I don't get it.

What do you do in a re-enactment? If those guns are real, then obviously, you won't shoot it at someone.

So, what exactly would one do in a re-enactment? Do you just stand around and talk wearing WW2 clothes and carrying WW2 equipment?

Puzzled Angela

The guns fire blanks. It's supposed to let you gain a better (but not complete) understanding of what those wars were really like. Unlike revolutionary War, or Civil War reenacting the WW1, WW2 and Vietnam rennactments are done solely for the reenactor and the battles usually last for a weekend or more.There are hardly ever any spectators. And besides, it's fun :-)

Certainly not a place for an old-man with a bad heart, bad back, bad circulation, bad lungs, support hose and cane to hang out.... unless I could be the fat ass commanding general barking orders..... :-) :-)

Everybody relax. I really don't want to have to lock this thread.

Thanks,

Shaun

Lock it? what ever for?

There's nothimg out of hand that I can see.

Guys,
No need to lock the thread, I have a complete understanding to why people are offended. It happends all the time and ive been trained to handle it.
I am not a nazi fanatic or anything. I am completely aware of all the atrocities committed by the Waffen-SS. We are are not a political group. Like I said, I reenact the waffen SS, NOT the algemeine SS. I do it because they were an elite fighting force. There are plenty of references to back that up.

As far as the MG42, yes it is a real $45,000 peice of hardware and it does fire real bullets. When the MG42 is fired, the links are sent threw the right side of the gun, and the empty cartridges are shot threw the bottom of the gun. There is actually a cover that your supposed to slide over it everytime you get up and move to keep it from getting too dirty in there. I would always forget to close it and my CO would get on my ass haha. It is a great gun though, hardly any jams (cept for the one in my hand lol). When the gun is fired you have to make sure you dont have your hand where you would usually put it on a regular gun (underneath the receiver) or the shell is going to go streight through your hand. By the time you move your hand out of the bottom way on an MG42 youll have 10 shells stuck in your hand.

I like questions, Ill post some more pictures also.

Thanks young man.... I had the shells and links coming from the wrong places......

Here are more pictures from the last reenactment

Harrison,

You guys are strapped to the gills with hardware! Halftracks and everything!

Not to stoke fire but people need to realize that it was not only the germans who committed attrocities. Alled countries commited lots of attrocities too. So if we jump all over people who do german WW2 re-enactments, then we have to jump all over all allied ones too.

check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_war_crimes

Harrisson: Great pics. half tracks look great.

If I am correct, there is a video clip shown on the history channel quite often. It is a vid of a german soldier with a white flag (both hands wide up) and hes walking along side of a river. The americans open fire on him, he tries to scramble but is hit about 4 times in the back.

There were many attrocities commited during WWII, but I will not like to go to into detail with them because we all know where that will end up. Also, we do not commit any attrocities in reenacting so it is unnecessary to discuss in a forum regarding reenacting.

The Division logo on the halftracks look like 116th Panzer-The Grayhounds.If that is Waffen SS logo,which one?
cheers!

Yes the halftrack is 116th Pz which is "Windhunde"

There was wehrmacht there also. We really didnt have enough room to have all the SS on one halftrack (if you look in the 2nd picture the halftrack in the back has a dietrich which is 1.SS as well as the kuble that im standing on). So we had SS in both halftracks, plus filled up 3 of our kubles, motorcycle, kettenkrad, and still some of us had to hoove it to the battle sight.
What was really interesting is all the vehicles except for the wehrmacht halftrack belonged to the 1.SS division that im in.

Harrison, although the first set of pics include blurry ones, its great to see the equipment and all, msut be great to ride the halftrack too.

Btw, at that price for the mg42, iam guessing either your parents are loaded with cash or some else is paying for all this must'nt be cheap to run those half tracks either... not with the gas going up...

Thanks for sharing.

Frank

MG isnt mine, neither are the halftracks. But the uniform is mine and expensive as it is. Ive put more than $2000 into my impression.

Henk:

I reinact the US Civil War. I go as a southern Infantryman. I am aware of the German groups through a bond among reinactors. (We run into each other at large gun shows). I take exception at your Malmady remark as well. We are non-poltical...If you had called me a slaveowner or slavery supporter for doing Confederate reinacting this would be the equivalent. I am sure that thee are reinactments in English. I am aware they do Waterloo on the European mainland as well as other Napoleonic skirmishes . I believe that in England they probably do war of the roses an other such things. We are doing LIVING HISTORY we are all non-political, (in my group we ran several folks off who belong in the KKK or neo-nazi groups). Hopefully this clears things up a bit. I am not trying to tick anyone off just trying to clarify what reinacting's core is about.

blaster, your spelling reenacting wrong!! :-) just playin with ya mate

Speaking of a forum for reenacting... we have one. The Militaria Forum! Doh!

As for comments made about the quality of cameras, sarcastic responses, and so forth. Geese.. give that a break too will ya.

Thanks,
Jim

Im all for reenacting, taking blurry grainy pictures and enjoying what your doing. Tsunami, heck, I would like to be a part of your reenactors, hope I spelled that right, lol.

Anyway, dont show any color pics, will take away from the overall effect.

This thread SOUNDS almost like the one about the Graf Spee being raised. My opinion on that is too raise it.

Enjoy your stomping out in the woods, just watch out for furry lil creatures.

Leaving all the SS issue aside I've got to say that the second lot of photos look very impressive, they could be right out of a history book.

Very authentic.

Hi all

I feel that reenacting does have a role to play in the pursuit of keeping history alive i can see the feelings that some people may have regard perticular areas of reenacting.
iT also provides a great amount of refrerence material for our hobby.
I do however feel that we must not give certain military groups super status as with regard them being the hardest fighters during the ETO campaign.
They all fought hard i have spoken to many many vetrens over the years and they all did a job.
Cheers Chris

Harrison, have you ever been over to the UK to the big re-enactment at Beltring, in Kent? If not, you really must go! I've been (as a spectator) several times, there are a lot of SS guys there. For those getting worked up over seeing the dreaded runes, the guys at Beltring go round with their helmets after the mock battle & collect for charity. One year I spoke to a genuine British Normandy veteran, who opined they were "a great bunch of lads". He more than anyone would have issues with seeing SS troops I would have thought, but he recognised that they were just putting on a show. I have to admire these people's dedication, no long hair or beards etc, they do look the part. They also have to "earn" their rank by attendance or by doing something special for the group.
Thanks for posting the photos by the way. I guess those half-tracks are Czech AT80sor WHY BTW? Last time I was at Beltring there was a group there with some really rare German stuff, genuine Sdkfz251, 250, Demag etc. One year there was a FAMO - mega huge!

I hoped no one would bring up the subject about the halftracks. YES, they are post war czech halftracks converted. They are about $20,000. Now, if I was to want a REAL Sdkfz.251 it would be around $200,000. Not to mention shipping from a foreign country because there are very little amounts of REAL german armor that actually works here in the states.

Also, I have never been to any reenactments in england. I am not a big fan of public battles or living history where you go out and strut your stuff in the public. As you can see some people have an issue with seeing us in uniform. I have been to 1 living history and we always got nasty looks. So no more of that. Public battles for me arent fun at all cuz there is no tactical manuevering and basically its 2 sides running at each other in an open feild. If you like to see that, then youll be struck silly when you see what we do out in the woods during private battles. Cheers Mate!

Hohenstaufen, what are you 9th SS??

Mein Gott Harrison! How does it fetch that price? Rarity? How do similar (MG34?) pieces compare?
Cheers
Brad

Bradley, there is one for sale now at the link below. Yep, they are really rare.
Now all I have to do is hit the lottery. If I was going to spend the money I think I would get a ma deuce, but that's just me...

http://www.autoweapons.com/photos05/sep/1154mg42.html

Link to the main page with the description and the price, $42,000

http://www.autoweapons.com/products/products.html

Shaun