Well i arrived at Lithgow on the 19/04/2013, the tell-tale signs of a living history festival, the local area had cars everywhere, the petrol station had guys in a mixture of medieval gear walking arround their cars. The weather was grey and cold, the friday was a no public day so everyone was setting up their respective camps. After i had set up my tent and everyn else had we had to register and got the rosters for what was going on etc. the french forces consisted of the; 21eme 3rd Btn ,Old Guard , Marine artillery, Irish legion Volt/Gren , 51eme , Young guard skirmishers, 69e Volt , 3e Dragoons , 7th Hussars..British forces consistered of; 73rd regiment, 95th rifles, 92nd Highlanders (their officer is dutch and moved to Australia last year), 42nd Highlanders, 40th regiment, Sandhams battery RA , Royal Marines, 7th Dutch land militia, Leib battalion, Prussian militia, 15th Hussars, NSW Yeomanry Dragoons, 102nd Regiment.Number for the event where ok, with around 200ish showing up. Friday night we in the 21eme had Red rooster
as we didint know diner was being served on that night. The rest of Friday night was spent round the fire, talking about stuff.
I had gone to bed around 1:00am and woke up at 3:30am due to it just being too cold in my tent, i went to tend to the fire,i than curled up and kept it alive as the -14 C tempertaure and heavy winds went through the camp. The Horns of the medieval chaps went off at 5:30am and woke everyone else up, The 7th dutch went about the task of making breakfast and us in the 21eme chopped wood for the fire, The Dutch officer from the 92nd used his kilt to to start the fire, a highlanders bellows he called it. The camp slowly started comming to life,as the horses where taken out and the 95th ran round the field and the french got their kit on. at around 9:30am the festivl opened to the public, we had a mass fire demonstration on in front of the crowds and the french consul general to Australia and two french senators and 50 or so veterans,including a former marshall of France. After the mass fire demonstration in which the 1:1 Scale 12 pounders hurt our ears we marched off to camp, where we where met by the French Delegation, they pinned the Legion 'D Honour on our Seargent, Gavin Jones (founding member of the 21eme in Australia, reenactor for 30 or so years) and talked to us. we then had a skirmish in which the situation was presented that we where a small force of french infatry delegated with the task of holding onto a town/barricade as the french forces retreated from Waterloo,We fought of 3 Waves of infatntry, Allied-Highlander-English and won the skirmish. This went for 30-40 minutes, the next battle was a few hours later in which we had to hold the same position, but this time with practically no ammunition and vursing british artillery, we left the left barricade and focused on the center, but before we knew it the royal marines had captured the little barricade, the battle was the best and we had to abandon the field as we got outflanked and picked off. Saturday night, or drinking night as its called in reenacting circles lived up t its name. with the guys from the dutch militia picking a fight with the Viking chaps and a fight broke out. Sunday morning was an early one as a popular morning show came to the event to film live, everyone got their gear on and all none correct stuff was hidden. WE spent the morning doing a small skirmish with the british and then doing drill/fatigue. The next skirmish went much the same as the saturday , except that as the 73rd charged our barricade the dutch unit ran off and stabed the british liason officer with them, they where sent back into the battle by some officers of the 73rd xD ,one but the next battle was the best ive ever been in. Even the Foreign people who had traveled from the US and EU for the event said it was on of the best.
The battle started off with us forming a line on the flank of our artillery their fore ambanding the barricade on our flank, we formed up and began our volley firing, it was crisp and perfect, the effort put into drill showing. We fought off the 73rd but then noticed a dutch head occupying out barricade, the old guard and grenadiers of the 21eme where sent to take the 2-3 expected dutch, as they apraoched how ever, 30 dutch and 20 odd brunswickers popped up and presented arms, the grenadier stopped and in a single volley wher wiped out. the allied units then formed up, fixed bayonets and slowly charge towards our artillery, at that moment the British 8-pounders opened up and wiped out the Irish Legion. The 3e Dragoons managed to make the the dutch form square as we sent the Volt units to block the allied units, but the dragoons had to fall back, as we where all looking at the dutch ambush we hadnt noticed how close the british units had got, our colonel orderd us to form square and fix bayonets, we had almost formed when the dutch/prussians/brunzwickers broke through our square, we tried to whole the front but the young guard broke and ran, the 73rd and 95th broke our line and wiped out the Arty crews, a melee battle started and we where called to lower our arms as the 7th hussars rescued our eagle and left the field. only 3 survived including me, a survivor of the old guard, a school principal, baymet charge the British colonel and killed him
. but the he was shot, us prisoners where lined up and taken as the wounder where shot,actually quite interesting, we then all got up slowly as the crowd in the grandstand and around the field sat up and cheered, it was amazing, we then marched around the field with drums etc as we where cheered, We then when back to camp, talked to by out officers, cleaned our weapons and finished off the day.
This is only a summary really, can post more but sleepy
sorry for spelling errors
