In reply to aultguish:
> Realistically, it was mainly a German army and victory (if you apply modern borders).
> I remember studying the battle at military college, it was a pretty close run thing and not the glorious victory it's made out to be.
Everyone knows it was very close, that isn't where the notion of a glorious victory comes from.
There was initially very little from the Germans, they'd already been defeated by Napoleon and forced to re-group and Wellington knew that they would have to be held back until later in the day.
The reason Wellington was the obvious commander for the Coalition was that he had trounced Napoleon before and had developed tactics and esprit to do so again. Interesting that in Spain mercenaries swapped sides according to who had most food, the French tending to ransack and pillage whilst Wellington maintained much more of a hearts and minds approach to the locals caught up in someone else's war. That helped develop an ethic that would be needed under extreme pressure at Waterloo.
It was because of this that the Coalition were able to withstand the French onslaught and allow for the opportunity for the Germans to get involved. Even once the Germans were involved it was then due to the resilience of the Coalition under Wellington that they were able to mount the counter attack that ensured overall victory.