Wellesley Lands in Portugal

August 21, 1808

Arthur Wellesley stepped ashore at Mondego Bay with thirteen thousand men and orders to help the Portuguese. Six years of Peninsular War followed - a grinding, vicious campaign of sieges, guerrillas and retreats that taught a generation of British officers how to beat Napoleon's marshals. The campaign consumed 300,000 French casualties and became, as Napoleon himself admitted from St. Helena, the ulcer that destroyed his empire.