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F Troop at Waterloo
June 18th 1815
200th Anniversary
F Troop Royal Horse Artillery (the unit that would one day be D Battery RHA) had
been relative late comers to the Peninsula War; missing the sieges of Badajoz,
Ciudad Rodrigo and Burgos, the bloody battles of Fuentes D’Onoro and Salamanca,
and the triumphal entry into Madrid.
F Troop had arrived in mid 1813, after several years in England, to fight at the Battle
of Vitoria. The Troop spent the next year and a half making up for lost time as they
fought the Nive and Nivelle, and pioneered the use of close support artillery at the
siege of San Sebastian.
By the time the Peninsula War ended in 1814 the men of F Troop had fought in some
the hottest engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. With Napoleon’s abdication and
exile F Troop rightly anticipated a period of rest and rebuilding.
They could not have been more wrong.
By mid 1815 the great terror of Europe was back; Napoleon once more sat on the
throne of France. The armies of the VII Coalition stood ready to oppose him.
F Troop was but a tiny cog in this massive machine, but one that would have a far
larger impact than expected.
The Duke of Wellington’s Anglo-Dutch army was stationed in Belgium in late spring
of 1815, spread across the French frontier, awaiting Napoleon’s move. That move
came on June 15th when the Emperor led his Armee du Nord across the boarder.
Unusually for a horse artillery troop F Troop were not attached to any cavalry brigade
and were instead acting as an independent sub unit. Under the command of Lt Col
Webber-Smith, who had commanded the Troop in the Peninsula, they were deployed
far from the frontier and thus were not present for the early actions of the campaign
at Charleroi and Quatre Bras.
By the 17th the Troop had met the rest of the army at the Mont St Jean, south of
Brussels, where the Duke planned to make his stand against the French. In pouring
rain the Troop moved into position and the men and officers attempted to make
themselves comfortable in the waterlogged ground.
The morning of the 18th dawned clear and bright, promising a warm day. Wellington’s
troops spent the morning moving into position, clearing fouled musket barrels, and
vainly attempting to dry out soaking uniforms.
For F Troop the morning was spent moving ammunition form the wagon park up the
guns, and ensuring all the equipment was in good order. At around 0900hrs the Duke
rode over to the Château Hougoumont and inspected the position, moving F Troop
further west along the ridge and closer to the Chateau.
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The first moves of the battle were at 1120hrs when the French II Corps under
General Reille launched the opening attack on Hougoumont. F Troop was placed at
the far western end of the ridge to provide support to the troops in Hougoumount.
For around 5 hours the Troop was under fairly heavy attack from French skirmishers,
suffering severe casualties, yet they kept up a strong rate of fire onto the attackers
around the garden and the orchard, using canister and shrapnel to turn back several
French attacks.
By mid afternoon the Duke dispatched Major Ramsey’s H Troop RHA of 9 pounders
to support Webber-Smiths smaller 6 pounder troop. Together the two troops
increased the fire on the French and forced them back once again. During this attack
Major Ramsey was killed.
At around 1600hrs Marshall Ney launched the first of his massed cavalry attacks,
sending over 10,000 mounted troops at assault the British line. F Troop was
withdrawn from the defence of Hougoumount and rushed into the mass of hastily
formed Anglo-Dutch squares. Dashing in and out the squares when the cavalry
threatened and then rushing back to the guns in clear moments. The Troop kept up a
withering fire on the horde of French cavalry.
By 1900hrs Napoleon had committed all his troops, his cavalry and line infantry were
spent and his last hope now lay with his Imperial Guard. As this mass of elite infantry
moved forward across the valley floor Wellington rushed his guns onto the crest of
the ridge.
F Troop were positioned in the centre of Wellington’s right flank and suffered terrible
casualties as the Imperial Guard artillery focused on the thin line of horse gunners.
For the next half an hour the Troop poured shot and shell onto the French, before the
Guard finally broke and the French retreat began in full.
F Troop was stood down and took no part in the retreat. Lt-Col Webber-Smith worked
into the night reorganising what was left of his shattered troop.