The 200th anniversary of Waterloo

Waterloo - possibly the most famous battle in history - took place 200 years ago (just three lifetimes) and 2015 will see many of us making the pilgrimage to the battlefield with events reaching their climax in June.

The bicentennial was the inspiration for this site, but its usefulness will endure beyond the celebratory year.

Over the years I've visited the field of Waterloo on several occasions but my visit has largely been limited to Hougoumont, the Butte de Lion, La Haie Sainte, and the paths between. I've always been conscious that this is a very limited part of the Allied line and doesn't really consider the French perspective at all. Furthermore, I was limiting myself to one of four major battlefields. This is probably true of the majority of visitors, especially those that do not take advantage of a formal (and not cheap) guided tour.

This realisation, combined with this year's anniversary, led to the creation of this site. The site has three main objectives:

1. Provide walking routes around all four of the battlefields, commenting on points of interest and giving indicative timings.
2. Provide numerous maps of the battlefields giving different perspectives
3. Whilst making the site of interest to non-wargamers, give a wargaming focus (largely through some of the maps) for the benefit of wargamers and potential wargamers alike.

I visited the sites in November 2014, hosted and guided by local wargamer and friend Karoly Szigetvari, and we documented the routes together.

The web site went live in March 2015. At any point in time it will address the objectives above BUT it will be a living site. Content will be added continuously up until the celebrations. And, being blog based, I'd encourage readers to add their own content in the form of comments to add to the site's richness.

There's a lot of reference to 'I' above, but the site could not have been produced without the significant support and hospitality of Karoly to whom I am very grateful.

My thanks also to our sponsors and advertisers. Hopefully if you find the site useful, you'll show your support by visiting their sites too.

Andy,