Return to Liepzig.

 Leipzig!  My first foreign reenactment back in 2013, then 2018, now 2023. Will I go in 2028? I really don't know. 

I had a pleasant day and a half to stay in a hotel and mooch around the city before getting the tram out to the bivouac at Torhaus Dolitz. Then here are some highlights, the hots and nots! 

Nots.  Pouring down on the Saturday morning accompanied by a cold wind, fortunately it soon blew itself out and stopped raining too! By 11 am the sun was coming out. 

Liepzig security not knowing what to make of my Doctors tourniquet and getting a policeman to look who clearly pondered if it could be used as a cosh.  Everything was fine and I went to get my delayed plane, just making the connection. 

No one but soldiers on the field. There are apparently two comittees that run the battle of Leipzig who take turns, this one decided that only fighting soldiers were to go on the field beyond the rear lines. Part of this was to limit the number of civilians taking pictures, which is kind of understandible but I found myself with other Prussian medical staff who would have been on the field.. confined to a hospital area that was for 'proper' first aid with two ambulances (German equivelent of St Johns) and a jolly Doctor in surgeons kit running the operation. We had three patients, treatment included a free beer! 

If I'd have known I would have stuck to the Westphälische Landwehr (a fine bunch, green facings) I'd marched up with and gone into the battle. 

Hots!  It is all good after that. The march to the field as the sun was coming out was enjoyable, although it turned out to be only to the other campsite where upon we were bussed to Liebertvölkvitz. (Sic).

The night after the battle the (UK) Prussian artillery stayed at the battlefield to do a cannon firing show. 

Not feeling inclined to build a fire just for one vegischnitzel I ventured over to the saxon artillery and asked to use their fire. 

Not only did they naturally say yes but supplied me with more food and drink.

I stayed with them for the evening, joining in a colourful schnapps based drinking game for quite a large bit of it and sitting at the fire.

I would really like to meet up with them again.

I apparently missed a horse falling asleep on the absinthe bar on Thursday night, but nevermind. Friday with the Lovely UK Prussians was a good time.

(The lazarette, by this time the battle had moved off into the near distance).

And so what of the future? Sitting here on New years eve, I don't know.  This year other than Liepzig things seemed a bit meh. I liked Stansted park but feel I need a break, events are just a bit samey. 

I have a lot of good friends I mainly see at events and that has been a big draw, the social side is one of the great features of reenactment, a dozen or more 45e sitting drunkenly singing around a fire will always be a warm memory.  

And so onwards, have a great new year! 

2023, so far.

 2023 So far!

There has been Fort Amherst, a voyage to Stockholm at Midsomar to mark 500 years since Gustav Vasa became King and is seen as taking Sweden into the modern age, and Stansted park. 

Fort Amherst came first, but I really don't have anything to say about it, was quite a bit of standing about, good to have a drink with friends, missed the one battle as I was showing a potential recruit around as it started and thought oh well, they probably don't need a doctor, turns out it would have helped with getting casualties into the fort to respawn, but nevermind.

on to Stockholm.... 

Having spent a lovely Friday at the big city heritage park where historic buildings from all over Sweden are preserved and there is a big maypole festival.. the marches were on Saturday, one in the morning and a seemingly unscheduled one around the old city centre in the afternoon before a feast in the evening.

The underground stations are different colours, shaped into caves, and contain art instalations.

Marching to the palace where the king and queen watched us pass beneath, the king of course being a descendent of Marshal Bernedotte. 

Shenanigans in the old square, by the wooden horse museum.

Underground again but this time the candlelit basement of the olde tavern. 

Sunday, had to be done, at meatballs for the people, was the best 'meat'balls I've even had, largely thanks to the mix of flavours with mash and gravy. 

Stansted house.. just visible? Walking from Rolands castle railway station.

Are we there yet?

Serge, the twitcher, is amazed at the tits which Ian pointed out.

The battle on Saturday was sadly called off with everyone on the field after two of the cavalry were injured early on, and required an ambulance to come on. Hopefully the guys are all mended now.

Sunday saw the French seriously outnumbered as the Prussians who'd boosted our numbers were swapped back to the fiendish British side. Still we came on from the woods and lead them a merry dance. I died in what I thought was the last hurrah but someone the fighting carried on for a while after. Mopping up!

A tank from the east, thoughtfully marked out as a Ukrainian T34, not at all Russian, really. 

And the next event is far to the east, to Liepzig. 

Twenty twenty two, two.

A hot year!  The rest of 2022!  After Waterloo I had only one day before going away again, then only a few days before Brettan and I confess the idea of writing up two events, now three, was a bit daunting yet a part of me still wanted to put something up for prosterity, like this blog was a diary I might look back on. I won't write an account of each event just any particular points or memories.

It was heat wave week at Waterloo and the camp was near the largely restored chateux/farm of Hougoumont but more importantly for many of us were the lovely leafy trees down the centre, separating the British and Prussian camps. A lot of time was spent under those trees, a real difference to Waterloo 2015 which as a very busy first time visit was spent sight seeing and drilling.   

Under my adopted tree.

So my role was as medical officer to the Prussian artillery, and just for one battle as I had to leave to get the Eurostar earlier than planned, but being one of the few in camp when the battle loomed on Sunday I got to open a gate and watch Napoleon, Ney and the French cavalry all ride through.

The cannon was towed up to the field on Friday evening and being on the trailer going over the rough road was the closest I'll probably get to being in the horse artillery.

 In the Saturday battle as well as helping to push a gun about I did have an actual nosebleed to deal with. My patient sitting next to field marshal Blücher himself! 

The sun set as the mighty French attack failed and they then made a last stand. I got the honour of firing the last shot from 'our' cannon on the far left flank. 

Bretten! (In Baden-Wurtemberg) My third visit, last one being 2017. I find the two covid years seem like a black hole when working out dates, something from five years ago feels like three. 

Not much had changed and the town was very keen to get back into it after the above break, it certainly was very busy and joyful and we were invited to a feast of watermelon and feta, fresh flatbread, eggs in green sauce, shredded oranges and cous cous and some sort of meat dollop, if you so wanted.

The tavern in it's little square is always a lovely place and you must be appropriately dressed on the Landskneckt side. No trainers! 

Friday was a battle practice, the 'Story' of the siege now in 60 parts each announced by a gun firing!  Aaaand your on.  I was an arrow magnet during practice but not on the Saturday night when I just got stabbed. 

The night ended in the town square with disco dancing to a covers band. 

What colour are the enemy? Er, red, yellow, blue... orange.. white.. anyone facing the wrong way.

Scary C16 bee-keepers or possibly baddies from Dr Who. 

Hole park.

Owing to some absences and injuries the French were lead into battle by an experienced NCO whilst I, having a big hat, took up being L'Emporer's aide de camp and adjutant to the French, even being equipped with a walkie talkie to aid co-ordination with the other side but generally just scribbled notes with an oversized pencil.

From it absolutely pissing down when we arrived and put up the tents the weather was sunny in the day.  Hat discipline has become very lax in camp! 

Saturday evening saw a repeat of last years skirmish in the woods (sending a horseman to ask if the British were coming was far more effective than trying to get an answer on the walkie talkie) so yours truely had a price on his head. After last year when we had about ten troops and they turned up with about thirty and an artillery crew we decided on being sneakier and I managed to elude capture and make it back to camp, though I almost collapsed when I got back, I'm clearly not used to such exercise.

 So what of the future?

I confess the weekend as ADC was enjoyable and would do it again although it was a particular set of circumstance. I am also aware that I don't want to be one of those guys who turns up as part of an entourage. There were messages to deliver, notes to take, hobnobbing to do, and just that Napoleon should have one or two staff or it looks odd, but not too many. 

I do like the fact I can take the field as a Doctor and treat the wounded, smell the smoke, get a muddy knee, and risk the cannon fire (and on occasion escape through the woods), so I have a purpose. 

But in camp as just a doctor it can be a bit slow, though there were plenty of general questions at Napoleon's tent, and there is already a very entertaining, lively and well equipped surgery display in the French camp so a further table of medical nik naks would be a bit redundant. 

 I think a middle path would be best, drop in to see l'emperor for a glass of vino and then roll the sleaves up and get stuck in. 

Dates are already on the calender for 2023...

Lewes and Nunhead.

It has been a couple of weeks since these two modest events and I pondered whether to write them up, but decided to as a matter of completeness.

The battle of Lewes, the official poster for the event, without a single mention of where or what time anything was happening! 

I was only going on the Sunday but as Lewes is a short train ride away I decided to nip over on the Saturday night to catch a bit of socialising and broke out the Fransiscan habit, the only bit of kit I've got that has been improved by being a bit Moth eaten during lockdown. 

Played an amusing medieval board game, which no one knew the name of, but I may try and make my own copy.  Had a couple of pints in my half pint mug which involved drinking half a pint at the beer tent counter before transferring the rest to my modest mug. I have tankards but as a poor friar I don't think it would be appropriate to have something big and shiny.

Back in Lewes on Sunday I was twice accosted by visitors wanting to know where the skirmishes were.. at three points on the advance into town.. I only vaguely knew and was wandering in the general direction myself. I didn't really get any historical questions all day, although I was mistakenly referred to as 'Father' to which I replied "Oh no, I'm not a father, not that I know of.' 

The king gets beaten again on Lewes high street, some good cajoling went on. 

Back at the camp there was an assortment of stalls and attractions from the inevitable hog roast and mead to crockery smashing, archery and a treasure hunt, a leather hooded executioner did a very good show every so often, although someone told me they didn't think it was entirely suitable for children, mainly due to the crushing of testicles.

Despite being fairly local I had never seen all the ruins of Lewes priory which was once a pretty big, solid complex, like many laid to waste by Henry VIII.  

                       The ghost of the priory!

Nunhead cemetery open day.. I thought would be a bit of a niche event, one of our small band chatting to an old lady and her small dog whilst the rest sip tea and nibble on cucumber sandwiches. 

It was actually quite full on and busy with all sorts of visitors, including quite a few goths, naturally. 

The connection with the 45e is that a number of veterans of the Napoleonic wars are buried there, including a Corporal Dickson, who was apparently with Sergeant Ewart when he captured the Eagle. Several times in the day we marched up the main path and saluted the grave which drew some attention and gave the MC a chance to talk about the subject.

We were all kept quite busy with three tables of displays to talk about, or answer questions, why we were here and is that a real gun? being most common.

I often think I'm not keen on children but like all people it depends on them and a lot of the kids were very bright, and polite in that muesli belt kind of way. 

A much needed pint and pub meal followed, a warm day of standing, talking and gesticulating can really tire you out. 

Next..  should be Waterloo!  For many the first big event since lockdown. 

There was a possibility of going with the Prussians last year but covid still shut things down to Netherlanders only, but I may see them this year so plan to go as a civilian doctor capable of literally being in both camps. 

I have a 'new' doctors bag that isn't actually falling apart but there is a rather too modern lock on one side not shown in the picture (on ebay). Oh well, I'm sure it can be disguised or just held out of sight.

I could have got away with being a French surgeon but was a bit wary someone would discover some irregularity!  Also means I don't have to travel with a sword and big hat. Bonus.

Two week today I'll be enroute! 

A farewell to arms.

 ..and with the stroke of a pen Henriette went to live with a friend.

My musket since 2014 (although first used on the field of Leipzig in 2013) has been given up for several reasons. We are moving in a few months and a new place would require a new securi-chord being bored into the wall, not a huge deal but my licence runs out next year anyway and renewal now requires approval by a doctor and mine has been quite negative about signing similar things before. It can also be quite expensive for what it is.. and I might not actually use a musket in any given season.

It was nice to have incase an event was short of people who could fire or a filming opportunity came up, or if there is a post apocalypse scenario where I have to defend the house but meh, I'll just have to use the machette. A musket is also too slow to load if facing multiple zombies. 

I am now there to save people, mainly, I did stab a riflemen at Crouch ridge, but I consider that just part of my civil duty. 

New research on 45eme kit also means much of it requires change if I go to an event as a soldier and again it isn't worth adapting or buying new gaiters, breeches, shirt, stock etc and not using it. My veteran campaign trousers have retired. 

We had some grand times together (with Henriette, not the trousers), I remember a particularly satisfying double-loaded shot at Waterloo! and skirmishing in the woods at campaign events was always fun.. but things move on, Let it go!  

And what of 2022?  Sadly what would have been my first event has just been cancelled. After two years of covid cancellations.. we emerge into the light of a new summer with restrictions ended.. then Putin's darkness swallows the false dawn. 

It would have been near Hanover at a small palace occasionally inhabited by Jerome Bonaparte and I would have enjoyed a royal appointment for the weekend, think how that would have looked on my CV!  

It is sickening that we can have war in Europe in 2022 but I feel cancelling an event over it being inappropriate is not something I can really get behind, events didn't stop because of war in Syria or Yemen or Iraq or Afghanistan or Yugoslavia. 

What of Waterloo?  Will that go the same way? Assuming a new covid variant doesn't emerge. Some reenactors I know have said the covid slump drained their enthusiasm, got them out of the habit. 2022 needs to get them back out there! 

A big event in Russia (Borodino 2022) was still inviting participants just a couple of weeks ago.. suffice to say it was lots of non/no/nein/ne's from the international community. 

Reenactment is a community, I remember having breakfast with some friendly Russians back in 2013.  Hopefully we will all come together again. At the same event there was a small protest that the reenactment glorified war..  everyone involved knows better than the average person how much death, wounding, hunger and sickness goes hand in hand with any war. Education is often a goal but it is still a hobby meant to be enjoyed. 

I look forward to the day I can post about an event with friends from around the world! Maybe that will still be this year.  Stay safe!   

.

Wholesome park.

 Hole park!  Some would say the flagship event of the Napoleonic association calender each year.. obviously missed in 2020 how would it go in this post-covid but not really post-covid autumn?

I think the sudden panic about petrol probably effected the weekend more than any pandemic issues.. with some late arrivals and early departures and possibly a few would be visitors staying at home, you really can't get there except by car. 

Being outside covid might never have existed, except for sanitizer in the portaloos and a bit around food, and no longer do bottles get passed around the camp fire, which is probably a good thing on many levels. 

I actually decided a few days before to put on a display table and found someone coming along who would kindly bring a fold out table as I certainly couldn't manage one and three bags on the train part of getting there, and got some pictures/information laminated. 

"What is the parsnip for?" May well have been the most common question of the weekend, usually answered with "Oh, that is for my dinner later."

"What, really?"

I actually thought it would be a conversation piece, but in practical terms it was also a good paper weight. 

No one guessed what the most common ailment in the French army was (scabies), dysentery or syphilis being a common guess and 'Lice' one of the closest. 

The display could of course be left unattended but I felt I had a bit too much spare time at Crouch ridge and then not enough here, I had to wait until the public were distracted by an artillery display to sneak off to the ice cream van. 

Whether I will do a display in future is uncertain, and table dependent, our infirmiere/surgeon already runs a grand display when he is with us although I was mindful of how I cover sickness, disease and medicine more than surgery, yet people do love to ask about bits being chopped off.

It was a good crowd, and the chap who owns the estate was very pleased with the weekend with talk of making the event bigger. I'm not quite sure how that would work, make it a multi period event or add something like an evening concert?

My British counterpart possibly being offered a cup of tea. My other roles of the weekend included Imperial coffee valet and returner of lost cavalry pom poms. 

The battles were in a smaller area than normal for Hole park but there were some wooden barricades and a little faux wood to break up the field. 

Casualties were taken generously on both sides but as a 'medic' I was quite limited in who I could reach owing to the firing lines, a Napoleonic no man's land. 

                

                      "Trust me, I'm a doctor."

Sunday being a French defeat, the last survivors withdraw with the Eagle! 

A novel part of the weekend was the after hours (i.e. no public) skirmish off away from the camp. I was asked to be a secret agent 'Ducos' type character that the British had to capture. If we survived an hour we could make it back to the French camp.

There were eight of us in a wood, and two cavalry, just outside and I decided if the enemy came from the front, half of us should fire and retire and hopefully lure the British into an ambush by the second half. 

After about fifteen minutes of suspense we heard the British band playing and assumed the sound was carrying from the camp as surely our opposing force would be about ten riflemen? They weren't going to have a band playing! but soon the sound was clearly coming in our direction. 

Our piquet line started firing at enemy in the trees as the British cavalry met ours.

Soon I had to fall back and seek shelter, with my attached guard, Simon. 

The cavalry met again near us and it was a memorable sight to see light cavalry fighting amid the trees. The Brits rode away but may have seen us.

Suddenly Brits seemed to be everywhere and running round the top of the wood I got collared. 

Crikey. No wonder our plan floundered. The Brits had about twelve riflemen, 3 officers, twenty redcoats, two cavalry and a cannon and crew! I suspect they had just assigned a brigade to it.

              

 Enemy observation balloon?

I certainly don't think it was a deliberate mismatch as I heard the British continue to look for 'the rest of us' after we had been disposed of.

I then laid on the comedy as it was decided I was such a rascal that I would be shot. 

I obliged by walking away, then just before the order to fire was given collapsed into the long grass, then ran away to the left.

No one gave chase but on another order to fire I collapsed into the long grass and threw my hat into the air. Then again lying on my back with one leg briefly being lifted up that was seen as my death throes.

Once again my trousers died, both flap buttons! I think an evening of fine dinning and a regency dance is more their thing... Three days in camp and on battlefields is beyond them. I intend to sew the whole area shut with strong thread. 

       Make Britain French again! 

The picture above, and indeed all the really good, high definition ones, are by Charlie Richards of Hushpuppy productions. 

And so it was the end of a season, three events, all good ones. The tea and biscuits grandeur of Stanstead house, the windswept rise of Crouch ridge and the estuary and the lively timetable of Holepark with it's dashing horsemen and host of friendly faces. 

Who knows what the future brings? It would be niiiice to see some of our continental comrades next year, small scale events have been going ahead but only within their own borders.  So many events (not just reenactment) have been postponed twice that maybe it will be a busy year, third time lucky.

The parsnip survived the weekend. 

                See you on the other side!