In April 1809, Wellesley returned to Portugal with 28,000 British and 16,000 Portuguese troops under his command – the French Army of Spain numbered 360,000. Despite many French troops having been dispersed to garrisons across Spain or located to protect supply and communication lines, even with the Portuguese Army and militia, and remnants of the Spanish Army and guerrillas to support him, Wellington faced overwhelming odds. Before its retreat at Corunna in January 1809, the number of British soldiers in the Peninsula did not exceed 40,000 men under Lieutenant-General Moore, though Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese army increased to around 72,000 infantry and cavalry under his command at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. The King's German Legion (KGL) and the British-trained Portuguese Army were also under his command throughout the Peninsular War. Many British politicians were opposed to the war in Europe and favoured withdrawal, which hampered its will to muster a larger force to defeat Napoleon. This served in sharpening Wellington's awareness that a defensive strategy was essential, initially, to ensure the British Army survived. At Waterloo, of his roughly 73,000 strong army, around 26,000 (36 percent) were British, though this relatively low number was due to the majority of his Peninsular veterans being shipped elsewhere after Napoleon's first abdication, many being sent to North America to serve in the final months of the War of 1812 against the United States.