Waterloo Battle Reenactement

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on 18 June 1815 and involved the French army led by Napoleon, against the allied armies led by Wellington and Blucher. It was fought in Waterloo, Belgium (not Ontario). It marked the end of Napoleonic era in Europe. Every year, at the site of the battle, thousands of volunteers re-enact the battle right where it was fought. And an audience of other thousands watch it.

This year, we were among the audience. We arrived in the eve of the reenactment sleeping in the town of Wavre (the same where the Prussians under Field Marshal Blucher were stationed before the battle). On Sunday we drove to the battlefield, located by the Lion's Mound (first picture) inside Waterloo's historical site. The traffic jam was huge and started several kilometres before in the highway. We were lucky that the GPS made a mistake and led us through one of its shortcuts. This time, it worked quite conveniently.

The other pictures show a few moments of the re-enactment. The second shows musket exchange between the French and the British troops. The third picture shows troops in motion. The fourth shows the defensive squares the British formed when under attack by the French cavalry. And, finally, a pile of dead French soldiers.

The whole show took 3 hours and the weather was not the best, cloudy and cold. At the end, though, the sun shone. We then had lunch and drove back to Delft, two hours drive.