So, as some of you kinky chaps know, this past weekend I attended a huge DDay commemorative event in Ohio. It was fucking awesome. I got to build my own fortifications on the beach with the unit I went with and spent almost six hours doing that Friday in preparation for the beach invasion battle on Saturday. There were over 30,000 spectators at this event for the beach battle, and just shy of 1,300 reenactors altogether reenacting the beach battles of Omaha (Germans vs. Americans) and Gold and Sword (Germans vs. Canadians and various Commonwealth troops).
In the morning Saturday, as SS, I reenacted the Battle of La Fiére Bridge. The scenario was: Fallschirmjägers were patrolling and came under attack by American paratroopers. The Fjr's were forced to retreat, and the light mechanized element of the SS moved in to support the retreat and face the paratroopers head on. The battle was brutal with 80 SS, 25 Fjr, a Puma Scout Car and a couple MG-34 armed motorcycles versus a combined 101st/82nd Army Airborne element of 100 troops. The battle in total raged for an hour until it came to a draw when our Puma was shot by an airborne recoiless rifle.
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday had events at night for reenactors including a grew Biergarten party at a local bar, a huge pasta dinner and dance at the human resources center, and some great food at a local pizzeria/deli on Thursday. We were provided free meals throughout the day by the Großdeutschland Feldküchen/Gulashkanonen. We had ham, eggs, and kaiser rolls served to is all thre mornings for breakfast, and some hearty meals for lunch like brats, rolls, sauerkraut, gulash, and even pierogies.
This was my first public event, and it was so fucking awesome. I got to speak to American and German veterans from WWII who fought in normandy, and specifically sparked a great conversation with one of the Germans, Obergefreiter Willi Harsdrohm. He told me about the bombardment him and his battalion came under on Omaha (which is the beach battle I reenacted) and how his best friend - he said this while choking up and tearing - was blown to pieces by naval battery fire along with 10 other comrades on June 6th before the Americans landed on the beach.
If any of you guys can make it to Ohio next year for this event, GO GO GO!!! It is so fucking worth it, and it has free registration. There are many battles throughout the week with French Partisans and two big battles on Saturday (La Fiére and the beach battle scenarios).