11th Swiss Rifles - 1914-1918

10/05/2025

Another excellent weekend for the Swiss and friends at The Hex!

Thanks a million to our gracious host Doug Clark

11/13/2024

Over the past weekend our group had the great pleasure in taking part in the Newville WWI reenactment. Newville is an amazing experience of being on a private site with hundreds of other reenactors and history enthusiasts portraying combat and support roles of the First World War. We participate as neutral observers, processing POWs, and facilitating meetings/communications between the two sides. It's not easy, as the event has extremely high standards but is incredibly rewarding. We would ask you to come and watch but it's a private event so the only way to come is to be a participant!

08/01/2024

Happy Swiss National Day!
..the BEST named national holiday!

On 1 August, Switzerland commemorates the signing of the Federal Charter of 1291.

06/24/2024

Over the weekend the group took park in the Camp Niagara event at Fort George!

We were able to warm up the machine gun a few times, interact with the public and spend some quality time with the other WW1 era reenacting groups!

Thanks everyone for attending.

11/24/2023

Take a close look at image #5; the bayonet stuck in the ground is, well, the ground for the field phone!

You can tell that's during the early days of WW1, as the grey shako covers have been issued to troops still wearing the dark blue of Ord. 1898.

11/20/2023

Here's a collection of photos and video captured by unit member's at the November event in Newville!

11/20/2023

09/21/2023

During some casual reading this particular page came up, in English, showing in great detail the area of Switzerland where Kilometer 0 was for most of WW1.

It has detailed photos, maps, and descriptions of features you might not typically encounter as history enthusiasts.. so please enjoy!

https://thebignote.com/2022/08/05/kilometre-zero-where-the-western-front-began/

08/24/2023

Greetings friends!

Unit photographer & chef James McFarlane has photos available from this past spring's Newville event available now! Here's his original post;

"I have completed the work on the "POW photos" that I took at the Spring Tactical earlier this year. Thank you for your patience!
You can view the files on flickr here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAMaz8

Please feel free to comment with any additional information for the entertainment and education of all.
The files are available for download from Google Drive here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Wxl0cefFkILcLplQ9F0EN6gpw4iklpKQ?fbclid=IwAR1HqR4pUHaI3MFd6h0VkurIqi0AjCONLIUbK3m-_CjWmSypYnVJsddVLmY

Please feel free to share the photos and links far and wide! I have provided them in a historic state without watermarks for personal use, if you would like to post them online please attribute them to James McFarlane or McFarlaneImaging.
For those who would like traditional darkroom prints of these images please email me the photo #'s at [email protected] for further details. Print sales in the next 2 months will defray the cost of more film for the November Tactical.
Enjoy!
"

Here’s my latest project, photographing WW1 Re-enactors at the Newville tactical in Pennsylvania. I portrayed a photographic clerk in a Swiss army medical internment unit, processing POWs and taking glamour shots for whoever wanted them. The intent was to make them look “rough & tumble” in...

08/01/2023

Happy Swiss National Day!!

They need a more catchy name for this.

06/26/2023

We'd like to thank Fort George National Historic Site, Parks Canada and in particular all of the Parks staff for making us feel very welcome and going WELL out of their way to accomodate and help us this past weekend at the Camp Niagara event!

Thank you!

06/23/2023

Some photos from the timeline event at Backus-Page House Museum this past weekend! Thank you Steve Zronik