# WW2 Re-enactment=awesome!



## Aggie08 (Mar 26, 2006)

I attended a re-enactment on the future site of the Museum of the American G.I. in college station, tx. It was sweet. Tanks, armored vehicles, all kinds of small arms, FLAMETHROWER!, mortars being fired, it was wonderful. I'll let the pictures talk. Definitely one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The theme was the taking of the Siegfried line, so the battle was centered around the dragon's teeth.


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## the lancaster kicks ass (Mar 26, 2006)

cirtainly looks very impressive, any more pictures?


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## Nonskimmer (Mar 26, 2006)

Cool. It looks like it was a hoot.


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## the lancaster kicks ass (Mar 26, 2006)

although i doubt that sign's authentic............


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## Gnomey (Mar 26, 2006)

Nope, but still good pics, looks like fun!


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## lesofprimus (Mar 26, 2006)

Good shots Aggie....


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## Aggie08 (Mar 26, 2006)

more pics, the website is http://www.museumoftheamericangi.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=gallery&file=index


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## Wildcat (Mar 27, 2006)

Sweet! though some of those GI's need to put a bit more effort into their PT!!


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## HealzDevo (Jan 29, 2007)

Cool, must look at the website, to see the photos.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jan 29, 2007)

Very cool. I wish I could attend the one that is going on in Bamberg, Germany right now. It is hosted by a German reenactment group. They are trying to accuracy in the capturing of the town. There are American reenactment groups attending. I only live about 45 min from Bamberg. If I had not been sick this weekend, I would have gone.


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## HealzDevo (Jan 30, 2007)

Sounds cool. You are lucky living on the continent although I aim to try to get to an airshow held at Nambour in Queensland at some stage. Hopefully should see a few interesting aircraft and perhaps some jeeps and things. Although a lot of that stuff is more in Europe really and the bigger cities here like Brisbane and that...


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## timshatz (Jan 31, 2007)

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:


> Very cool. I wish I could attend the one that is going on in Bamberg, Germany right now. It is hosted by a German reenactment group. They are trying to accuracy in the capturing of the town. There are American reenactment groups attending. I only live about 45 min from Bamberg. If I had not been sick this weekend, I would have gone.



They're doing it in the middle of winter? That's gotta be cold in Germany. And probably wet. On the plus side, it does give you impetutus to capture a couple of buildings to get out of the cold. Talk about your motivated troopers!

Hope your feeling better.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jan 31, 2007)

Thanks for the well wishes. I am feeling much better, but I am afraid that I may have passed it on to my wife.

Yeah they reenact them all throughout the year here to commemorate the actual event in the most realisted conditions. You can even go to Bastogne and see a reenactment of specific events form the Battle of the Bulge. Obviously they can not reenact the whole thing but small parts of it and they do it in the snow just like it was back then.


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## Medvedya (Jan 31, 2007)

Indeed - we've just come back from St. Petersburg and been part of an enormous re-construction of part of Operation Spark which was the offensive launched in January 1943 to lift the blockade of the city. 

It was about -10 but there was a windchill which took it much lower. 






Ah, well not a problem - I had a makhorka zakurim as you can see and some hot black sugary tea in my chashka so I was fine.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Feb 1, 2007)

Very Very cool.


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## Gnomey (Feb 1, 2007)

Literally  Looks likes fun!


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## Medvedya (Feb 1, 2007)

Yeah it was, but there was a more sober moment when we visited the Piskariovskoye Memorial Cemetery the day before where those who died during the 900 day Siege of Leningrad were buried in mass graves. No one is exactly sure how many are there, but it's estimated to be around half a million people, mainly civilians who were either killed by the bombing and artillery barrages, or simply starved and froze to death during the blockade. 






There are no names, how could there be? They had to blast each grave with explosives since the ground was frozen solid and when the graves were full they used a steam roller to force yet more bodies in, and as you can see they go on and on and on. Both to the statue of a grieving Mother Russia at the end, and on either side of the tree lines.


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## HealzDevo (Feb 6, 2007)

So that memorial is more like a mass grave?


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## Medvedya (Feb 7, 2007)

186 mass graves are there. It was an existing cemetery that gradually became where all the siege victims went, and then a formal memorial after the war. Piskariovskoye was in the north east suburbs of the city which was furthest away from the shelling.

Finnish Army entrenched in the north only wanted to defend Finland's frontiers - so they had no interest in attacking civilians or Leningrad. 

Relatives of those who died would take the bodies the by sledge (about 5 miles from Nevsky Prospekt) sometimes only for them themselves die on the way there or back.

You can see the place on Google Earth at 

Lat 59°59'47.49"N Long 30°25'20.41"E


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## Soundbreaker Welch? (Feb 8, 2007)

Looks like fun.


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## HealzDevo (Feb 11, 2007)

Yes, the reinactments do look like fun...


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## HealzDevo (Feb 11, 2007)

How usual was it for the Kubelwagens and the US Jeeps to have the pedestal mounted machine gun? Was it only used for special operations or was there a smattering of them through the fronts?


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## Medvedya (Feb 12, 2007)

That Kublewagen looks like a type 181 which has been made to look like a wartime one. Never heard of a Kublewagen having a machine gun on a mount, but then German stuff isn't my area of expertise.

This is a Gaz 67 that a guy in our group has.


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## HealzDevo (Feb 18, 2007)

Okay, so the ones with a machine gun on the Kubelwagen mounting might not be correct? Would be interesting to know whether there were any produced, and if so how many...


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## Medvedya (Feb 19, 2007)

Well I've checked and some of later war 82's did indeed have a mount for a MG42 - not at all common and for air defence purposes though. 

Reason beinging that they're ostensibly a staff car/recce vehicle, so not really intended to be in shooty situations. 

Same as the Gaz 67 - I can't imagine where you'd find space in the back to put a DP-28, DsHK, or Maxim anyway! Two guys in the back with Papahshas would be just as effective.


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## HealzDevo (Feb 20, 2007)

Okay, I looked up WW2 Kubelwagen and I have found an answer that the Machine Gun Kubelwagen was designed in 1937 at the same time as the regular non-machine gun Kubelwagen. I am not sure how many machine-gun Kubelwagens were deployed as opposed to the non-machine-guned Kubelwagens...


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## Medvedya (Feb 24, 2007)

Nor am I, I haven't seen any original pictures of a KW with one, but that doesn't mean there weren't any. My gut instincts would say they're on the unusual side though.

Generally with regard to reenactment, you're always better off going for the common-place rather than the exotic.


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## HealzDevo (Feb 25, 2007)

Yes, interesting question though, the Machine Gun Kubelwagen. I know that the Machine Gun Jeep and SAS jeep weren't that common really and yet they are better known... Reckon there could be a gallery for reinactments in the photo section as I love some of those photos you posted. Keep em coming if you have more please?


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## Medvedya (Feb 25, 2007)

More pictures? - Here ya go...

Èñòîðè÷åñêàÿ ðåêîíñòðóêöèÿ. Ïðîðûâ áëîêàäû Ëåíèíãðàäà. 27 ÿíâàðÿ 2007 ã.

I can go one better than pictures as it happens - have a look at this...

Âèäåî@Mail.Ru: Ïèíöåòíûé ÷åë : Áîé 27 ÿíâàðÿ 1944 ã... : Ìåñèëîâî â ðóêîïàøíóþ


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## HealzDevo (Feb 26, 2007)

Ok, I'll look at that video at home. The pictures looked great thanks.


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