Rapture, Medway Gaming Festival - Dutch Attack on the Medway, June 1667

 

At Parizan in 2022 I had a very long chat with Sir Barry Hilton of League of Augsberg, Beneath the Lily Banners and Donnybrook fame, whilst admiring his wonderful display of the Attack on the Medway in 1667, using his new Mad for War rules.

After the show a thought occurred to me, to see if I could persuade Barry to come down to Kent, to join the Rejects at Rapture Gaming Festival, funnily enough held at Chatham Dockyard, where we could refight the Attack on the Medway game. After all what better place to play the game, than the docks that were actually attacked.

He didn't need any persuading!

See Barry's post here.

Unfortunately for Barry, he's got a longer journey than most of the Rejects, it'll take us a mere 17 minutes and 9.2 miles, while Barry's journey will be 430 miles or a 860 mile round trip, that's dedication for you!!!

So if you feel fighting fit come and join Barry and the Rejects at Medway Gaming Festival on the 1st and 2nd of July at The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Main Gate Road, Chatham, Kent.

The Raid on the Medway, during the Second Anglo-Dutch Wars in June 1667, was a successful attack conducted by the Dutch navy on English warships laid up in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent. At the time, the fortress of Upnor Castle and a barrier chain called the "Gillingham Line" were supposed to protect the English ships.

The Dutch, under nominal command of Wilem Joseph van Ghent and Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter over several days bombarded and captured the town of Sheerness, sailed up the Thames estuary to Gravesend, then sailed into the River Medway to Chatham and Gillingham, where they engaged fortifications with cannon fire, burned or captured three capital ships and ten more ships of the line and captured and towed away the flagship of the English fleet, HMS Royal Charles.

Politically, the raid was disastrous for the war plans of Charles II of England. It led to a quick end to the war, and a favourable peace for the Dutch. It was one of the worst defeats in the Royal Navy's history, and one of the worst suffered by the British military. Horace George Franks called it the "most serious defeat it has ever had in its home waters

Hopefully we'll see you there!!!