EUROPEAN DIARY:THERE'S A little boy lost at the information point. He's wearing a Napoleon outfit, says the tannoy announcer over the pop, pop, pop of musket fire and the crack of canon at this years' re-enactment of the Battle of Waterloo.
Losing a boy in a Napoleon outfit wouldn’t normally pose a problem for parents but here on the Waterloo battlefield in Belgium it seems every second person is dressed in uniform and clutching either a sabre or a musket.
“Here have a look at my shako,” says Erny van Wijk, a Dutch sign-maker who is spending her weekend braving torrential downpours and avoiding scything blows from some of the event’s more enthusiastic participants.
A shako, as Erny explains as we shelter under a bush, is a tall, cylindrical, military hat worn by 19th-century soldiers. It looks flimsy to my untrained eye and doesn’t look like it would offer much protection from a sabre cut. But she proudly points to the gold chain chin protector saying it offers better protection than the hats worn by allied soldiers in this epic battle.
About 1,200 re-enactment and military history enthusiasts have turned up for this 194th anniversary of the battle that changed Europe. Most of them spend the day marching up and down a field (about 13km or eight miles outside Brussels), re-enacting the tactics that helped the first Duke of Wellington, the Irish-born commander of the British army Arthur Wellesley, to defeat French emperor Napoleon and end his dream of conquering Europe.
“This spelled the end of the myth of Napoleon and the end of the French empire,” says Alain Habils, who is dressed as a surgeon in the 7th battalion of the Dutch-Belgian Light Infantry. “For us Belgians, Waterloo is very important because Wellington’s victory eventually led a few years later to the creation of Belgium as a buffer state,” he says.
Up to 200,000 soldiers fought in the battle of Waterloo, which saw Napoleon’s French army take on Wellington’s allied force, which was made up of soldiers from Britain, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.
“The Irish played a huge role in Waterloo,” says Barry Walsh, a military history enthusiast taking part in the re-enactment.
“Apart from Wellington, you must remember that 47 per cent of the British army were Irish at the time. There was little employment at home and a lot of poverty,” he says.
Walsh is an officer in the Leinster 86th regiment of foot, a re-enactment society in Monasterevin. Every two weeks they meet to drill and study military history to prepare for the re-enactment season in the summer.
“We’re going to another re-enactment in Italy late this year,” says one of several Irish enthusiasts sharing a tent at the allied camp near the battlefield. “It’s pure adrenalin out there on the field and that has me hooked,” he says.
Much like the original battle in 1815, the re-enactment attracts people from all over the world. Czechs, Russians, Americans (this year Napoleon was a New Yorker) and even Australians have travelled to pursue their hobby.
“I just love this living history. I’m a history teacher back home in Australia and this just brings the battle back to life,” says Gabrielle Koens, who is on a 10-week tour of Europe with her husband. “We’ll take part in another re-enactment on this trip and we’ll be back with more Australians for 2015.”
Historical re-enactments became a popular hobby in the 1970s in the US before taking off in Europe in the 1980s.
Here at Waterloo, it’s a weekend affair with people spending three or four days cleaning their muskets, polishing their buttons and living in the period before taking to the field.
Conditions at the allied camp are much as they were back in 1815. The tents are very basic, there are no showers and one of the key camp tasks is to keep the fire burning through the downpours so people can eat.
There is a big emphasis on maintaining historical accuracy, although everyone agrees a beer tent sporting a range of draft beers is one luxury that can’t be sacrificed.
“Some people really go over the top a bit,” admits Tony Bartolo, who travelled to Waterloo with his wife and 18-year-old nephew Deon.
“Over at the French camp the guys sleep on straw and won’t smoke 21st-century cigarettes. They have to use the liquorice paper to roll tobacco,” he says.
This is his nephew’s first experience of historical re-enactment. So does the Waterloo experience pass the notoriously tricky teenager test? “It’s a very friendly atmosphere. But I like my own bed very much,” says Deon, who is one of the few people at camp who isn’t dressed up like Napoleon.