Napoleon Bonaparte who assumed the title of the emperor of France, showed by a series of victories he was worthy to be included among the immortals such as Alexander and Julius Caesar. His brilliant victories created such a condition he could not have sat idle with such a powerful army battle hardened and disciplined under his command. Thus he was caught in the crest of a wave that took him to his Russian campaign. Disaster was the result. What went wrong? Winter had only one strategy to which his brilliance in warfare did not work. Add to it what happened at Waterloo. His prominence owed to his artillery, a taste of it was shown at the Siege of Toulon(1793)*. It was a military operation by Republican forces against a Royalist rebellion in the southern French city of Toulon. In every battle his strategy relied on his mastery of this science. On the crucial day where battle was to be joined he had to delay because of unseasonal rains that made artillery ineffective. This delay was to cost him precious hour and it allowed the Allied Armies to regroup while his own divisions were in disarray. So several reasons combined together, to say the least.
We see again the weather playing a crucial role in a crucial battle. I shall quote from Live Science:
Napoleon’s historic defeat at Waterloo may have been spurred by a volcano that erupted two months earlier, and nearly 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) away.
During the decisive battle on June 18, 1815, in what is now Belgium, mucky, wet conditions mired Napoleon’s armies and lent a strategic advantage to his foes. But the heavy rainfall that flooded Europe during May and June that year may have resulted from a significant atmospheric disturbance in April, when an Indonesian volcano named Mount Tambora erupted, according to a new study.
Erupting volcanoes can spew towering ash plumes into the stratosphere, the second layer of the atmosphere, which extends to 32 miles (50 km) above the surface of Earth. Over time, gases from the eruption can create aerosols — air particles — that diffuse solar radiation, which can temporarily affect global climate. But exceptionally powerful eruptions can also generate electrical forces that propel ash particles even higher — into the cloud-forming ionosphere, from 50 to 600 miles (80 to 1,000 km) above the Earth’s surface, Matthew Genge, a senior lecturer in the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at the Imperial College London in the U.K., reported in the study, which was published online Aug. 21 in the journal Geology.
Electrically charged, levitating ash following Tambora’s 1815 eruption thus might have affected weather in Europe within weeks, long before ash particles in the stratosphere darkened European skies during the summer of 1816, according to the study.
Man and nations do not settle the matters to their satisfaction because of their wealth, brains or by numbers. There is One who shall step in where the pride of men needs cut to size. It happened to Napoleon and shall happen again. Man may imagine God is a Bogey, so for skeptics weather is something they can understand and it shall certainly play its part.
*Note:
It was the dictum of Napoleon,’Inspiration in war is appropriate only to the commander-in-chief, and his lieutenants must confine themselves to executing orders.’ On the fateful day before battle at Waterloo was to be joined Napoleon’s inspiration was obviously at low since there were thunderstorms and shower the night before and the great artillery expert, Comte Antoine Drouot advised him to let the ground dry out till mid-day when twelve-pounder batteries could get into position. ‘Had the action begun two hours earlier, it would have been finished by four o’clock’ in favor of Napoleon. Naturally Napoleon who built his fame on the artillery found it prudent to delay and it cost him dearly. Was hubris laughing in her sleeve for all the circumstances given to this Corsican? (selected from my essay:child of circumstances/history- Sept.13, 2010)
Benny
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