To the east of Hougoumont the ridge line is now under serious pressure, because of the early and easy fall of the chateau the French troops here are pretty much undamaged, the gun battery on the ridge blasted one battalion but was then ridden down by cavalry. It looks like the allied infantry will have a tough fight to stem the tide of the French here.
The French finally start to push over the ridge, it’s only a matter of time now until the end…
Not too far away to the west of La Haye Sainte the French of D’Erlon’s corp lead by Durutte’s division have finally attacked over the ridge but again are meeting stiff opposition from the Dutch Belgium troops there. At one point the allies stopped the French forcing them to make a morale save to stay and fight, which they in turn miraculously passed… the final round of melee was just one too much for the allies who broke with severe casualties. But directly behind La Haye the British line held out for one more turn turning back the French. Even though a small gap was forming in the lines behind the ridge the allies held on…
Just when there may have been a glimmer of hope the Old Guard are seen marching into the Battle, even if the allies could hold out surely when the guard get to the ridge that will be it with nothing to the west of La Haye to stop them!
The British lined out firing volley after volley at the French in front of them.
To the east of La Haye Sainte the French lead by Donzelot are trying to press but the British line are still pounding volley after volley into them, the initial French units are starting to look spent, they need to move forward or move back, standing still and talking what the British are offering isn’t going to get results, they are wavering!
The Old Guard march forward meaning to attack the gap to the west of Papelotte
The weakest area seems to be the gap between La Haye Sainte and Papelotte; all day the French guard cavalry has been dominating this area but there have been no infantry to take the ridge but now more units of Old Guard are mobilising and finally pushing forwards to the ridge. But there is still lots of fight in the British and waiting for them behind the ridge are the British guard, the Scots and all the British heavy cavalry… I think the term is “Bring it on!”
Pirch’s cavalry keep the pressure on the Young Guard around Plancenoit
Pirch’s Uhlans survive a round of canister from a six pounder battery to charge home and break through the guns, losing just under half of their strength. They rallied immediately and then declared a charge on a Young Guard battalion of Voltigeurs that were falling back to Plancenoit. The following turn saw them charge the remaining gunners that were now running for their lives and break through the aforementioned battalion which was caught unformed, caught in flank and rear! It wasn’t the best result for the Young Guard division when the Uhlans rallied again.