The War Room XIV: Battle of Bussaco, 1810

Рет қаралды 7,702

Күн бұрын

Featuring the Duke of Wellington in his favourite place: a reverse slope.
This is mostly taken from Oman again, this time Volume III.
#militaryhistory #peninsularwar #napoleonic

Пікірлер: 50

@glenchen5723 6 ай бұрын

Friday mornings are never complete without viewing the newest Hapless video

@afrikacorpse 6 ай бұрын

Absolutely love this, I could watch hours and hours of this sort of content. It's clearly explained, well presented and paced perfectly. Thanks so much for making these videos Hapless!

@prestongarvey7745 6 ай бұрын

I appreciate these videos. Not only is the content itself interesting. But the battles are usually unfamiliar or entirely new to me.

@usuallyhapless9481 6 ай бұрын

Thanks very much! I'm trying to pick battles that are less famous ;)

@seanmac1793 6 ай бұрын

I will say I really like these sort of Campaign/battle analysis videos. As someone who as already read Oman volume 3 I would say that I still extracted useful information from your animations. obviously after the modern small unit tactics sort of arc I wouldn't expect you to commit to a new major long running series but applying these sorts of modern modes of analysis to the Napoleonic battles has helped me understand both the battles more as well as the tools and terms you are using.

@michaelscherer6416 14 күн бұрын

Just found your channel. Put this video on while I’m setting up this battle in Commands and Colors Napoleonics. Thank you for setting the mood for my battle!

@usuallyhapless9481 14 күн бұрын

Awesome man! Hope you had a nice hill to hide behind

@rbale2 6 ай бұрын

These war rooms are so great man, thank you.

@Major.Alvega 6 ай бұрын

I am lucky to live in one of the hills of the Lines of Torres and can even see Wellington's former HQ from my house 🙂 The forts today are mostly gone but some have been restored and the contours of the hills and terrains still reflect the massive amount of "earth sculpting" work that went on.

@RayLovesToMakeMusic 6 ай бұрын

Wellington was a rare commander indeed, possessing both tactical acumen and strategic-political savvy.

@gareththompson2708 6 ай бұрын

The different elements of Messena's army pulling apart as they advanced gave me 1918 German Spring Offensive flashforwards.

@PitterPatter20 5 ай бұрын

I absolutely love the War Room series because you always find incredibly fascinating topics to discuss and break down. I really enjoyed the level of granularity you went into with the French attack. It really helped me appreciate the nuances of Napoleonic warfare. I never realized just how dynamic the tactical picture of a musket battle can be. Many narratives focus on the divisional level or higher and gloss over what exactly the regiments are doing, which always gave me the impression that the manuevering and positioning in these battles occured at the divisional level, and ultimately the actual point of contact was as simple as regiments marching through artillery fire before trading shots with the opposing line in an ultimately static nature until one line broke morale. This is the first time I've learned about the decisions made at a regimental level which can quite literally make or break an entire divisional attack. To me the most fascinating examples are the way elements of the British 45th regiment were running back and forth across the battefield, and how the good positioning of the 88th British regiment and unfortunate organization of the 36th, 2nd, and 4th French Regiments ultimately led to the total breakdown of that advance. Excellent work as always! I can't wait for another episode!

@usuallyhapless9481 5 ай бұрын

That's exactly what I've always wanted from military history: how battles actually worked, not who won when x collided with Y.

@PitterPatter20 5 ай бұрын

@@usuallyhapless9481 Same here!

@sebastienhardinger4149 6 ай бұрын

This is fantastic, really enjoy the super tight tactical details

@Zakalwe-01 6 ай бұрын

Loved this. An excellent study of an overlooked part of the Peninsula War. I must have missed the bit where Sean Bean got killed though. 🤔

@usuallyhapless9481 6 ай бұрын

I'm sure he's fine- at any rate he pops up again at Waterloo

@aanders1990 6 ай бұрын

Very cool video. It's fascinating to see how much information asymmetry played a factor in the age before radios. Compare that to current conflicts where the fog of war is almost a thing of the past.

@usuallyhapless9481 6 ай бұрын

Yep. Even things that we take for granted today, like accurate maps, are only very recent. And sometimes people bring the wrong maps for the job...

@malarauko 6 ай бұрын

Fantastic video, i love these videos so much because they touch on such a great range of battles.

@AcrBlade 6 ай бұрын

I absolutely love these kind of videos. Great work!

@AlexeyTartyshev 6 ай бұрын

Excellent video! more videos on Napoleonics please.

@nbr1rckr 6 ай бұрын

Hapless back at it again with The War Room. Love it. Ngl though, this makes me wanna boot up Scourge of War

@usuallyhapless9481 6 ай бұрын

Oh, I'd forgotten about Scourge of War. I should really try that again

@nunogonzalez4037 6 ай бұрын

Excellent work!

@marrs1013 5 ай бұрын

Fantastic episode, once again! Thank you good sir! Your hard work is much appreciated.

@usuallyhapless9481 5 ай бұрын

Thanks very much!

@JoaoLuisAngelo 6 ай бұрын

Very interesting and informative even though as a Portuguese national I already was aware of the battle. In any case it was amusing to hear Coimbra sound more like Cambras but in the midst of all the Portuguese names you didn't do too badly.

@usuallyhapless9481 6 ай бұрын

Thanks very much!

@desu76 2 ай бұрын

Can't agree with that. Quite bad pronunciation in general. And where did you get the Portuguese maps with the Spanish names? Eg, there is no San Antonio. It's Santo António. Anyway, besides that, very good video and explanations. Thanks a lot sir!

@cartergeorge1545 6 ай бұрын

50 minutes?!?! You spoil us!

@notcraig2239 6 ай бұрын

New War Room!

@GrumpyReaper2525 4 ай бұрын

You're progressing beyond expectations every time, even though my expectations of you are set pretty high already. Can you share some titles of the books you were using in creating this video?

@usuallyhapless9481 4 ай бұрын

Thanks! This one was mostly out of Oman's History of the Peninsular War Volume 3. Which is conveniently so old as to be out of copyright: www.gutenberg.org/files/55231/55231-h/55231-h.htm

@GrumpyReaper2525 4 ай бұрын

@@usuallyhapless9481 Thank you, kind man!

@flashgordon6670 5 ай бұрын

Great video ty. I suspect foul play was at work, with the explosion at Almeida. What did Napoleon hope to achieve, by invading Portugal? The British navy, would make an occupation impossible. How would History have played out differently, had the French just not attacked at Busaco and consolidated in Spain? The propaganda boost, of conquering Portugal, would’ve been substantial. But, as there’s nowhere further to go, the French at some point, would’ve had to advance backwards. Surely the British, would’ve made occupying Lisbon unbearable. There must’ve been a lot of gold and goods at Lisbon. But that could’ve, either been evacuated, or destroyed. What would’ve been the political and strategical implications, in such a scenario? Like all history’s dictators, Napoleon was a victim of his own successes and vanity.

@robertkalinic335 6 ай бұрын

French only retreated cause they lost the great Lisbon cook off to the Wellington's steaks. Fortifications played important role but the burn to the french culinary overconfidence lasted ever since.

@dadoogie 6 ай бұрын

It's like watching a sharpe episode without the Sheffield man getting emotional with a Mediterranean woman.

@awordabout...3061 6 ай бұрын

Would you ever be interested in doing an analysis of Qadesh? I know you've done ancient battles before, but being the earliest battle we have historiography for, it'd be interesting to hear the process of turning Ramses' propaganda into an actual understanding of the events of the two days.

@usuallyhapless9481 6 ай бұрын

Oof, that's a tough one. I'd have to look into it more- off the top of my head, it sounds like a job for Inherent Military Probability and that has it's own limits.