Swift And Bold

The story of how an interest in military history and collecting toy soldiers has led a father and son into the world of ‘living history’ and the 5th Battalion 60th Rifles.

In January 2016 those of us in the UK enjoyed the latest BBC adaptation of Tolstoy’s War & Peace on television and it reminded me of a much less well-known conflict which was raging at exactly the same time. The Peninsular War took place between 1808 and 1814 and was, in many ways, the beginning of the end in breaking Napoleon’s spell of invincibility. Just as the Battle of Britain in 1940 showed how Hitler could be beaten, tied down and punished, so too did the Peninsular War show the way and light at the end of the tunnel. Both 1940 and the Peninsular were then, of course, also followed by the cataclysmic mistake of most European Dictators, namely to invade Russia and thus receive a mortal blow to their regime. So, whilst following the adventures of Bolkonski, Rostov and Dolokhov and with memories of the ‘Waterloo 200’ re-enactment in my mind I wanted tell readers the story of those that came before, and served with the 95th Rifles.

Whilst in Belgium, when the 5th/60th joined 6,000 other reenactors in 2015 we were a bit miffed that most of the people at Waterloo who cheered us when we marched through the village on the way to the Battle were cheering us Rifles and saying ‘well done the 95th’. 

In fact the reality was very different. In Spain, as Captain Galiffe said, “they (the 60th) are the spoiled children of the division; in fact we are more liked than the 95th”. Generally the discipline of the Germans, perhaps through their innate Germanic control and also because of their experience and higher, previous social/employment status to that of an ordinary British solider at the time led to them being much more approved of. Officers of the 33rd Foot said exactly the same thing.