This is a French cuirass, a breastplate worn as body armour by French cavalry. The hole is from a British cannonball that smashed through the unlucky soldier’s chest. The Waterloo campaign was the first occasion that British troops found themselves face to face with Napoleon’s armoured cavalry, whose cuirasses and metal helmets made them a daunting foe.
smizlos on October 2nd, 2018 at 11:28 UTC »
As morbid as it may be, I'm very curious what this looked like when it happened.
Found another angle of the breastplate: http://i.imgur.com/cE4jMAR.jpg
Gnarly.
Spartan2470 on October 2nd, 2018 at 12:26 UTC »
Here is a view from behind showing the exit.
According to here:
SonOfSite on October 2nd, 2018 at 12:45 UTC »
Imagine being the person who had to remove this breastplate.