In sweltering heat, Pembroke children came out armed to the teeth on the last day of school for an old-fashioned water balloon fight to benefit the town's annual tree lighting.

Before the start of the second annual Great Water Balloon Fight behind the Pembroke Community Center in Pembroke, Cara Clifford, 5, showed her game face.

About a half-hour before the 3:30 p.m. start, parents and children started arriving with their carefully stored missiles (the event was BYOB—bring your own balloons), each child paying $3 to join the fun. The event raised $250 to $300 for the town.

Pictured: Children lined up get ready to throw their water balloons.

The combatants gathered on one side of the field or the other, with a line of plastic cones marking out a no-man’s land to keep combatants from getting too close to each other. There was even a modicum of trash talk before the emcee gave the signal to begin, and chaos ensued for about eight action-packed minutes.

Pictured: Peter Schultz, 6, Kyle Ready, 6, and Liam Brennan, 8, try to catch water balloons thrown at them by other children.

Peter Schultz, 6, wound up, amo in hand.

Best buddies Kory Lawson and Jason DiNardo, both 9, lugged a cooler with 150 balloons to the starting area, ready for mayhem.

Children ranging from kindergartners to middle-schoolers channeled different methods—Rose Cooper, a cagey 11-year-old, adopted what might be called the Battle of Bunker Hill “hold your fire until you see the whites of their eyes” strategy.

“You wait until everyone else has thrown their balloons, and then you throw yours,” she said.

Pictured: Six-year-old Hudson Verrill wiped water from his eyes after getting splashed by an exploded balloon.