Map error hastened Napoleon’s Waterloo defeat - Telegraph
▻http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11144216/Map-error-hastened-Napoleons-Waterloo-defeat.html
Via Elisabeth Vallet sur Twitter. Elisabeth Vallet de l’UQAM qu’on aimerait beaucoup retrouver ici...
If Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton, as Wellington is supposed to have said, it may have been lost by Napoleon’s map-makers.
A printing error left the emperor Bonaparte aiming his artillery in the wrong place, well short of the British, Prussian and Dutch lines, it is claimed. While historical accounts of the Duke’s sang-froid and the fortitude of the British infantry are not in doubt, the discovery could also explain stories of the brilliant Corsican field marshal appearing lost.
“Napoleon was relying on a false map for his strategy in his last battle,” said Franck Ferrand, the maker of a documentary broadcast on French television. “This explains why he mistook the lie of the land and was disoriented on the battlefield. It is certainly one of the factors that led to his defeat.”
