Wellington at Waterloo

After a night of torrential rain, two armies awoke from their muddy bivouac sites on the morning of 18 June 1815 to prepare for the Battle of Waterloo. To the north, the Anglo-Dutch Army was in formation, led by the Duke of Wellington; one kilometer south, the French Army was assembled, commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte. After a bloody day of battle, Wellington’s victory was a result of his use of Mission Command and more specifically, his ability to drive the operations process through the commander activities. Wellington was able to successfully defeat Napoleon due to his ability to plan an area defense strong enough to hold until Field Marshal Blucher’s Army could join him, to prepare his defenses in order to attrit French forces before they could effectively engage his front line of Soldiers, and to execute his plan by leading the Anglo-Dutch Army against Napoleon’s attacking Army.

Immediately upon his arrival to the Netherlands on 5 April 1815, Wellington assessed the Anglo-Dutch Army and stated that he was appalled at the state of readiness of the forces. A large majority of the best British Soldiers stationed in the Netherlands had been sent to America to fight in the War of 1812, which had depleted the unit of its veterans from the earlier battles against the French Napoleonic Armies. Wellington immediately requested additional British Soldiers and 17,500 Soldiers were then sent to him. In addition to the 25,000 British Soldiers, he also commanded 29,500 Netherlanders and 36,500 Soldiers from various German states.1 Each nationality had its own commander and many of their Soldiers were conscripts who Wellington assessed as being substandard quality and lacking discipline. From his past experience, he understood that these Soldiers would retreat under the heat of battle. Wellington directed the Anglo-Dutch Army to be reorganized by combining the varying qualities of Soldiers and mixing nationalities. This meant that coalition commanders were leading British Soldiers and that British officers were leading coalition forces, causing the Soldiers to be loyal to one another rather than their country of origin.2 Blending the force solved the problem of divided loyalties, increased camaraderie, and built his team’s cohesion among the commanders and their subordinates.

In addition to building his internal team, Wellington also focused on building his partnership with his coalition peer, Field Marshal Blucher. In early May 1815, Blucher arrived in the Netherlands with an allied army of 50,000 Prussian Soldiers in response to Napoleon’s threats of war. Wellington immediately arranged a meeting with Blucher to build a relationship with his fellow commander and to decide on a defense plan for the Netherlands. Both commanders left the meeting in high spirits and Wellington was quoted afterward as saying, “By God! I think Blucher and myself can do the thing,” in reference to their ability to defeat Napoleon.3 Wellington