Waterloo 2015: Day 2 'Allied Counter-attack'

Next up the second reenactment. This time officially featuring the Allied counterattack, but in reality consisting of most of the battle and sharing much of the commentary from the previous day.

Nevertheless the second battle day proved much better than the first one, at least in my opinion. The fighting was more organized and there seemed to be a proper plan for how it would proceed instead of the slightly random stuff from the day before. It also seemed like there were more reenactors this time around. Though in reality it was probably due to the fact that the fighting was more orchestrated and happened in a slightly more compact area allowing for concentrating of troops better.

Another plus was that the commentary was actually useful on this day. The first one only really had a few comments in English and those dealt with the fact that apparently Napoleonic soldiers were superhuman and even modern special forces couldn't do what they did back then. This time around they gave small history snippets from the battle at the points when the same action happened in the reenactment.

The weather was also nicer with it being far less windy than the day before and it was actually quite hot sitting in the stands. Though for visibility the slackening wind was slightly problematic. Luckily we didn't have much of an issue, but I would expect about a third of the crowd being slightly annoyed by the fact that all the  smoke from Allied artillery was slowly blown towards them blocking their stands for most of the show. But you can't really do anything about the weather unless you are Soviet Russia firing random chemicals at clouds.

There was also sad news that on the Friday show one reenactor had passed away. A one minute silence was kept for him and for the soldiers who lost their lives in the real battle. Things didn't go as planned this time either with at least one reenactor being hurriedly carried away on stretchers. And once again some of the horses threw their riders and one even made it into the spectators before the show started.

There are less pictures of this one as our seating places were in bit of a difficult location with the wall blocking some of the view and some wonderful people blocking our view by standing up a lot to take pictures. Oh well, luckily we were there for both days :)

Prussian artillery preparing for battle. They caught quite a surprising amount of hay and other material when moved. Could be a nice modelling opportunity to make them look more real :)

 

 

 The French command waiting for battle to commence.

 Prussian commanders with their wives.

The massed French cavalry

Another runaway horse. This one made it into the crowd of spectators before being caught.

 The camp followers had their own place to follow action.

 Some skirmishing between hussars before the battle.

 Allied pickets must have been sleeping as Napoleon himself has made it behind their lines with his Guard to inspect Allied positions and greet the crowds.

 Minor skirmishing continues before the French masses.

French HQ preparing their plans.

 This was mostly as good as it got regarding visibility for quite a large proportion of the stands.

 Wellington doing his best to entertain the crowds.

 The French attack commences and Allied skirmishers are slowly pushed back.

French light infantry is surprised by Brunswick cavalry

 Brunswick Hussars are driven off by French Guard cavalry.

 The Union Brigade charges the French guns before being counterattacked by French cavalry.

 French infantry slowly pushing forward, despite skirmishers harassing them every step.

 The Prussians arrive around Papelotte.

 The Guard advances!

 Scots Grays showing off captured French colours.

 One French lancer makes it behind the Allied lines and makes a dash for Wellington.

 As the night draws near the French are finally defeated and Napoleon flees.