Always loved how with Sharpe’s Production Budget classed 50 blokes as a battalion sized unit and 30 horses as a mass cavalry charge, yet still made it fun to watch 😂
@@solowingpixy8190 well cgi is good if they weren't overly used. Cgi can be used to make battles like this great by adding every little bit of things to increase value and effects. I can understand why it's disliked it's because some productions aren't good at using cgi more conservatively
Not seen here but in the book amongst the dead are the two captains (Carline and Smith) that Sharpe finds courting women when he arrives to collect reinforcements in Sharpe’s regiment. They along with most of the other mounted officers die whilst buying time for the infantry to escape to the trees, proving themselves heroes in the end despite a less than impressive start to their time in the battalion.
TBF they were beaten into shape by Sharpe. Another proof how Sharpe would have been one of the only three competent Colonels in South Essex'es history.
Achievement Earned: *Buffle Brained Bastard* *Dear oh Dear oh Dear* *Pulled a Simmerson* “A man who loses the King’s Colors, loses the King’s friendship.”
This was one part of the series where the limited budget made me question what was going on. There is totally time to form square when you only got 30 men in the shot. ...but a battalion of 500-1000 men wouldn't have time.
Taking back the Colours..... And That My Friends is where you Will Never See A Better Example of Soldiering ! and it still gives me goosebumps 20 Years on.
To be fair, as long as you could properly protect the flanks or have some sort of chokepoint, a line formation CAN work against cavalry in the same principles as a phalanx or pike block would. You present rows of fire on the incoming cavalry, then they run into rows of bayonets. The issue, of course, is that just as in this situation cavalry is not going to run headlong into a line if they can avoid it and will try to flank with their superior speed before the infantry can turn. It also did not help that the ranks got confused (Sharpe, though trying to help, caused confusion with calling a retreat to the trees while the colonel tried to form squares if too late), so even if they could have presented enough fire to shoot down the incoming cavalry it was confused and unable to act.
@@powderedwiglouis1238 In this situation, absolutely: they were not prepared at all for the charge. If they were prepared, they might have at least had a chance to get a volley off and be ready to receive, but in this case they were not ready. Squares are still better against cavalry, though.
@@Luke_Danger I was thinking that too re the confusion. The veterans who knew Sharpe probably ran knowing that his order was the right one, but the newer ranks probably blindly obeyed their myopic - and idiotic - commanding officer. Net result not enough men to form square or organisation to even try.
Luke Danger It also didn’t help that the British army at this period abandoned the 3 file deep line in favour of the 2 file deep line so they could maximise a unit’s firing capability as well as reduce its susceptibility to artillery gun fire. Of course, the consequence was that the infantry were now extremely vulnerable to cavalry if they were charged while in line. Against a tightly packed French cavalry squadron 3+ ranks deep, its easy to see why a 2 rank line of infantry would flee.
Robert Walker there was a part where the Black Watch were caught in line because they thought the cavalry moving to take up position on there flank were Brunswick cavalry but they were actually French cuirassiers I think this is a reference to that Incidnelty the French killed there colonel as he was being stretchered back to the medical tent and apparently provosts had to stop the men from killing French prisoners because they were so enraged over the murder of there colonel
I think this is the final time that we hear the heroic/tragic variation of 'Over the Hills' with its glorious descending scales and full brass section. Gives me goose bumps.
Whats amazing in a bad sense is that in the book he ends up doing this 3 times & in this particular one there was about 5 battalions I think it was he told to form line, I think 2 managed to form square in time but the other 3 couldn't & got slaughtered, the South Essex made it to the trees but not without losing most of its officers. He then sends a Hanoverian Regiment to retake La Haye Sainte Farm which he for some reason thinks has fallen but hasn't & then sends two King German Legion battalions forward in line again & again there slaughtered, whats great is that Doggett then calls him a "silk stocking full of shit" & rides off before he could say anything.
Could watch this scene all day just for that rant! Only scene better IMO is hakeswill getting a good hard knee to the groin after twitching while Sharpe rips him a new one for trying it on with teresa (not that she needed his help, teresa was a badass!)
when you get caught in line by enemy cavalry, the best thing to do is leg it for the treeline where the enemy horses cant charge. in that situation I do believe they did the best they could with the shitty situation they had.
Prince of orange was wrong to make the infantry form line against the french cavalry. You always form square to recieve an oncoming calvalry charge. By the time they were ordered to form it the cavalry caught them in bloody line. No wonder sharpe ended up shooting the prince because not only he got good men killed but he also got 2 of sharpes loyalist soldiers daniel hagman and harris killed.
Except the cavalry were hidden from view. The prince did what was correct for what he could /see/ which was artillery. His mistake was in not accepting the opinion of a more experienced man.
Thing is, even though Square is the optimal formation for recieving cavalry, a steadfast line formation is also effective, probably because if its a braced line it functions like a long wall of a square formation. I cant recall the exact book I read this in but it was reputable afaik, ill try find it on my bookshelf for those curious.
With the budget one could question why not hold the line, fire and give that little group of cavalry the bayonet but we must assume there was thousands as per what they usually say when there’s 30 lol.
@@darkclawgreatonenas FILTH. If that were me and I knew there was cavalry I would tell my men to form line I'd tell them to remain in square. I never take orders form royal twats. God Save Ireland.
You have two choices Sir Henry, to hide in England or be a hero in Spain, I shall help you to be a hero. We had a skirmish with the French today, tomorrow we will have a Battle. You will be the first to see a French Column, it is not a pretty sight, what you do then Sir is up to you. Good Morning.
Honestly running for the trees was a poor decision. You'd want to stay as close together as possible and cover each others backs. If you manage to group enough people together, horses won't have an opening to get close to you. This is because unlike what you see in games and movies, horses don't charge head-on into people. They're not cars, they're animals. Even though they could easily trample several people if they ran into a group, they naturally don't want to run into a wall of people with pointy sticks, why in their right minds would they want to do that? However if you run for the trees in a disorganised fashion, cavalry have free reign to run around and pick you off one-by-one. You're leaving your back open and you're giving cavalry enough space to move around. So forming a square, despite not having a lot of time to do so, would have been the optimal solution to the difficult scenario they were placed in. Sharpe got a lot of people killed in this scene. Not like it was entirely his fault and a lot of people would have died even if they followed their commander's advice, but less would have died if they had followed their commanders advice and formed square. At least that's what I think. Perhaps if they were closer to the trees or the cavalry was further away, running for the trees would have been a good decision. But with what we were shown here, forming square or huddling together would have been the best option.
Well this depends on the cavalry and the skill of your own infantry. In this scenario, running to the trees would likely have been the best option, since the French Cuirassiers had already caught the men off guard. The impact of a cavalry charge is in equal parts damaging to morale and damaging to your own numbers. Seeing a well-organized group of men on horseback was noted as being a terrifying sight. On top of which, there were instances where men in line formation were almost completely annihilated by an organized cavalry charge, like during the Battle of Albuera, where a brigade of the 66th Regiment of Foot was almost completely wiped out by Lancers of the Vistula Legion, despite being formed in line. While yes, horses aren’t cars and won’t mindlessly charge to their deaths, keeping yourselves closely packed is only part of the problem. Cavalry are shock troops, after all, and I don’t believe any man would want to stick around and see if the horse decided to go through with their charge, especially if they were so close to the relative safety of the tree line.
The average British regiment in the napoleonic era had between 600-650 men with up to 1000 on paper. Napoleons cuirasseurs tended to field 800-1000. So you are almost outnumbered by double your strength and are fighting heavy cavalry whose main goal is to smash through your line to break it up. They were infact trained to do this
also the square was not an invincible formation as was demonstrated at the battle of garcia hernandez in the spanish war .. the french square fired too late and horse rammed the square leading to it being shreded
A properly formed square shouldn't /have/ to fire at all, albeit they obviously do to thin the cavalry ranks; the front rank's grounded muskets pointing bayonets at the advancing cavalry is supposed to be enough. The horse having more sense than the rider won't go near the bayonets. I'm not an expert on Garcia Hernandez but I'm assuming the French did not have their bayonets fixed? Incidentally IIRC it was a troop of KGL cavalry that broke the French square?
@@julianmhall yeah the french infantry were fully formed bayonet fixed in square and they fired too late and hit a cavalrymen whos horse fell down and hit 6 men they then broke the square entirely and routed them .. then they charged a second square that instantly broke due to seeing what happened to the first square... and yeah they were KGL horsemen breaking 2 squares is not nothing
Naaa. Just some english guys on their way back from the French language course, while still in their cosplaying gear. Who want to play a friendly match of 'capture the flag'.
Such a shame the episode wasn't handled better - at no point did I believe it was Waterloo. They could have done better: the filming style didn't help, it actually managed to destroy the atmosphere; a few hundred reenactors would have worked wonders & the sound was crap, where's the din of battle?!
Sean Bean is such a great actor because he's essentially playing himself. I remember a story from years ago when he protected a lady from a knife-wielding assailant outside of a pub. He was cut in the process but ultimately emerged victorious, refused medical treatment and went back into the pub and ordered another pint!
Two things irked me about this episode. The first is they kept calling those cavalry lancers when they’re cuirassiers. The second is the cuirassiers have the wrong swords. In sharpe they have curved sabres when in reality they carried straight kligenthal an xiii swords
If the production team had the resources to get what looks like at least two dozen horses for the French cavalry, why was the whole Prussian "army" only made up of three horsemen? Couldn't they have kept the other horses and just put the riders in Prussian costumes?
Always loved how with Sharpe’s Production Budget classed 50 blokes as a battalion sized unit and 30 horses as a mass cavalry charge, yet still made it fun to watch 😂
Still prefer this to cgi
@@solowingpixy8190 well cgi is good if they weren't overly used. Cgi can be used to make battles like this great by adding every little bit of things to increase value and effects. I can understand why it's disliked it's because some productions aren't good at using cgi more conservatively
@@koreancowboy42 CGI will never go away....only get better
With a bit of imagination and some good camera work, you can make 20 extras look like 100. DeMille was good at doing that.
I love how these guys dropped dead after getting tapped with a stick!
Not seen here but in the book amongst the dead are the two captains (Carline and Smith) that Sharpe finds courting women when he arrives to collect reinforcements in Sharpe’s regiment. They along with most of the other mounted officers die whilst buying time for the infantry to escape to the trees, proving themselves heroes in the end despite a less than impressive start to their time in the battalion.
TBF they were beaten into shape by Sharpe. Another proof how Sharpe would have been one of the only three competent Colonels in South Essex'es history.
Sharpe has vivid memories of the last time the South Essex lost its colours, thankfully he didnt promise a dying major an eagle this time.
"Ah for christ's sake not another one"
In the books it's the 69th that lost their colour, as they did in reality.
'How can the same s**t happen to the same guy twice??' Oh sorry wrong franchise :)
1:41 "What do you mean too late ? you just have to click on the 'form square' button."
Upon sighting enemy cavalry I immediately gave the order to advance in line: that's me style!
Major Lennox was a demn fine officer. Did I ever tell you how he steadied the line at Assaye?
@@stig78leic No sir *sniff* *wink*
I have friends in horse guards😂
Thats not soldiering
@@TechNizzle88 You're a damn liar Hogan!
Achievement Earned:
*Buffle Brained Bastard*
*Dear oh Dear oh Dear*
*Pulled a Simmerson*
“A man who loses the King’s Colors, loses the King’s friendship.”
Killer Joy ROFL XD
Achievement Earned:
*Blue Streak*
You’ve disgraced us sir
MAJOR LENNOX ANSWERED WITH HIS LIFE SIR, as you should have done if you had any sense of honour!
You lost the colours of the King of England
Buffle brained bastid
Yes they're French!!
..... however due to a limited ITV budget there's only 12 of them so don't worry too much
Idk the regiment is only 15 strong and they have horses!
Beats 10,000 cgi sprites.
This was one part of the series where the limited budget made me question what was going on. There is totally time to form square when you only got 30 men in the shot.
...but a battalion of 500-1000 men wouldn't have time.
Only Sean Bean with his yorkshire accent can say TWAT with such venom! :)
Due to illness, the role of Richard Sharpe will be performed by Gordon Ramsay.
Taking back the Colours..... And That My Friends is where you Will Never See A Better Example of Soldiering ! and it still gives me goosebumps 20 Years on.
But the unit's Union Jack was taken, a serious loss of honor.
@@DTavona *union flag
@@DavidSternburgYt Either is valid.
@@KeluskTV one is only valid on the back of a royal navy warship....
@@DTavona A MAN WHO LOSES THE KINGS COLORS LOSES THE KINGS FRIENDSHI
"Cavalry."
"Cavalry."
"Cavalry."
"It's only a model."
Garret LeBuis “Shut up!”
Shhhh
Standing close together in tightly packed ranks and files
That's not social distancing.
ranks & files is the same thing
Nope,but that´s soldiering.
@@GWRProductions-kg9pt
Ranks = Rows
Files = Columns
J.R. Bossard hillarious!
No. It's soldiering.
Social distancing is for children.
Soldiering is for adults.
Forming Line in face of Calvary you know is there, now that's stupidity!
The AI on easy in Napoleon: Total War wouldn't make this mistake.
To be fair, as long as you could properly protect the flanks or have some sort of chokepoint, a line formation CAN work against cavalry in the same principles as a phalanx or pike block would. You present rows of fire on the incoming cavalry, then they run into rows of bayonets.
The issue, of course, is that just as in this situation cavalry is not going to run headlong into a line if they can avoid it and will try to flank with their superior speed before the infantry can turn. It also did not help that the ranks got confused (Sharpe, though trying to help, caused confusion with calling a retreat to the trees while the colonel tried to form squares if too late), so even if they could have presented enough fire to shoot down the incoming cavalry it was confused and unable to act.
@@Luke_Danger the problem is morale in that situation the men would just break .. i mean if you were front charge by horsemen and out of formation
@@powderedwiglouis1238 In this situation, absolutely: they were not prepared at all for the charge. If they were prepared, they might have at least had a chance to get a volley off and be ready to receive, but in this case they were not ready.
Squares are still better against cavalry, though.
@@Luke_Danger I was thinking that too re the confusion. The veterans who knew Sharpe probably ran knowing that his order was the right one, but the newer ranks probably blindly obeyed their myopic - and idiotic - commanding officer. Net result not enough men to form square or organisation to even try.
Luke Danger
It also didn’t help that the British army at this period abandoned the 3 file deep line in favour of the 2 file deep line so they could maximise a unit’s firing capability as well as reduce its susceptibility to artillery gun fire. Of course, the consequence was that the infantry were now extremely vulnerable to cavalry if they were charged while in line.
Against a tightly packed French cavalry squadron 3+ ranks deep, its easy to see why a 2 rank line of infantry would flee.
“Are they French?”
**cavalry charging at full gallop with sabers drawn**
Me: “No surely they’re British.”
I laughed at that line too.
Sharpe is great but some of the writing is so corny/bad.
@@Mr__Chicken I think its just a throwaway line to show that this guy doesnt know what hes doing
Yup, just some of the lads who want to play a friendly game of 'capture the flag', Sir!
Robert Walker there was a part where the Black Watch were caught in line because they thought the cavalry moving to take up position on there flank were Brunswick cavalry but they were actually French cuirassiers I think this is a reference to that
Incidnelty the French killed there colonel as he was being stretchered back to the medical tent and apparently provosts had to stop the men from killing French prisoners because they were so enraged over the murder of there colonel
0:08 to 0:15 the most impressive swearing ever. Sharpe being angry on a score 1-10 = 15
Sharpe took the colours because he couldn't afford to risk taking an eagle again
Though he may have gotten the regimental colours, he couldn't get the union jack back.
@@AlphaLeader42 King's colours, it's known as the union flag, only time it's referred to as the jack is when it's flown at sea
@@GWRProductions-kg9pt not true
@@GWRProductions-kg9pt True. He saved the Regimental Colours at least though :D
Saying O God three times, that's realising.
That's about the level of childish writing alright.
Our equivalent of Awwww shiiit
Aaaaaand a sin. Blasphemy to be exact.
Mainly because it was considered bad form to say 'Oh for ....k's sake!' especially to the son of a monarch. Not that it stopped Sharpe of course :)
I think this is the final time that we hear the heroic/tragic variation of 'Over the Hills' with its glorious descending scales and full brass section. Gives me goose bumps.
Give me pride to know the honour and fear of God that existed during this time period. That England is dead. Those who remember mourn its loss!
@@Shorthairification Did you miss the part where the entire series criticizes the systems that value “divine right of birth” over merit.
Gabriele what has that got to do with what he said? He’s talking about god and honour, not the aristocracy
Oh God... I have fallen into the trope.
0:30 Sharpe: Yup, totes! Brigade wants us to reform the square!
Whats amazing in a bad sense is that in the book he ends up doing this 3 times & in this particular one there was about 5 battalions I think it was he told to form line, I think 2 managed to form square in time but the other 3 couldn't & got slaughtered, the South Essex made it to the trees but not without losing most of its officers.
He then sends a Hanoverian Regiment to retake La Haye Sainte Farm which he for some reason thinks has fallen but hasn't & then sends two King German Legion battalions forward in line again & again there slaughtered, whats great is that Doggett then calls him a "silk stocking full of shit" & rides off before he could say anything.
"Oh God"
"Oh God"
"Oh God"
"Oh Yeah"
Henry Gaervell it’s so dramatic and I love it!
All that was missing was Nosey doing a face-palm :)
1:06 - Ohh God (x4)!!!!
They edited out the next scene where the Kool-Aid Man yells OH YEAH and busts through the PoWOVs in square
He whole looses the Kings Colours losses the king's Friendship....
Whole?
@@soriddosuneko Looses? xD
If I wipe the name I may wipe the shame.
King is no friend of your grammar.
@@kevinneely2117 the light company put up a fight so I will let it stand under the command of a new Captain.
Could watch this scene all day just for that rant!
Only scene better IMO is hakeswill getting a good hard knee to the groin after twitching while Sharpe rips him a new one for trying it on with teresa (not that she needed his help, teresa was a badass!)
0:07 to 0:17 Ranting about the Prince of Orange Now Thats Soldiering
Sharpe: Form square.
Odysseus: GET THE MEN BACK INTO LINES
The title of this episode is pretty much the whole plot of the series
Making a mad dash to prevent your regiment from losing their colours AGAIN...
That’s remembering!
YOU’VE LOST THE COLOURS OF THE KING OF ENGLAND SIR!
YOU'VE DISGRACED US SIR! YOU SHAMED US SIR! YOU.WILL.ANSWER!
“Are They French?”
No, no. They’re just friendly civilians.
On their way back from a French language course.
No, only some friendly locals riding towards us in full gallop with sabers drawn. Pay no mind to them.
Shoulda gone to Specsavers.
when you get caught in line by enemy cavalry, the best thing to do is leg it for the treeline where the enemy horses cant charge. in that situation I do believe they did the best they could with the shitty situation they had.
Prince of orange was wrong to make the infantry form line against the french cavalry. You always form square to recieve an oncoming calvalry charge. By the time they were ordered to form it the cavalry caught them in bloody line. No wonder sharpe ended up shooting the prince because not only he got good men killed but he also got 2 of sharpes loyalist soldiers daniel hagman and harris killed.
Except the cavalry were hidden from view. The prince did what was correct for what he could /see/ which was artillery. His mistake was in not accepting the opinion of a more experienced man.
I bet they had fun filming this series
A fair fight finally. Not often you see that in Sharpe
Me being a nub in napoleon total war
No weapon of war can surpass the instant death sword. Simply tap a man, even on his armor or even just his backpack, and he immediately falls dead.
Soldiering can only do so much.....
Now that's soldiering.
Sharpe at his best
2:10 What, are they armed with lightsabers? Lol.
When Harper tells you to run, you run dammit!
The fault is not his, Major Lennux must answer.
Zachary K. Major Lennox paid with his life!
MAJOR LENNOX ANSWERED WITH HIS LIFE! *slaps desk* JUST AS YOU SHOULD HAVE IF YOU HAD ANY SENSE OF HONOR!
I have friends at court, sir.
@@Tapsomebong234 you disgraced us Sir, you shamed us Sir, you will answer.
Thing is, even though Square is the optimal formation for recieving cavalry, a steadfast line formation is also effective, probably because if its a braced line it functions like a long wall of a square formation. I cant recall the exact book I read this in but it was reputable afaik, ill try find it on my bookshelf for those curious.
With the budget one could question why not hold the line, fire and give that little group of cavalry the bayonet but we must assume there was thousands as per what they usually say when there’s 30 lol.
Prince of Orange, the best ally Boney ever had...
Is this where Captain Hastings first met Poirot?
Not forming square when you know there is enemy cavalry but your commander tells you to form line... that's NOT bloody soldiering!
oh it is, it is...VERY bloody soldiering...
No, but it is very ripe Sir! ;)
@@darkclawgreatonenas FILTH. If that were me and I knew there was cavalry I would tell my men to form line I'd tell them to remain in square. I never take orders form royal twats. God Save Ireland.
Square *
It almost literally is. Unless you're German.
Where can I report these ruffians to the police for ignoring social distancing guidelines?
They didn't know any of that in those days
Can’t wait to see the wrath of Wellington after.
in the book i think they smeared butter on the rag he s uses to clean his glasses as a prank so there foggy the whole battle
2:51 nice
A man who loses the kings colours has no freinds..
Even if they are at horseguards?
@@henrygaervell3251 dont you horsegaurds me sir ! I have freinds at court !
@@henrygaervell3251 you are dismissed Sir Henry!
You have two choices Sir Henry, to hide in England or be a hero in Spain, I shall help you to be a hero. We had a skirmish with the French today, tomorrow we will have a Battle. You will be the first to see a French Column, it is not a pretty sight, what you do then Sir is up to you. Good Morning.
When leaders fail to lead, soldiers die....
Ok, never saw the series, but always watch the TH-cam clips, don't really understand why.
0:08 best part
i didnt know wandavision could bring me as far as this video
Oh no, the sad scene will be coming soon.
Forming line against charging french cavalry. Now thats soldiering
no it bloody isn't
'Oh god!'
*'Oh GOD!'*
_'oh god...'_
I tell you what the actor who plays the price of orange is spot on!
So the actual one was a stereotype as well, was he? Did you know him personally?
"Oh God" - Shock
"Oh God" - Horror
"Oh God" - Disappointment
Today on "Clip Headlines That Could Be Used To Describe the Whole Series"...
So, Capture the Flag has been a thing for, like, a while, eh?
one does not simply form a square while being charged.
Oh god...
Oh God...
@@TheColonialGamer131 Oh Yeah boi.
*Orders Cavalry like in Empire total war*
2:49 that guy was half asleep.
That last, "My brother's just joined...I can't look" part of the scene seems like it could have been done much better, don't you think?
Oh god
Oh god...
See? If Sharpe had listened to the Prince of Orange to firm square, none of those men would've been killed!!!!
is there anywhere to watch this show online?
Dailymotion has most of the series
What was the last comment from the officer at the end of the scene about? Who is he, or his brother?
Captain Harry Price commander of the light company. He has become less willowly and dead since his appearance in Sharpe's Company.
His brother had recently joined and had got killed
Whats the point of having armour if a tap from a sword instantly kills you at 2:50
Never seen a cuirassier carrying a curved sword
Tries? That's not my style sir!
Honestly running for the trees was a poor decision.
You'd want to stay as close together as possible and cover each others backs. If you manage to group enough people together, horses won't have an opening to get close to you. This is because unlike what you see in games and movies, horses don't charge head-on into people. They're not cars, they're animals. Even though they could easily trample several people if they ran into a group, they naturally don't want to run into a wall of people with pointy sticks, why in their right minds would they want to do that?
However if you run for the trees in a disorganised fashion, cavalry have free reign to run around and pick you off one-by-one. You're leaving your back open and you're giving cavalry enough space to move around.
So forming a square, despite not having a lot of time to do so, would have been the optimal solution to the difficult scenario they were placed in. Sharpe got a lot of people killed in this scene. Not like it was entirely his fault and a lot of people would have died even if they followed their commander's advice, but less would have died if they had followed their commanders advice and formed square.
At least that's what I think.
Perhaps if they were closer to the trees or the cavalry was further away, running for the trees would have been a good decision. But with what we were shown here, forming square or huddling together would have been the best option.
Well this depends on the cavalry and the skill of your own infantry. In this scenario, running to the trees would likely have been the best option, since the French Cuirassiers had already caught the men off guard.
The impact of a cavalry charge is in equal parts damaging to morale and damaging to your own numbers. Seeing a well-organized group of men on horseback was noted as being a terrifying sight.
On top of which, there were instances where men in line formation were almost completely annihilated by an organized cavalry charge, like during the Battle of Albuera, where a brigade of the 66th Regiment of Foot was almost completely wiped out by Lancers of the Vistula Legion, despite being formed in line.
While yes, horses aren’t cars and won’t mindlessly charge to their deaths, keeping yourselves closely packed is only part of the problem. Cavalry are shock troops, after all, and I don’t believe any man would want to stick around and see if the horse decided to go through with their charge, especially if they were so close to the relative safety of the tree line.
In the circumstances the best they could do is fix bayonets, defeat the first charge to buy time, and then try to escape or form square.
The average British regiment in the napoleonic era had between 600-650 men with up to 1000 on paper. Napoleons cuirasseurs tended to field 800-1000. So you are almost outnumbered by double your strength and are fighting heavy cavalry whose main goal is to smash through your line to break it up. They were infact trained to do this
For square....ho GOD to late to late! Save your self's
There's got to be a SpongeBob SquarePants joke in here somewhere.
also the square was not an invincible formation as was demonstrated at the battle of garcia hernandez in the spanish war .. the french square fired too late and horse rammed the square leading to it being shreded
A properly formed square shouldn't /have/ to fire at all, albeit they obviously do to thin the cavalry ranks; the front rank's grounded muskets pointing bayonets at the advancing cavalry is supposed to be enough. The horse having more sense than the rider won't go near the bayonets. I'm not an expert on Garcia Hernandez but I'm assuming the French did not have their bayonets fixed? Incidentally IIRC it was a troop of KGL cavalry that broke the French square?
@@julianmhall yeah the french infantry were fully formed bayonet fixed in square and they fired too late and hit a cavalrymen whos horse fell down and hit 6 men they then broke the square entirely and routed them
.. then they charged a second square that instantly broke due to seeing what happened to the first square... and yeah they were KGL horsemen breaking 2 squares is not nothing
A battlefield where fools fooling around and sending fools to die
Oh God!
*Oh GOD!*
God can't help them now...
The French tries to fight off Shape
RUN YOU WANKERS!!!!! Oh and there goes the colors again...
Oh God x3
One thing I never liked about this series was being touched by a saber equals instant death.
why can't they shoot at cavalry?
Are they french ?
Naaa. Just some english guys on their way back from the French language course, while still in their cosplaying gear. Who want to play a friendly match of 'capture the flag'.
@@Furzkampfbomber Xd I was quoting a line from the film
Such a shame the episode wasn't handled better - at no point did I believe it was Waterloo. They could have done better: the filming style didn't help, it actually managed to destroy the atmosphere; a few hundred reenactors would have worked wonders & the sound was crap, where's the din of battle?!
Sean Bean is such a great actor because he's essentially playing himself. I remember a story from years ago when he protected a lady from a knife-wielding assailant outside of a pub. He was cut in the process but ultimately emerged victorious, refused medical treatment and went back into the pub and ordered another pint!
Wow!
shoulda formed square imo
The Napoleonic wars started the game mode cap the flag
Two things irked me about this episode. The first is they kept calling those cavalry lancers when they’re cuirassiers. The second is the cuirassiers have the wrong swords. In sharpe they have curved sabres when in reality they carried straight kligenthal an xiii swords
And that a gentle tap with a sword is all that is needed to kill them, ah well budgets will be budgets.
If the production team had the resources to get what looks like at least two dozen horses for the French cavalry, why was the whole Prussian "army" only made up of three horsemen? Couldn't they have kept the other horses and just put the riders in Prussian costumes?
What'z with the Sharpe and French anyway, can't they just talk about it?
He gets on ok with the women
Oof
Form Square and get blasted by shot and shell...form line and get ridden down by French Cuirassier ... the agony of choice,...
3:02 ram the FUCK outta that thing!!!
hi
When solders pretend to be Warriors. And just follow orders.
As inhumane to the animals the horses should have been brought down first.
It is inhumane to the men to be in this situation.
'Aim for the horses' would have been a common command in an infantry square
are they french?
not the worst last words you can say on a battlefield