Price approx. £40.00. Available from: Peter Hofschröer, Postfach 1427, D-56174 Vallendar, Germany. Published on the centenary of the Battle of Waterloo and recently reprinted, the message of this book is very clear indeed. It can be summed up as follows: The largest single national contingent in Wellington's army were Germans. The Prussian army were also Germans. The bulk of the Allied soldiers in the Campaign of 1815 in the Low Countries were thus Germans. Most of the fighting was done by Germans and most of the casualties were suffered by Germans. Waterloo was therefore a German victory in which the English played a secondary role. The way in which British historians attribute victory in this campaign largely to Wellington is thus a falsification of history. The logic of this argument is almost irrefutable as the facts speak for themselves. However, before accepting all of Bleibtreu's arguments, one has to bear in mind the time at which this work was written. The events of 1914 and 1915 certainly did little towards creating an unemotional and objective relationship between Britain and Germany. Any judgement of Bleibtreu's work has to take this situation into account. The major weakness of Bleibtreu's work is that he fails to footnote his arguments. As such, it is virtually impossible to check the veracity of his points. This is a shame as it is clear from the text that Bleibtreu knows his subject. Moreover, it is also clear from his bibliographical essay at the end of his work that Bleibtreu certainly knows his sources. He has more than a nodding acquaintance with the English, French, Dutch and German published works on this campaign. Moreover, he is critical of certain authors irrespective of their nationality. His description of Clausewitz the historian as emotive, superficial and one-sided certainly concurs with the view on this subject held by the writer of this review. This, and other criticisms of German sources make it difficult to regard Bleibtreu as one of those 'my country right or wrong' historians. Although Bleibtreu is clearly an authority on this subject, his work is not as detailed or as convincing as that of his contemporary Pflugk-Harttung. The latter does give clear information on the sources of his points. He footnotes his work and refers to archive material across Europe. Unlike in Bleibtreu's work, most of Pflugk-Harttung's points can be traced back to their original primary source. As such, the latter's work is of greater value and authority. Bleibtreu's work is thus of not such great benefit to the uninitiated reader; one requires a good knowledge of the content of his sources before one can judge the value of his work. Pflugk-Harttung's Vorgeschichte was published in 1903, more than ten years before Bleibtreu's Lüge, yet Bleibtreu does not refer directly to any of the former's works at all. One is left wondering why. Bleibtreu's arguments are in places quite different from those of Pflugk- Harttung. Take for instance the exact time on 15 June 1815 that Wellington received a report of the French offensive from Ziethen. Whilst Pflugk-Harttung lists all the possibilities according to the various sources he has examined, Bleibtreu is convinced that Wellington first received a report from Ziethen at 3 pm. This is debatable. However, quite rightly, Bleibtreu does not hesitate to point out that Napier's comments on this subject, as published in the Waterloo Letters is an outright lie. A shame that British works even today repeat this untruth as fact. Unfortunately, this is one of many falsehoods that British historians have told on the subject. The reader of Bleibtreu's work cannot help but sympathise with his point of view. To sum up, an interesting read. Well argued if a little emotive in places. Highly critical of most works on the subject, but itself not as well presented as it could have been. The writer of this review would rather have seen Pflugk-Harttung's Vorgeschichte reprinted than Bleibtreu's Lüge as the former is of greater use to later historians. A good read. More Reviews: Napoleon's Soldiers - The Otto manuscript The Eagle's Last Triumph - Napoleon's Victory at Ligny, June 1815. Englands Grosse Waterloo-Lüge One Hundred Days - Napoleon's Road to Waterloo The Fall of Napoleon The Final Betrayal Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #21 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com