Film · 2011 · Documentary

Cavalry Charge: La Haie Sainte & Plancenoit - The French and Prussian Attacks

Following on from Hougoumont and D'Erlon's Attack, Part III starts just as the great battle reaches its crisis point. Marshal Ney launched thousands of France's finest heavy cavalry against Wellington's thinning lines who had already taken a terrible battering on the Mont St Jean Ridge. Wave after wave of armoured horsemen broke against the steady squares of British, Dutch/Belgian and German troops. The crisis, however, took a further turn for the worse as the key bastion in Wellington's centre, the fortified farm of La Haie Sainte, fell to the French onslaught. The way to Brussels was now open and Wellington muttered, 'Give me Blucher or give me night'. With the situation looking bleaker by the second for Wellington and his troops, Napoleon fatefully hesitated to complete the coup de grace as the Prussians had closed in on his right flank at the Village of Plancenoit. Would the Young Guard be able to hold Blucher's men? There was all still to play for.