Portal:Military history of France/Selected picture/2
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Polish Lancers of the Imperial Guard on parade. These elite cavalrymen dominated European battlefields from their creation in 1807 until the eventual fall of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. On November 30, 1808, the Lancers went down into immortality at the Battle of Somosierra in Spain. Their heroic charges up the gorge destabilized the Spanish long enough to allow French infantry to complete the victory and advance on Madrid. By July 1813, they had grown to seven squadrons. After Napoleon's first abdication in 1814, some of the troopers accompanied Napoleon to Elba while the rest were disbanded to Poland. Upon Napoleon's return in 1815, the remaining Poles formed within the 2nd Dutch Lancers and fought spectacularly at Waterloo. The British were so impressed that they formed their own lancer units after the Napoleonic Wars.
