Battle of Wavre troops to Wellington’s aid at Waterloo. Thus, for the Prussians, the battle was a strategic success, as it contributed to the decisive victory at Waterloo. The Prussian rearguard of 17,000 troops had tied down 33,000 French troops that could have otherwise taken part at Waterloo. Attribution: Battle of Wavre The Battle of Wavre was the final major military action of the Hundred Days campaign and the Napoleonic Wars. It was fought on 18–19 June 1815 between the Prussian rearguard, consisting of the Prussian III Corps under the command of General Johann von Thielmann (whose chief-of-staff was Carl von Clausewitz) and
Napoleonic Wars casualties numbers are subject to considerable variation. Erik Durschmied, in his book "The Hinge Factor", gives a figure of 1.4 million French military deaths of all causes. Adam Zamoyski estimates that around 400,000 Russian soldiers died in the 1812 campaign alone—a figure backed up by other sources. Civilian casualties in the 1812 campaign were probably comparable. Alan Schom estimates some 3 million military deaths in the Napoleonic wars and this figure, once again, is supported elsewhere. Common estimates of more than 500,000 French dead in Russia in 1812 and 250,000–300,000 French dead in Iberia between 1808 and 1814 give a total