ROCKETS AT WATERLOO

Many years ago, my Dad had a jigsaw puzzle of the Battle of Waterloo that apparently showed rockets streaking across the sky. I was unaware of Wellington’s army having any such weapon and took it to be a little artistic license in the same way as the distant tower on the horizon. However, as I became more and more involved in researching the amazing battle, I discovered that there had been such a tower and fifty or so years later I found a reference in an account of the battle from a Horse Artilleryman who fired the rockets. It may not have been quite as depicted in the jigsaw but it started another quest to discover where and when the rockets started.

This then has become the subject of my third adventure for Fin and Thomo as they are selected for a special mission for Wellington to discover the worth of this new weapon. It leads them to London and the Artillery College before they get to play at the new Lord’s cricket ground, meet the artist John Constable before setting sail to eventually take part as Britain’s only representatives at the Battle of Leipzig.

So, from an unusual jigsaw I have learned that the rockets were involved in a number of battles across Europe and have used them to lead my two main characters back to Wellington, on into France    and eventually to Waterloo. How they get there will be the focus for the fourth and fifth adventures!!

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