Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,
Last eve in Beauty’s circle proudly gay,
The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife,
The morn the marshalling in arms, the day
Battle’s magnificently-stern array!
The thunder-clouds close o’er it, which when rent
The earth is covered thick with other clay
Which her own clay shall cover, heaped and pent,
Rider and horse,—friend, foe,—in one red burial blent!
from
THE EVE OF WATERLOO
by: Lord Byron (1788-1824)
David A Lockwood 
Nah, this is the time to finally appreciate what was, malt or nay. And with a better, wiser, maybe sadder, perspective. Am deep in jousts, Edward III and Crecy – at one joust his motto was “It is as it is”. All to say I finally have a wonderful appreciation of the longbow in battle. How useless is that?!
The Lee Enfield of its day – look up ‘The Mad Minute’ marksmanship training.
Tactics seldom changed until 6th August 1945.
David.
Mad Minute pretty much back to the red square days! TG no major repeats on 6/08/45. What amazed me about Crecy is that the French didn’t LEARN anything from being massacred by longbow arrows…and lost in almost the same fashion at Agincourt. And all of it in and around the Somme. I write no more on this!
Wonderful stirring stuff! Now I gotta go read it all. Thanks.
Good electronic exhib at Cam Uni Lib http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/waterloo
Ha, yes.
I wonder sometimes if maybe I spend too much time with my nose buried in dusty old books or then again, it could be the Malt in the glass that does it 😉
David.
P.S Great link – thanks.