Devils Hill

This was the first WW2 airsoft game that Tim and me went to, back in 2010. It was set during Market Garden and covered the battle for Devils Hill down on Hells Highway and was played at the Cerberus airsoft site in north yorkshire, which was basically a huge, rocky hill with pine woods are the base and extensive bogs on the top.

Cheery US Airborne types.

Another doughboy

Fallschirmjagers

US Para with trench gun

Germans moving up

First time I'd seen an airsoft MG42

I rather like the 'hanging around' photos, seem more atmospheric.

More hanging around

A great 'action' photo, these usually look fairly rubbish in Airsoft games.

It absolutely pelted with rain on the Sunday and we got drenched. Helmets work very well in the rain at keeping water out of your eyes.

More soggy soldiers, the US troops fared worse in their cotton gear. The wool uniforms kept people surprsingly warm even if we were soaked to the skin.

Trudging off the moors with boots full of water

A good b/w photo

and another.

Compared to the more normal airsoft games I'd been going to in previous years, this event was just astonishing, particularly the second day when we were tired, soaking wet and freezing cold. Very immersive. Open Day games are fun, but  more in a Call of Duty team play type of way, whereas the unit based mission oriented WW2 stuff  felt a lot more like a role playing experience of being a real soldier, particularly when being commanded by ex-NCOs. At the end of the day it is still dressing up and playing with toy guns I guess, but any event where you still feel cheerful while pouring a pint of water out of each boot at the end has something going for it.