If you take into account the time zones

Then it would be 8:00 a.m. in the morning in Belgium. 192 years ago (that is if I am doing my math correctly), at about this time, a combined force of British, Dutch, Hanoverian and Brunswickers were assembling in a line of battle under the command of Arthur Wellesley, better known as the Duke of Wellington.

The line formed by the Allied force was perpendicular to the main road to Brussels. To their front, two farms, La Haye Sainte and Hougmont, had been coverted in makeshift fortresses. In La Haye Sainte, the men of the King's German Legion's 1st and 2nd Light Battalions, reinforced with the light company of the King's German Legion's 5th Line Battalion. In the Hougamont, the men of th 95th Rifles waited.

The Allied line looked down on the low slope of the ridge towards their oppostion: Emperor Napoleon and his Grande Armee. This was the 100th day since Napoleon had returned from his exile on Elba.

In the previous 99 days, Napoleon had seemed to return to form. Within days of his landing, virtually the entire army of the restored Bourbons had gone over to him. After reassuming control of France, he had quickly reassembled the Grande Armee. His arrival had caught his enemies by surprise. The coalition which had brought down his empire had drifted apart. Russia and Austria had turned back to dealing with their own interests. Britain had dispatched may of her best units to deal with the war against the United States. With the Coalition forces scattered, Napoleon had a chance to deal with the separate components and defeat them in detail.

The first clashes happened on June 16. Trying to prevent the Allied force under Wellington from combining with the Prussian Army under Blucher, Napoleon split his forces and surprised both columns. At Ligny, Napoleon ordered two corps, 2nd Corps and the 3rd Cavalry Corps, to block Blucher's army. Outnumbered 68,000 to 84,000, the French force drove off the Prussian in a day long battle. Nearby at Qatre Bras, the balance of the Grande Armee ran into the lead elements of Wellington's force. Although the battle ended in a draw, with both sides suffering more than 4,000 casualties, it was the Allies who had to withdraw.

This brings up to June 18. After a day of manuevering, and a long night in the rain, the Allied forces found themselves near the Mont St. Jean, near the town of Waterloo, on a low ridge blocking the road to Brussels. Blucher had sent word that he was bringing his army to meet up with Wellington's, despite his subordinates questioning whether they should. Until Blucher arrived, Wellington would have approximately 67,000 men to hold off approximately 73,000 French troops.

In a way, this was the equivalent of two boxing champions meeting for the first time. Despite nearly twenty years of war between the Great Britain and France, the Sepoy General (as Wellington was sometimes derisively referred) had never faced the Corsican Corporal. As he ate his breakfast with his Marshals, a number of whom had been beaten by Wellington in the Peninsula Campaign, Napoleon was reported to have said, "Just because you have all been beaten by Wellington, you think he's a good general. I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad troops, and this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast."

In the years to come, he probably had to regret that remark. By the end of the day, the Grande Armee would be broken as an offensive force. Nearly a third of its strength would lie dead or dying on the field of battle. Another 7,000 would be prisoner and 15,000 would be missing from its rolls. The battle would not be easy for the Allied and Prussian armies, who would lose respectively 15,000 and 7,000 men.

For the full story of the Battle of Waterloo, you might want to read Jac Weller's Wellington At Waterloo, Elizabeth Longford's Wellington the Years of the Sword, or Waterloo New Perspectives: The Great Battle Reappraised by David Hamilton-Williams. Or if you want a fictional account, you could always treat yourself to Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe's Waterloo.