Huge crowds to watch Battle

WATERLOO, BELGIUM — Belgium this week hosts days of commemorative events and mock battles to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo that shaped the face of Europe, at a time when the continent’s unity is under threat.

European royals will attend a solemn memorial service on Thursday at the battlefield near Brussels where French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s dreams of European conquest were crushed by British and Prussian forces on June 18, 1815.

Nearly 200,000 spectators are also expected to flock to the site to watch a giant pyrotechnic concert on Thursday followed by two days of battle reenactments described as the largest of their kind in the world.

Waterloo still raises sensitivities in France and organizers are treading carefully to paint the event as a celebration of a modern continent joined together by the 28- nation European Union after centuries of war.

“The idea is to use this occasion to send a message of reconciliation and unity,” said an official in the cabinet of Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, which is organizing Thursday’s commemorative ceremony.

In Britain, heir to the throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla will attend a special service at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London along with descendants of men who fought at Waterloo.

EUROPEAN TENSIONS

The events mark a pivotal moment in European history, when around 93,000 French troops led by Napoleon faced off against 125,000 British, German and Belgian-Dutch forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Bluecher.

Wellington would later describe that damp overcast day as “the nearest- run thing you ever saw in your life.”

Ten hours of bitter fighting, often handto-hand, left more than 10,000 people lying dead on the battlefield of Waterloo and 35,000 wounded, thousands of whom later succumbed to their injuries.

Finally defeated by an alliance of monarchies determined to end years of European war following the 1789 French Revolution, Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena in the south Atlantic Ocean, where he died in 1821.

After the battle the victors redrew the map of Europe and the continent enjoyed almost a

COMMEMORATIVE coins to mark the 200th anniversary of The Battle of Waterloo are displayed during a ceremony held to unveil the €2.5 coin at the Royal Belgium Mint in Brussels on June 8. The coin bears the Lion’s Mound and a diagram of the troops...