My event in Almelo was simply great. It was well-organized, the visitors were super friendly, the battle was a lot of fun (Sunday, I died, then came back alive more or less, and crawled back to my line, holding onto my carbine. The public
loved it.). The event was around 200 men and it was very international. We had groups from Britian (41st foot and Royal Artillery), Germany (KGL, 127e), France and Belgium, and of course the Netherlands. I can't possibly remember them all
The atmosphere was surprisingly great - I even joined a night patrol of Dutch sailors (and we all deserted) and we had a rowing trip on the water, which was pretty genius as well as rather scary
. Particular one moment was great; Friday night, in the partytent, just after the music had stopped. People were still talking, and then someone started to sing the Chant de Depart, and one by one people joined, till pretty much half the tent or more was singing.
And after that song, a General, a very sympathetic German named Gunter, stepped forward, raised his bicorn and said: "Mon enfants! Allons enfant de la patrie...." and everybody joined La Marseillaise, and then the General shouted Vive L'empereur! And we all replied: "Vive L'empereur!" This was done two or three times, and it felt fantastic. The British replied with their 'God save the king! Huzzah!" and some friendly insults were thrown at each other. Even a few Orangists shouted 'Oranje boven!'
Saturday night we sang songs with other Dutch and Germans, and shared a bowl of soup (at 11:30 pm
) with some Belgians/French, as well as once again singing songs. Especially the meeting with those Belgians/French, the 1er Grenadiers, was awesome. Why? Because because we spoke barely French, and they spoke barely English or Dutch. We just used sign language and some simple words, and had a great time.
I could fill this box with all the great things that happened, but I think the sphere is something barely understandable in words.
One fun thing that happened after the battle of Sunday had ended: I had gotten 'wounded' in the arm (I crawled back a few times to try and be taken prisoner, and eventually some Orange Militia inspected the death. I rose up and presented myself to one of the Orangists, and he told me: "Well, get yourself to the rear. And go serve a sovereign ruler, instead of that imperial Rubbish!"
