Re: Apropos of Colonels
I recall seeing the movie Waterloo around 1970 or so. Rod Steiger played Napoleon, Christopher Plummer as Wellington, along with thousands of accurately uniformed extras. It’s a great movie, quite brutal in its depiction of the fighting. I was 13 at the time, and I remember the depiction of Ponsonby’s death really upsetting me (in retreat from a failed cavalry charge, Ponsonby’s horse became mired in mud and he is run down and killed by French lancers). I also remember the scene where Napoleon sends the Old Guard forward assured they will break Wellington’s center, but a British regiment, hidden in some tall grass, leaps up and fires volley after volley into the French ranks. The Old Guard, the linchpin of Napoleon’s army for so many years, routs, and thus starts the collapse of the French Army. It’s a great movie, despite the lousy reviews I remember reading. Steiger was so good.
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