January 2012

WWII – Battle of the Bulge Reenactment, January 25 – 29. Ft. Indiantown Gap PA. Contact: http://www.wwiifederation.org/index.html

February 2012

WWII - Elbe River Event, February 25, 2012, Old Bedford Village, Bedford, PA. regardless of the weather as usual. They still
have several buildings available and are currently accepting pre-registrations. As we speak, we have a few more in attendance this year

than last at this time. Just as a reminder, please bring PLENTY of ammo. Attached is the link for registrations and such..  www.freewebs.com/elbe1945 For any questions, call: Roger Bombard at: 703-431-6843.

March 2012

WWII - February 1943 Tactical event. March 9 and 10. Newville GWA site. Sponsored by 193rd Rifle Division and Fusilier Regiment Nr. 90 re-enacting units. Contact John Niemiec at : ostfrontjohn@verizon.net      Download waiver

Timeline – Military Through the Ages, March 17 and 18 at Jamestown Settlement, Jamestown, VA.  http://www.historyisfun.org/calendar.htm

February 2011

WWII - Elbe River Event, February 19, 2011, Old Bedford Village, Bedford, PA. regardless of the weather as usual. They still
have several buildings available and are currently accepting pre-registrations. As we speak, we have a few more in attendance this year

than last at this time. Just as a reminder, please bring PLENTY of ammo. Attached is the link for registrations and such..  www.freewebs.com/elbe1945 For any questions, call: Roger Bombard at: 703-431-6843.

March 2011

WWII - Spring 1945 Tactical event. March 11,12,and 13. Newville GWA site. Sponsored by 193rd Rifle Division and Fusilier Regiment Nr. 90 re-enacting units. Russians should contact Jason Brown at: jasonbrown193@yahoo.com or for general information, contact John Niemiec at : ostfrontjohn@verizon.net Germans contact Joe Murray at: ct1407@msn.com

Timeline – Military Through the Ages, March 19 and 20 at Jamestown Settlement, Jamestown, VA.  http://www.historyisfun.org/calendar.htm

Old Bedford Village has been described as the ‘Jewel of Reenacting’ in the Mid-Atlantic region, and I certainly agree. One of the premier events that I look forward to each summer is the annual OBV 1940′s weekend. It is always laid-back, interesting and fun. This year was no exception. Between John Niemiec, Craig Hall and myself, the 193rd rifle Division had a very substantial display around the schoolhouse at the rear of the village.

There seemed to be fewer reenactors this year than usual, and I suspect that part of the reason for this was the conflict with the ‘ Bridge at Remagen’ event which was going on the same weekend at Tidioute, PA. There is always the possibility of conflicts between events, but it is a shame that two quality WWII events occur on the same weekend and draw from basically the same pool of reenactors. I could have gone to either, but once again chose to support the Village, especially in view of the tough year it has had and with a changeover in management with the departure of long-time Director, Roger Kirwin.

Even though the reenactor turnout seemed to be down, the spectator attendence was as good or better than usual, and we were usually kept busy interacting with interested and enthusiastic passerby. This of course, means more revenue for the Village. The hospitality of the Village was gracious as always and we were treated to a fine dinner on Saturday evening. The new director (whose name I did not catch) spoke to the assembled reenactors, and seemed to very interested in the continuing the close relationship that the Village has long maintained with the reenacting community.  The annual Saturday night luau was a good time as always and a number of party-goers stayed into the wee hours. As for myself, I was in my sleeping bag by 10:30pm. I guess I’m just really not the party animal anymore.

All in all, the event was another successful weekend of living history, and one that justifies (at least to me) all the trouble it takes to load up and haul the sizable display that I have accumulated over the last few years.

Bill Donegan participated in some of the skirmishing at Old Bedford Village during the 1940′s Living History Weekend on August 7-8. Here is his report:

The Germans were in control of the village.  It was a beautiful summer day, the sky was clear and blue, no humidity and about 75 degrees fahrenheit. Villagers were out for a stroll, some were having a picnic, others sitting on porches visiting with neighbors.  The Germans who had taken up residence in some abandoned dwellings were sunning themselves, washing clothes, airing uniforms, mending equipment etc. No one was itching to fight.  There were even tourists roaming about asking questions and taking photographs.

On the other end of the village a group of Russians had taken up residence, across the street from a German police unit and observing a truce. People of Europe can actually live at peace with one another, provided that politics doesn’t raise its ugly head.
Then the peace of the village was interrupted by the sudden appearance of an American jeep. An American patrol was probing into the village to look for Germans. Someone reported the American presence to Ray Partenheimer the village Feldgendarm, who blew his whistle.  The German abteilung of the Hoch Gebirgs were the first to respond, led by Mark Laratonda and his dog Blitz, other Germans soon ran to the woods between the river and the main road into town to set up an ambush. I was in the process of changing out of shorts to long woolen keilhosen when this happened and only got into the woods seconds before the Americans arrived.  Joe Wiedel yelled for me to hide because my mustard yellow Luftwaffe tunic, (our unit had been supplied by the Luftwaffe) might give away our position.
A sniper Kevin Ecke, positioned himself behind me and was among the first to fire a shot at the enemy.  We heard Ray’s whistle and knew that we had to lay down suppressing fire.
I could not see who I was shooting at but shot in the direction from which I had seen an American helmet.

The fire-fight lasted only about 15 minutes with the Amis being chased out of the village.

Bill Donegan

Here is a report on the OBV tactical from the German perspective by Bill Donegan:

Report of Elbe Tactical.

It was cold enough to freeze the _____off a brass monkey at Old Bedford last week-end Feb 20, 21, 22,  2010.

Thanks goes out to Gilbert White, Roger Bombard, Ray Partenheimer, the Second Gebirgs and Et al for a fantastic tactical at Old Bedford Village, Pa on Feb 20-22, 2010.

On Friday Feb. 19, 2010 I drove from Charleston WV to Morgantown WV to pick up Jim Barnes to travel together with him to Old Bedford, PA.  Our first stop on the long trip was the Wendy’s in Morgantown for lunch.  As we are wont to do, Jim and I were already dressed in our uniforms.  I in my German gebirgsjager obergefreiter  winter anzug, and Jim in Russian uniform , resplendent with medals.

We were surprised when someone spoke to Jim in Russian.  One of the girls at the restaurant asked if we were in the Army.  I replied that we were happy to see an interest in our serving the military.

We had the most scenic drive through WV, Maryland and PA on the way to Bedford, as this was the first day in over a week that it had not snowed and the forest was covered in ice and snow.

We arrived in Bedford, checked in with Roger and Ray, and promptly began shopping.  Then we got our cabin assignments.  Jim was billeted in cabin #11 and I was put upstairs at the tavern.  We set up our cots, and bedding and returned to the welcome center for more  shopping, visiting and eating.

Jim introduced me to a Russian lady, Irena and her husband, David, who had made enough Borscht to feed an army, which we ate our fill of.

Below is a photograph of me taken by Jim.  I am breaking in my new jodphurs (summer weight).  Note the three feet of snow surrounding me.  The temperature was 20 degrees.

I was surprised to meet a Russian reenactor  from Williamsburg, VA to whom I am related.  Here is a photo of me with Cindy.

Jim and I took so few pictures on this trip because we were so busy and my wife, Linda, who usually takes a lot of them was at home this time.

This is at the tavern with gebirgsjagers warming their feet by the fire.

Here is Jim Barnes, left with a Russian Kamerad at the tavern Friday night at the German party.

This picture shows two gebirgjagers taking cover among trees by the river awaiting the arrival of American troops.  Somewhere near Torgau.

This photo shows German troops just before the American attack.  Note the orange smoke from a grenade and the swastika flag in the background.

The tactical began at 1000 and ended around 1400.  The Americans attacked first then the Russians.

The snow was so deep that we could hardly walk let alone run.  I was too slow and was shot at least 20 times.  I will start wearing the gold wound badge.

Gilbert White did a great job of telling us when we had been shot, as we seldom knew from whence the shot came.  Joe Ramminger was our leader , who was always urging the Germans forward,  inspite of heavy casualties.  The Americans had more machine guns and vehicles than the Germans and they  kept driving past us and strafing us from the road with machine fire.

Jim and I had a great time but were so tired and cold that we hardly slept all week-end.

The host unit was the 2^nd Gebirgs who fed us on Saturday night and also hosted nightly parties in the tavern.

I give this event five stars.

Bill Donegan

On the weekend of February 20th, I accompanied Bill Donegan to Old Bedford Village for the second annual ‘Elbe Crossing’ event, sponsored by the 2nd Gebirgs. Yeah, I know there are those who can’t stand Elbe events because this sort of contact between Soviet and Western Allied forces during the war was extremely rare, and by extension that reenactors who attend them are farbs. That being said, the Elbe did happen, so my opinion is that  if you think its a farby idea, then don’t go. At any rate, we went and had a good time, so there!

Actually, the Soviets and the GIs had very little contact with one another during the event, so particularly with the heavy snow cover, this seemed much like a typical East Front winter event. Because the snow was simply too deep to walk through for any distance, the action largely took place in the village proper. While the Red Army started out from the South side of the village, there were a number of different scenarios which enabled us to start from different spots in the village, with the last action of the day being an attack on the bridge.

Because I have been having some hip problems, I knew that I couldn’t be as mobile as usual, so I was assigned to a sniper team which operated with a certain amount of independence and did not have to move around as much as the usual troops. This was effective at times as the action was judged. At one point, we set up on the small bridge connecting the Visitor’s Center with the village while the main body swept down the street. We had a fine time picking off Germans and Italians who kept poking their heads and torsos around corners to see where the Russians were. The judges did an excellent job of calling our shots and we took many fascists out of the fight. Thanks to Roger Bombard, Gilbert White and the other folks who contributed to the action in this capacity.

I am not really certain about which units took place during the weekend. I know that elements of the 193rd Rifles, 9th Guards and 33rd Guards took part from the Soviet perspective. Tom Linder of the 193rd was overall Red Army commander. The 300th Combat Engineers brought two jeeps and were prominent on the GI side of the fight. The Axis units included the 9th SS, 2nd Gebirgs, a falschimjager unit and the Italian Blackshirt Division.

An additional plus for us was the presence of David and Irina Braithwaite who cooked real Russian cuisine during the weekend. There were several items  items on the menu, but I was particularly taken with the borscht and put away quite a bit. They also had a variety of Russian candies and canned goods  for sale. There was a fine dinner for all the reenactors on Saturday night, during which, OBV Director Roger Kirwin spoke and discussed the trials and tribulations of the past year. He then noted that many of the buildings were falling into disrepair and projected that they would need a million dollars to effectively restore the village to its original condition. He thanked us for our continuing support and asked us to consider ways to help the village achieve its fundraising goals. Also, in addition to the dinner, there was  a party both nights at the tavern with free beer.

As usual, most of the participants stayed in the buildings and this was pleasant, although a bit chilly in our particular cabin.  Overall a lively weekend despite the weather. I would like to compliment the sponsors for a well-organized and fun event. If they have it next year, I may well attend again.

Here is a report from Nick Korolev on the December 5 Civil War weekend at Old Bedford Village:

Saturday, December 5 was the first installment in Old Bedford Village’s Old Fashioned Christmas Evening two weekend event. First weekend is 19^th Century and Dec. 12^th will be 18^th Century. The living history group I am with – the Federal Generals Corps – makes this event an important annual event to attend and had Cabin 4 & 8 this year.

The weather made for a perfect picture post card scene, though it cut visitor attendance Mother nature dumped 4 inches of fluffy branch sticking snow on us from about 9 in the morning til it stopped around 4pm. And the temperature dropped to a frigid 23 degrees.

Rick “Byrdie” Byrd and I arrived Friday so we would have plenty of time to decorate the cabin with pine and cedar boughs and settle in. We had cabin #8 and were very thankful for electric heat in the back room we used for our beds. Before we got the heat going (minor technical difficulties) we attempted to start a fire in the duel fireplace only to discover our side was blocked and near smoked ourselves out. We had to open windows and the front door to remedy that minor disaster. Once the electric was on we got the small back quarters toasty warm and put a fire in the front room part of the fireplace on Sat for our guests from 5pm to 9pm.

Once the event started all the units in the village developed a scenario that was performed for the visiting public who wandered from building to building on a candle light tour. Besides our Federal General’s Corps the units included the 45^th PA Volunteers, The Hancock Society, The Bucktails, 11^th PA Company K, the Hardtack Society and several other groups. In our cabin we had President Lincoln, Gen. Meade, Gen. Crook (Byrdie), Gen. Averell (Me) and two guards from the 45^th PA one of whom who portrays Capt. Tom Chamberlain at some of our other events, but showed up as a private with his reenacting unit for this event. Our scenario was Lincoln discussing bringing in Gen. Grant to take over the command of the armies in January. We decided to spice it up by breaking from the discussion with a warning a Confederate spy was known to be in the area and the guards would randomly pick a woman who was carrying the biggest bag/pocketbook as a search victim. One of the guards had a concealed pistol that he suddenly produced from the bag and the woman was immediately arrested and taken outside to the provost marshal. It was all in good fun and the public loved it. However it backfired toward the end of the evening when a little kid thought it was all real believing his Mom was out to shoot Lincoln. She thought it was fun, but she and the rest of us had to convince her son it was all just an act.

The other adventure during the evening was our fireplace started to smoke through a crack in the mortar on one side and spread a fog. I had one of the guards get some mud and bring it in and I did a patch job on the crack Although Gen. Averell is cavalry, Gen. Meade instantly commented I should transfer to the Engineer Corps. Byrdie made a comment I was just putting my West Point engineering class to good use. My comment when the public left was that “I feel like a mud dauber wasp at work.” We all had a good laugh and the smoke was dissipated with no returning leaks from the emergency patch.

After the public finished their walk for the night our whole group had a meeting on what yearly events we would be going to in 2010 and two events were planned for OBV. We had a great time over the weekend and are go grateful OBV was saved from the greedy tax man. It is a wonderful place for living history and reenacting events with a great staff to work with who are very reenactor friendly. When I talked to Roger, as Byrdie and I were on our way out Sunday for a breakfast with the Federal Generals Corps members before heading home, he mentioned that despite the weather they had over 500 visitors go through on the candlelight tour, though there would have been more had the weather cooperated, but all enjoyed the event and are looking forward to next year.

Nick Korolev

On November 13-14, German forces once again occupied Old Bedford Village and were confronted by the inexorable tide of the Red Army. This was of course, the annual fall battle between Grossdeutschland Division and the 193rd Rifle Division. Other groups in attendance included 11th Panzer (and one Bulgarian) on the Axis side and the 9th Guards on the Soviet side. I think there were others, but I don’t know for certain.

One unusual note this weekend was the weather- it was unseasonably warm and sunny all weekend, to the extent that many of my comrades dispensed with overcoats and wore their tunics in the field. It didn’t have that Russian winter feel, but if was very pleasant. It made it fairly easy to keep the buildings warm at night.

Throughout the battle scenarios on Saturday, our mortar battery kept things hot for the Germans, with both mortars going most of the day. At one point, we took off our covers and were reorganizing our ammo, when a German came up and ordered us to surrender. We informed him that our hats were off and we were technically deceased. He then inquired if there was any way that he could put us out of commission for the rest of the day. We told him that there was not, and that we would be coming back to life within the hour. He expressed great disappointment at this news. Apparently the mortars were being quite effective. Its always nice to get good reviews.

At another point in the day, we left the mortars behind and assisted our Maxim gunner in wiping out a German position that had been holding up our infantry for some time. Comrade Maxim can be very persuasive!

For the last scenario, we  were ordered to shell German troops guarding the covered bridge into OBV while the infantry conducted an assault. There was a great deal of smoke around the bridge from smoke grenades and I commented that it looked like the bridge was on fire. About 15 minutes later while we were shelling the Fritzes, the battle was stopped because the grass under the bridge had caught on fire, apparently from one of the smoke grenades! The flames were extinguished with no serious damage.

As usual, we were treated to a wonderful dinner that night in the visitor’s center. The food at OBV is always great and there always seems to be more than we can eat. Kudos to Roger Kirwin, his staff and the volunteers! Later that evening there was entertainment by the “World’s Greatest/Worst Polka Band” which was held in the barn rather than the tavern, which provided much more room. Bartending was provided by the usual ‘rude’ Frenchmen and their lovely female assistant. A fine ending to a busy day!

To sum up, this was another great event that is made possible by the existence of Old Bedford Village and the fine folks who run it. There is no place that is any more ‘reenactor-friendly.’ Thanks to GD and thanks again, Roger and OBV.