Dan Snow’s History Hit hits the road to Belgium and the Waterloo Battlefield to see the soldier’s bones found in an attic earlier this month.
The Battle of Waterloo is often remembered for its great leaders; Napoleon, Wellington and Blücher. Or, for its sweeping strategic importance but what did the ordinary fighting men endure? We went to the Waterloo Battlefield to learn about the almost apocalyptic reality of the battle with thick quagmires of mud and the bodies of both soldiers and horses strewn about. French Historian Antoin Charpagne shares stories of the men on the ground, what they ate (or didn't), their relationships and how they suffered. The History Hit team then head to Universite de Liege Medical Institute to the morgue to see what bones from Prussian soldiers can tell us about the battle before finally heading on to the Brussels Museum of Natural Sciences where Dan helps Dr Caroline Laforest unpack the British bones that have just arrived.
With great thanks to Mathilde Daumas, Dr Bernard Wilkin and Waterloo Uncovered.
Produced by Mariana Des forges and mixed by Joseph Knight.
If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!