Short Synopsis
A heroic tale of four hundred soldiers who changed the course of history, The Longest Afternoon will become an instant classic of military history.

Full Synopsis
In 1815, the deposed emperor Napoleon returned to France and threatened the already devastated and exhausted continent with yet another war. Near the small Belgian municipality of Waterloo, two large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the future of Europe—Napoleon's forces on one side, and the Duke of Wellington on the other.

With so much at stake, neither commander could have predicted that the battle would be decided by the Second Light Battalion, King's German Legion, which was given the deceptively simple task of defending the Haye Sainte farmhouse, a crucial crossroads on the way to Brussels. In The Longest Afternoon, Brendan Simms recounts how these four-hundred-odd riflemen beat back wave after wave of French infantry until they were finally forced to withdraw, but only after holding up Napoleon for so long that he lost the overall contest. Their actions alone decided the most influential battle in European history.

"This thoroughly engrossing account will thrill all history lovers." ---Library Journal Starred Review

"Simms takes advantage of abundant letters and memoirs to deliver an engrossing, often gruesome nuts-and-bolts description of that afternoon." ---Kirkus

"A vivid and compelling account of a fight that for much of the afternoon was not merely a battle within a battle but was the battle itself." ---Evening Standard (UK)

"Page delivers the many German surnames and phrases sprinkled throughout the text with exacting precision." ---AudioFile

Library Journal Review