Simms, B. Der längste Nachmittag

400 Germans, Napoleon and the decision at Waterloo. Defeat that same evening.
La Haye Sainte was held by nearly 400 men of the King's German Legion, a German military unit in British service. The French advanced around the farm and attempted to storm the hills. There they were fired upon. The attackers had to retreat, but they inflicted heavy losses on the King's German Legion; at the end it was left with only a few bullets per soldier. As no ammunition was supplied despite several requests, La Haye Sainte had to be evacuated between 5 and 6 pm. Of the men of the King's German Legion, only 42 were still fit for action at this point.

Simm's book puts human faces to the hours of defence. We do not witness a battle painting, but the fate of individuals: unknowns who became heroes that day move to the centre of the account; for example, the German-Jewish wound surgeon Georg Gerson, who was cut to pieces by the French cavalry while trying to help the garrison. But even the French attackers are not portrayed as a faceless mass, but as people of flesh and blood. Simms concludes by reflecting on whether this afternoon might not help establish a different tradition of German military history.