Eden camp

Having got all the kit and few opportunities to wear it at WW2 airsoft games, I finally dragged myself along to a proper re-enactment event. A fairly large contingent from Sheffield are already members of the Northern WW2 Association http://www.nww2a.org.uk/, an umbrella re-enactment organisation which includes Germans, British, US and Soviet groups. They recently ran a 'new members' weekend at Eden Camp in North Yorkshire, which provided an opportuntity for the members of the various groups to get together, socialise and sell each other enormous quantities of unwanted kit as well as put on a bit of a show for the public.

For this one I tagged along with 8 Ko. Infantry Regiment Grossdeutschland, who re-enact early war German infantry and who pride themselves on their drill. So we did quite a bit of square bashing and rifle drill.

The might of the Wehrmacht including the platoon accordianist with a Czech OT-18 pretending to be an Sdkfz 251.

The Kriegsmarine put in an appearance.

An unruly group of US Paras are kept in order.

It was an enjoyable weekend and something I'll probably do a bit more of, especially as most of the events are local and don't involve driving to the other end of the country and sleeping in a forest in the rain and wind. Blank firing 'battle' comes next hopefully. The photos look quite sunny but it was completely freezing, particularly the early morning fog and I felt a bit sorry for the US paras in their thin cotton uniforms.