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Wellington's Waterloo: A Model Victory of Deceit

Nearly 200 years of history tells us that the battle of Waterloo was a stunning victory for Britain's Duke of Wellington and a crushing defeat for France's Napoleon Bonaparte.

But Wellington's report on the battle downplayed the role of Prussian regiments in the allied army that confronted Napoleon. With Napoleon defeated, there were spoils of war to share, and Wellington wanted to limit Prussia's bargaining power.

Years later, a young officer in the British Army decided to build a model of the Battle of Waterloo. The story of Lt. William Siborne's model... and how his search for the facts wound up ruining him... is an intricate tale told by historian Peter Hofschroer in Wellington's Smallest Victory: The Duke, the Model Maker and the Secret of Waterloo.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Liane Hansen
Liane Hansen has been the host of NPR's award-winning Weekend Edition Sunday for 20 years. She brings to her position an extensive background in broadcast journalism, including work as a radio producer, reporter, and on-air host at both the local and national level. The program has covered such breaking news stories as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the capture of Saddam Hussein, the deaths of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Columbia shuttle tragedy. In 2004, Liane was granted an exclusive interview with former weapons inspector David Kay prior to his report on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The show also won the James Beard award for best radio program on food for a report on SPAM.