The Battle of Waterloo Experience

In association with the National Army Museum, well known military historians, journalists and broadcasters Peter and Dan Snow tell the story of one of the world's most famous and important battles. The Battle of Waterloo Experience provides what no other book on the battle contains - removable facsimiles of historic archival documents. Readers can relive this extraordinary moment in history by holding and examining rare or previously unpublished sketch maps, letters, orders, official papers and proclamations held by the National Army Museum and other archives and museums around Europe. Peter and Dan Snow examine the strengths and weaknesses of the leaders, the armies and their weapons. Like all the greatest battles, Waterloo is steeped in controversy - the battle ended in decisive victory, but it might so easily have turned out differently. The Snows explore all the questions the battle raised. Who made mistakes? Whose victory really was it? Would Wellington have won without Blucher and his Prussians? What was the main cause of the French defeat? The Battle of Waterloo Experience contains 20 rare or previously unpublished removable documents of historic importance, 80 period paintings, etchings and illustrations, 20 colour photographs of Waterloo militaria from the National Army Museum's unparalleled collections and a removable booklet featuring 6 specially commissioned full-colour battle and campaign maps. It puts history in your hands. 20 REMOVABLE DOCUMENTS INCLUDE: * A campaign journal of a colonel of Hussars * The Duke of Wellington's handwritten orders to the commander defending the farm of Hougoumont * The poignant letters written to family and loved ones by officers and men shortly after the battle * The paybook of a soldier of Napoleon's Imperial Guard * The Times of 22 June 1815, containing a complete transcript of Wellington's renowned Waterloo Dispatch.