Veterans join archaeologists to reveal fate of fallen at Battle of Waterloo

From chopped limbs to ground-down remains, the fate of those killed in the bloody Battle of Waterloo has long been the subject of macabre speculation.

- Sammy Gecsoyler

Now, a team of archaeologists will seek to provide some answers by digging at the site in Belgium.

The battle, which took place in June 1815 in the province of Walloon Brabant, killed about 20,000 men. In 2022, an excavation at the site of a former field hospital at Mont-SaintJean farm discovered horses that had been executed, buried alongside a human skeleton.

The discovery was the second complete human skeleton ever excavated on the Belgian battlefield. The amputated limbs of wounded men and the skeletons of three horses were also found at the site.

The archaeology and veteran support charity Waterloo Uncovered will carry out a targeted excavation next month to uncover the full extent of the burial pit in an attempt to establish what happened to the dead.