Only the British. . . . . . . . . . . .

Its only a few hours (for me) to the 150th anniversary of the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, MLU has dealt with this before but suffice to say it was a cock-up of grand proportions and fairly decimated the 4th and 13th Light Dragoons, 17th Lancers, and the 8th and 11th Hussars.

At this moment a small army of correctly period uniformed re-enactors, with period tentage and cooking facilities are encamped on the original battlefield and complete with the necessary horses.

The charge will be re-enacted tomorrow but without the original carnage thankfully and I have to record that it was not I, but Mrs. Notton who watched the scenes on the national news tonight and remarked that only the British would do this; would we ever see the French re-enacting Waterloo or Agincourt, or even our indigenous large population of Wehrmacht re-enactors travelling to Falaise to re-play the events of the pocket.

How strange that we would actually celebrate in detail a resounding defeat, perhaps me and that frightfully nice Mr. Raywinning-Suntonball should organise a similar grand-scale Operation Jubilee re-enactment?

R.

[Andrew Morrison]

Never say never

Don't know if it still goes on but Waterloo used to be re-enacted on the original battlefield every 5 years.

While have never been to see it myself those who I know who have taken part say that it makes the victory over the French seem even more impressive as they are always significantly out numbered by French re-enactors.

[Tony Smith]

You might be forgetting the Australian and New Zealand regard for Gallipoli, and although this wasn't our "cock-up" to begin with, it was far from a victory in any sense. The commemoration services at dawn each April 25th see thousands of Aussies and Kiwis fly a third of the way around the world to Turkey just to attend the ceremony.

Originally posted by Tony Smith
You might be forgetting the Australian and New Zealand regard for Gallipoli, and although this wasn't our "cock-up" to begin with, it was far from a victory in any sense. The commemoration services at dawn each April 25th see thousands of Aussies and Kiwis fly a third of the way around the world to Turkey just to attend the ceremony.

Quite so Tony, but that wasn't the point.

Do the Aussies and Kiwis dress up in period gear, fly a third of the way round the world and re-enact the battle?

I think not.

I think they attend to pay their respects for their fallen and attend the ceremony.

This is not what I was referring to as a strange British trait.

R.