth look at what was possibly the pivotal action of the campaign and refreshingly from the French view point. Highly recommen.