Home Forums Horse and Musket Napoleonic Forest of Soignes – potential deathtrap?

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  • #10923
    Avatar photoMarshal SinCere
    Participant

    With the Waterloo anniversary lurching into view I guess we’re going to see alot of these sort of questions over the next year or so.

     

    My question is about the forest of Soignes (I believe I’ve spelt it correctly), the large woodland to the rear of Wellingtons position at the battle of Waterloo. In the event of a defeat for the Allies, what sort of obstacle would this terrain feature have been to a general retreat? Would it have been a potential trap?

    On St Helena Napoleon wrote that Wellingtons position in front of such an obstacle was hazardous and “contrary to all the rules of war”, whereas (i think) Wellington is recorded as dismissing the potential hazards presented by the forest.

    So, has anybody visited this area? What do you think?

    #10975
    Avatar photoPhil Gray
    Participant

    Probably not so much – it’s a managed woodland, for charcoal (acc. wikipedia)…

    Sand, not oil, in the gears of the world.

    #10978
    Avatar photogrizzlymc
    Participant

    When I drove from Waterloo to Brussels, I stopped the car by the side of the road and walked around a bit.  It was May.  The trees are quite far apart with little or no undergrowth.  They would certainly have inhibited pursuit, but I could cover ground as well as on the battlefield.

    As for what Boney thought on St Helena, it was too late, he came third.

    #10981
    Avatar photoSparker
    Participant

    Yes it seems that Wellington had done a battlefield appreciation of the site a few months before the battle, on a tour of Dutch border defences, and realised the Forest was no obstacle to movement as it was well managed and had wide avenues.

    Frankly, I suspect that if it had come to a retreat, formed units under Colours would have been directed to the North East out Hal way rather than follow the mob back to Brussels…

     

    http://sparkerswargames.blogspot.com.au/
    'Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall need to be well 'ard'
    Matthew 5:9

    #11028
    Avatar photoJeff Bridoux
    Participant

    I grew up near Waterloo and later on lived on the edge of the forest.

    As mentioned, this is by no means a dense forest. There is little undergrowth, the forest is crisscrossed with wide avenues in addition to the main road between Brussels and Charleroi (then cobblestones) cutting right through it.

     

    #11132
    Avatar photoPeeler
    Participant

    I’d think it was open enough to drive a battery of 9pdrs through.

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