Скачать или смотреть The Battle France Tried to Forget: How 52,000 Soldiers Destroyed Napoleon's Best Marshal

September 27th, 1810. Marshal Masséna's 65,000 French veterans are about to make the deadliest mistake of the Peninsular War. They're climbing straight up the Serra do Buçaco—a mountain ridge that Arthur Wellesley has transformed into the perfect killing ground. What happens in the next six hours will shatter French confidence and prove that British firepower, when properly positioned, can destroy even Napoleon's best armies.

This is the story of the Battle of Busaco—the forgotten masterpiece of defensive warfare where 52,000 British and Portuguese soldiers taught the Grande Armée a lesson they would never forget. Wellesley chose this ground deliberately, knowing the steep slopes would exhaust French attack columns before they even reached the crest. He positioned his troops on the reverse slope, invisible to French artillery, waiting for the moment when exhausted French soldiers would stumble over the ridge and face British lines at point-blank range.

Marshal Masséna, one of Napoleon's most trusted commanders, called "the Dear Child of Victory," believed his veteran soldiers could storm any position. He'd conquered Italy, saved the Revolution at Zurich, defeated Austrians and Russians. The Serra do Buçaco looked like just another obstacle to overcome. He was catastrophically wrong.

When French columns finally crested the ridge after their exhausting climb, they discovered British infantry waiting in perfect two-deep lines, muskets leveled, ready to unleash the most devastating firepower in Europe. The mathematics of musket warfare are brutal and simple: British lines could deliver four times the firepower of French columns. At close range, with nowhere to maneuver on the narrow ridge crest, French soldiers walked into a slaughter.

Wave after wave of French attacks crashed against British and Portuguese positions. Marshal Ney, "the Bravest of the Brave," personally led assaults up those deadly slopes. General Reynier's corps attacked the Portuguese-held southern sectors. Every assault followed the same horrific pattern: exhausting climb, brief moment of hope, then the devastating shock of British volleys that no column formation could survive.

But Busaco proved something even more significant than British tactical superiority. Portuguese troops, reorganized and trained by Marshal Beresford, stood alongside British regulars and fought with equal discipline and courage. They held half the defensive line against veteran French divisions and never wavered. This validation of Portuguese military capability fundamentally changed Wellesley's strategic calculations for the entire war.

By mid-morning, Masséna's army had suffered over 4,000 casualties trying to take a position that mathematics and terrain made impregnable to frontal assault. British and Portuguese losses were less than 1,300. The French had learned that some positions simply cannot be stormed, no matter how brave the attackers or how experienced the soldiers. This lesson in defensive warfare would echo through every subsequent Peninsula battle.

Busaco bought Wellesley the time he needed to complete the Lines of Torres Vedras, the fortress system protecting Lisbon that would eventually force the French to retreat from Portugal entirely. More importantly, it demonstrated the tactical system that would define British infantry warfare for the next century: choose ground carefully, use terrain to multiply defensive strength, maximize firepower through linear formations, maintain discipline under pressure, and let mathematics do the rest.

This is British History, where we uncover the battles that shaped an empire and changed the course of warfare forever.


⏱️ KEY TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 - The Strategic Trap: Why Wellesley chose the Serra do Buçaco and how he transformed a mountain ridge into the perfect defensive position

15:30 - Dawn Assault: Marshal Ney's devastating first attacks up the northern slopes and the moment French columns discovered British lines waiting at point-blank range

32:45 - Portuguese Valor Proven: How reorganized Portuguese troops held the southern ridge against General Reynier's corps and earned their place in military history

48:20 - The Mathematics of Massacre: Why British two-deep lines delivered four times more firepower than French columns and the tactical lessons that changed warfare


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