Friendly Fire at Waterloo
1815
Andrew Uffindell, UK
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Friendly fire is not unique to the fast-moving, high-technological warfare of the modern era. But only recently, in the Gulf War of 1991, has it entered the public consciousness. A fresh examination of the famous battles of the past will reveal scores of friendly fire tragedies. The decisive outcome of the epic Waterloo campaign of 1815 has overshadowed the number and seriousness of the friendly fire incidents that occurred during it.
Soldiers at Waterloo wore brightly coloured uniforms as the inaccurate and short-range musketry of the era rendered camouflage superfluous. Yet these bright uniforms, so easy to spot, were often difficult to identify as friend or foe. Wellington's army wore scores of different colours and designs of uniform, from the traditional red coats of the British infantry to the dark blue of the British artillery and light cavalry to the green of the Nassau contingent or the black of the Brunswickers.
Wellington's Dutch and Belgian infantry wore dark blue jackets or grey greatcoats, as did the French. Captain Cavalié Mercer, commander of 'G' Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, was about to fire on some infantry columns when a fellow officer providentially recognised them as Belgian. [1] The commander of the British 12th Light Dragoons, Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Frederick Ponsonby, wrote: 'much confusion arose, and many mistakes, from similarity of dress. The Belgians in particular suffered greatly from their resemblance to the French, being still in the very same clothes they [had previously] served in under Bonaparte. Sir Denis Pack [commander of a British infantry brigade] said that the greatest risk he ran the whole day was in stopping his men, who were firing on me and my regiment, when we began to charge.' [2]
The Prussian army under Wellington's ally, Blücher, suffered from Prussia's weak economy and had a wide variety of uniforms. Many Prussian units wore dark blue jackets and were often confused with French troops at a distance. On 17 June, Lord Uxbridge organised Wellington's rearguard during the retreat from Quatre Bras to the Waterloo position. Uxbridge looked through his glass and noticed Napoleon's troops approaching from the east. 'By the Lord, they are Prussians!' he exclaimed and galloped away to meet them. Fortunately, he realised his mistake before he came into danger and reappeared to order his horse artillery to open fire. [3]
Observers from afar also confused Prussian and French troops in the evening of the battle of Waterloo. As Blücher's Prussians pressed home their attack against the eastern flank of Napoleon's army, Sergeant Duncan Robertson of the 92nd Highlanders watched from the north and was puzzled: 'on the enemy's right I saw that a cross fire had been commenced, and that troops in the same dress had turned the extremity of their line and were advancing rapidly. I immediately informed the adjutant, who said that perhaps it was a mutiny in the French army.' [4]
Further problems of identification arose, for on campaign soldiers did not wear the uniforms prescribed by the regulations. Uniforms were designed for visual impact not for comfort and troops would inevitably seek to modify this. Wellington himself wore civilian dress, as did Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton, the commander of the British 5th Division. According to Ensign the Hon. George Keppel, the 14th Foot was unrecognisable on the day after Waterloo: 'our lads had decked themselves in the spoils of the vanquished, and presented a motley group of Imperial cuirassiers, hussars, and grenadiers à cheval.' [5]
Similarly, Wellington had to ask the identity of one of his units after the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo in 1812 during the Peninsular war. 'Who the devil are those fellows?' he demanded. They turned out to be the crack 95th Rifles. 'There was scarcely a vestige of uniform among the men,' noted Johnny Kincaid. 'Some ... were dressed in Frenchmen's coats, some in white breeches, and huge jack-boots, some with cocked hats and queues; most of their swords were fixed on the rifles, and stuck full of hams, tongues, and loaves of bread, and not a few were carrying bird–cages! There never was a better masked corps!' [6]
The mud at Waterloo added another dimension to the problem of recognition, for one surgeon noted that the Life Guards were so covered with it that the scarlet of their jackets was invisible. [7] Furthermore, the black powder used by the infantry and artillery produced dense clouds of white smoke; smokeless powder entered service only in the 1880s. The smoke rapidly isolated units and made it impossible for soldiers to be sure they were not firing at friendly forces. 'The noise and smoke were dreadful,' wrote a soldier of the 71st Light Infantry. 'At this time I could see but a very little way from me; but, all around, the wounded and slain lay very thick.' [8]
Wellington had already experienced problems with uniforms in the Peninsular war. He once lost a picquet of light dragoons who had assumed that a force of French cavalry were from the nearby 2nd Hussars of the King's German Legion, since they wore the same caps. This provoked a letter from the Duke: 'I only beg that we may be as different as possible from the French in everything. It is impossible to form any idea of the inconvenience and injury which result from having anything like them on horseback or on foot.' [9]
Alas, the Duke's hopes were unfulfilled and at the Battle of Quatre Bras two days before Waterloo, a Scottish battalion fired on the Belgian 5th Light Dragoons, who had been overthrown by the French 6th Chasseurs à cheval. The Highlanders' tragic error was wholly understandable since the Belgian horsemen wore almost exactly the same green jackets with yellow facings as the French chasseurs.
A sergeant in the 12th Light Dragoons rode up to what he thought was his own regiment on the morning of Waterloo. He then discovered to his astonishment that it was a party of French light cavalry wearing similar uniforms and was lucky to escape with a slight sabre wound. [10]
The worst incident of friendly fire at Waterloo occurred in the late afternoon when Prussian infantry linked up with the Nassau troops posted on Wellington's eastern wing. The Nassauers were German but their shared language did not prevent the Prussians mistaking the 2nd Nassau Infantry for Frenchmen and firing on them. At first, the Nassauers believed that they were under French attack and firing continued for ten minutes, with considerable casualties on both sides. The incident ended when Nassau officers realised the error, went to the Prussians and identified themselves.
Previously, the Nassauers had served in Napoleon's armies. Although the Nassau uniforms were green with unique buff equipment belts, their style was still French. Wellington himself stated that: 'at a distance, or in action, colours are nothing: the profile, and shape of the man's cap, and his general appearance, are what guide us.' [11]
Captain Henry Ross-Lewin of the 32nd Foot echoed Wellington's words when he wrote of a case of mistaken identity: 'is not this circumstance sufficient to illustrate the folly of our imitating so closely the costume of foreign troops? At short distance the similarity of colour deceives, and at great, the difference of profile, especially of cap or helmet, is of great consequence.' [12]
Thus one of the most effective means of identifying British troops was by the tails of their horses: the British cut their horses' tails short. [13] It was by this means that the British liaison officer with the Prussian army, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Hardinge, recognised Wellington and his entourage as British when they rode over to confer with Blücher on the battlefield of Ligny previous to Waterloo. 'I saw you, Sir,' he later told Wellington, 'in the distance as horsemen, and I thought you must be English by the cut tails ... When I saw the horses' cut tails I galloped towards you.' [14]
Some uniform designs did work; for instance the vast majority of the British infantry were readily identifiable in scarlet jackets and 'Belgic' style shakos. The effectiveness of this was demonstrated in 1813 at the battle of Vitoria during the Peninsular war. A battalion of the British 95th Rifles in dark green uniforms advanced against the French. Johnny Kincaid was one of those riflemen:
What with the rapidity of our movement, the colour of our dress, and our close contact with the enemy, before they would abandon their post, we had the misfortune to be identified with them for some time, by a battery of our own guns, who, not observing the movement, continued to serve it out indiscriminately, and all the while admiring their practice upon us; nor was it until the red coats of the third division joined us, that they discovered their mistake. [15]
But even the identification of red coats with British infantry was subject to exceptions. Red was also the traditional uniform colour of the Swiss and in 1815, Napoleon's army contained the 2nd Swiss Infantry. Fortunately, this unit only saw action against the Prussians at the Battles of Ligny and Wavre and never clashed with British redcoats. [16] However, Napoleon's Red Lancers of the Guard also wore red and French hussars momentarily mistook them for Britons and fired on them on the eve of Waterloo. [17]
A similar incident occurred during the Peninsular war. A Hanoverian Legion fought there, under the French flag but in red tunics. Friendly fire killed several of these luckless Hanoverians at the battle of Busaco in 1810; French troops simply mistook them for the British. The legion's commander hence asked that his men be allowed to wear their grey greatcoats at Fuentes de Oñoro on 3 May 1811. But permission was refused. The inevitable ensued: in the smoke, the French 66th Infantry mistook the Hanoverians for Britons and fired into them. French artillery opened up with canister, while the British fired from in front, after at first holding their fire in the belief that the Hanoverians were a fellow British unit. The legion bravely stood its ground and lost scores of men killed in the crossfire before being forced to retire. This withdrawal created further confusion, which enabled the British to recapture the village of Fuentes de Oñoro. [18]
The majority of the friendly fire incidents at Waterloo probably occurred in the final stages, when the Prussians linked up with Wellington. Blücher's forces came in from the east and formed their front line at a right angle to Wellington's. This was necessary in order to threaten Napoleon's line of retreat, but it did increase the chances of Prussian artillery fire striking Wellington's units. Dense smoke obscured much of the battlefield and when a British ADC, Lieutenant-Colonel John Freemantle, returned from delivering a message, he found a Prussian battery firing towards Wellington's lines. He vainly begged the gunners to cease fire. [19]
'E' Troop, Royal Horse Artillery was limbering up to advance when a Prussian battery fired two or three shots at it. Lieutenant William Ingilby was tolerant of such errors: 'as the Prussians had never probably seen British troops before, it was not extraordinary that they should take us to be the Enemy in the pêle-mêle sort of confusion that was presented to their view at first coming up.' [20]
Furthermore, the Prussians could not know precisely where Wellington's army had reached during its general advance into the valley in pursuit of the defeated French Middle Guard. Wellington himself had to send an attendant, Count Paul de Sales, to stop a Prussian battery whose fire was falling dangerously near British infantry.
[21]
Tragic clashes between Prussian and friendly forces also occurred at closer range. In the increasing darkness, the 18th Hussars partially collided with a Prussian cavalry regiment south of the inn of La Belle Alliance. Both units expected to meet only French troops and some lives were lost before identities were established. [22]
Nonetheless, the Prussians did far more good than harm and can not fairly be blamed for these friendly fire incidents. Assistant Surgeon John Haddy James of the British 1st Life Guards wrote that 'I have been told that the scene at dusk was almost indescribable. The whole French army was on the run, and the clouds of smoke lifted slowly as their cannon ceased firing, pierced lividly by the rays of the setting sun. The confusion was immense, as was the noise of shouting; it was almost impossible to distinguish between friend and foe.' [23]
Indeed, in the gloom, even Wellington's units sometimes clashed with each other. The British 11th and 16th Light Dragoons were about to attack a unit when it suddenly cheered and the Britons recognised it as the cheer of the 1st Hussars, King's German Legion. This avoided a serious collision and only one British officer received a slight wound. [24]
Some of the incidents of Prussian friendly fire that Wellington's troops reported may be unfounded. Captain Mercer believed that his battery came under Prussian artillery fire but this is impossible to prove as his recollections of the closing stages of the battle are understandably confused. He probably came under fire from French guns supporting the Middle Guard attack and assumed that the fire was Prussian when a highly excited Brunswick officer arrived and incorrectly informed Mercer that he was firing on his friends the Prussians. A Belgian battery then came up and according to Mercer, 'we ... were only saved from annihilation by the Belgians, who, by the bye, were all drunk, and would have fired upon us, too, had we not taken some pains to put them straight.' [25]
But even after the battle, some Britons lost their lives to the Prussians. Blücher's men hated the French and Lieutenant Basil Jackson, a British staff officer, found them methodically bayoneting French wounded. They hesitated over a British light dragoon, and Jackson saved his life by calling out just in time: er ist ein englander: 'he is an Englishman.' [26]
More Friendly Fire: Reckless Firing
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