The Battle of Salamanca
Warfare
History Hit
4.5 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2022
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Battle of Salamanca was fought in Napoleonic Spain on 22 July 1812, during the Peninsula War. It pitted Lt Gen Arthur Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, against the French military master Marshal Auguste de Marmont.
Despite being one of the lesser discussed Napoleonic battles, Salamanca defined Wellington's reputation as a defensive general and shattered French dominance on the Iberian peninsula.
In this episode James is joined by Dr Zack White to learn more about the bloody & brutal battle that marked such a turning point in the Napoleonic Era on its 210th anniversary.
You can support the Napoleonic & Revolutionary War Graves Charity here.
For more Warfare content, subscribe to our Warfare Wednesday newsletter here.
If you'd like to learn even more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - enter promo code WARFARE for two weeks free + 50% off your first three months' subscription. To download, go to Android or Apple store.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Battle of Salamanca was fought in Spain on the 22nd of July 1812 during the Peninsula War, |
| 0:07.2 | and it pitted Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, |
| 0:11.3 | against the French military master |
| 0:13.6 | Marshall Marmon. |
| 0:15.0 | Not to give away the ending as it's no easy fight, |
| 0:17.7 | but the battle defined Wellington's reputation |
| 0:20.1 | as a defensive general and shattered French dominance on the Iberian Peninsula. |
| 0:24.8 | To take a step by step through this history, a history of one of Wellington's greatest battles, |
| 0:30.4 | we have our resident Napoleonic era expert, Dr. Zach White back on the podcast. |
| 0:36.0 | Zach reveals how Wellington had been seeking an advantageous opportunity to engage |
| 0:40.6 | Marmon for a while and how after years of war the beginning of 1812 saw |
| 0:45.9 | Wellington take the offensive into Spain. |
| 0:49.2 | Here is the ever brilliant Zach White on the Battle of Salamanca. Enjoy. Hi Zach, welcome back to the Warfare Podcast. How you doing? |
| 1:16.5 | Hi James, yeah, I'm well, thank you, keeping very busy, but it's nice to be back and nice to be spending |
| 1:21.9 | an hour just kind of nerding out about some Wellington stuff. |
| 1:25.0 | Well I could never be at your levels of this but I'm an aspiring nerd about Wellington |
| 1:31.2 | about the the history of that period and this is that the second body ever has been found from |
| 1:46.3 | the Battle of Waterloo and I was down by that grave side and it really is an emotional |
| 1:52.0 | sight the body has been placed, well I'm not sure, I wonder if it's been |
| 1:56.4 | thrown into a pit near to the hospital at Monsen-John, maybe someone who's died on the |
| 2:01.1 | operating table, and they're there lined up against these horses |
| 2:04.8 | the next to them and each horse looks like it's been shot in the head probably led into the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.