FIG - GIs

Another January, another Gap. It is always one of the few things to look forward to during the deep winter… not that this has been much of a winter. Friday, I ran into a little falling snow on the way, but that quickly dissipated. The skies on Saturday were mostly clear and while walking around in a wool overcoat, I began to get a bit warm by mid-afternoon.

Do to my work schedule, I only went for the Saturday activities this year. Shopping at the various vendors took up about half of that time and visiting took up most of the rest. The British kit that I have put together features a lot of pockets. Very helpful for stuffing your purchases away so you don’t have to carry them everywhere while you cruise through the vendors. Since my time was limited, I didn’t get to visit with many of the folks that I normally would have. For those I missed, sorry -  no snub intended.

The big change this year, of course, was the move to area 13 and the newer barracks. I was concerned about wearing hobnailed Ammo boots into the new barracks, so I put duct tape over them, but that wore through after about a hundred yards, so I didn’t try to go into any barracks. I did drop into the German hospital which was in an old building by itself and ended up as a wounded POW. This afforded a good opportunity to take a load off my feet and recieve attention from lovely nurses!

Saturday evening, I met up with my comrades from the 193rd Rifle Division for our annual winter meeting at the Community Building, which was well-attended and productive. Afterward, several of us retired to the ballroom to observe the dancing and other festivities going on there.

Overall, it was a good weekend and even though I was there for a short visit, I enjoyed the Gap, as always.

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

The next stop on my trip to Moscow was the Central Armed Forces Museum, which is also known as the museum of the Soviet Army. The former is probably now more accurate, since there are exhibits from the post-soviet period as well as sections being developed that cover the whole history of Russian arms back to the middle ages.

The first hall we visited was a display of artifacts and paintings of scenes from the Russian Civil War.  The large dioramas were impressive. The central piece in the room was a tachanka machine gun cart, which I had read about. It was interesting to see one up close.

By far the largest subject covered in the museum was  the Great Patriotic War (World War II) Certain battles had their own rooms (Leningrad, Stalingrad) while there were many general exhibits. There was a substantial display on partisan warfare. Also, there was a room with displays honoring the western allies. There was a large diorama of the Normandy Invasion complete with a jeep. Interestingly, a TV screen on the wall in this area was showing “Saving Private Ryan” dubbed in Russian.

From the room, we passed through a series of exhibits on the Holocaust, and then into the great hall which houses displays from the Victory Parade in 1945. This was most impressive and featured many Soviet and captured German artifacts, including the huge bronze eagle which had topped the Reichs Chancellery. Also on the display were the cast-down German Banners, which Soviet soldiers threw on the ground in front of Lenin’s mausoleum at the end of the parade.

Past this hall, we viewed post-war displays and finally post-Soviet Russian military exhibits. There is a large outside display area, which was apparently closed for the winter. Outside we also passed a bronze statue in memory of the crew of the Russian submarine, Kursk, which sank in August of 2000.

This another great museum in Moscow, and one not to be missed by the history buff, if you are in town.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Armed_Forces_Museum

Always on the lookout for something new to do, I spent the last two weeks of November in Moscow, Russia. Needless to say, there is some history there. One of my stops was at ‘Victory Park’ which commemorates the victory over Nazi Germany in WWII. Unfortunately on the day I was there, the main museum was closed for cleaning, but the outside exhibits were open. This collection by itself, was impressive. Also, as you can see from the pictures, the exhibit is still being developed, with the addition of a recreated trench and bunker display. Since they are still under construction, you couldn’t go into them, but I was able to get some pics from the footpath.

As is obvious from the photos, there is a huge assortment of armor, artillery and aircraft, as well as other interesting and sometimes unusual displays.  Also, the memorial itself, at the top of the hill, is  awe-inspiring. The central obelisk is engraved with figures of soldiers and scenes from the war all the way to the top, as far as I could see. It was too big for me to get a good pic, given the light I had at the time.

If you are able to make it to Moscow, this is a must-see.

Bill and Linda Donegan attended the annual Troops and Trains event in Strassburg, Pa over the weekend of November 5th. Here is their report:

Strasburg, Pa November 4, 2011 had dinner with Dave and Lois Nowack.

Saturday November 5,2011 we had breakfast with the Nowacks.  Linda and I dressed in Civil War attire and we proceeded to the Strasburg Train Museum for our orientation/safety meeting.  Linda and I were greeters/meeters at the museum and acted as a walking Civil War display.  We met Mike, a fellow Union solder and we decided to form an ad hoc unit.  We found an empty table and chairs, Mike took off his accouterments and voila, we had a display table. Soon we were joined by another artillery sergeant and Linda and I decided to walk around in the museum and pose for photographs with visitors.

Linda and I decided to walk across the road to the train station and mingle with the crowd, walk the platform and wave to passengers on the train (a train ride of one hour was assigned to each presenter). Soon we were joined by two more couples in Civil War attire.  We posed for many photographs and represented the Federal Generals Corps. We were General William Rosecrans (myself), Thomas Crittenden, and George H. Thomas. Funny how we three actually served together in Chattanooga.  In fact we actually asked the conductor if this was the Chattanooga cho cho.  To which he replied, “quarter to nine, track 29″. I told him that nothing could be finer than to have ham and eggs in Carolina.

On the weekend of September 17th, I had a lot planned. Some friends had asked me to accompany them to an airshow at Martinsburg in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.  This was an opportunity to visit some good friends and take in an attraction that I had not seen before. As anyone who watches the news is probably aware, the airshow did not turn out well. My friends and I were witnesses to the horrendous crash of the T-28 trainer that killed pilot Jack Mangan. The show was of course, suspended at that point.

Despite having our moods dampened by this occurrence, I continued my visit with my friends Saturday evening and got up Sunday morning to proceed to Gettysburg, PA to take part in the Eisenhower Farm WWII Weekend living history. The Eisenhower Farm WWII weekend is held every September by the National Park Service and is a quality event.

When I got to the site around 9:00 am and checked in, one of the first things that I noticed was the number of reenactors loading up their vehicles to leave. Since this event is a two-day affair, I was a little surprised. As I soon discovered, there had been a great deal of rain in the Gettysburg area on Saturday, which resulted in very muddy conditions on the field. This was possibly part of the reason for the early departure of so many of the participants, but I am not sure. Most of those leaving were American reenactors, but I was told some of the Germans left as well. As it was, there were few Germans on the field, ,mostly the sturdy Volkssturm unit. The 193rd comrades with whom I fell in, noted that there were twice as many spectators on Sunday to see half as many living history displays.

I believe a lot of these troops took part in the New Oxford battle which ran concurrently with the Ike Farm, so possibly some folks had just had their fill for the weekend. Still I have noticed that WWII reenactors this summer, seem to be packing up and leaving earlier on Sundays than in the past. Whatever the reason, it does leave the event organizers holding the bag if spectators show up and wonder where everyone is, when it is supposed to be a two-day event. I know a lot of folks have a long trip home, but so do the Civil War reenactors who invariably stay for Sunday at their events. Anyway, I see this as a curious phenomenon and wonder where it is going. Will event organizers get tired of scheduling events where everyone bails out early? Time will tell, I guess.

http://www.nps.gov/eise/parknews/world-war-ii-weekend.htm

The following is an account of the ‘Liberation of New Oxford’, which occurs concurrently with the Ike Farm living history. Another bravura effort by our tireless Bill Donegan:

Linda and I found another great WW2 event just 9 miles east of Gettysburg. It is New Oxford. The scenario is Alsace being first deserted by German troops, reoccupied, and then liberated by the Americans. The event is scheduled on the same week-end as the Eisenhower Farm WW2 Living history. It is easy to cover both events if you skip Saturday morning at IKE Farm and pick up the slack later in the afternoon or Sunday. We did both events. It was a marathon week-end!

Friday night began with a USO dance in New Oxford. Saturday morning at the train station for 0700 appell. Then I helped Pete and Will hitch up the 20 mm to the back of the Krupp truck and helped Linda and Kate into the back of the truck for a ride into town. We dropped off our two DRK nurses, picked up seven gebirgjaegers, and off we were to the tactical. We were part of a German convoy comprised of several cars, trucks, motorcycles. On the way to the site we sang several German songs as we speed along the two lane country road. Several people were waving to us as we drove past. We set up an ambush about six miles outside of town on the American convoy route from Gettysburg to New Oxford. We jumped out of the truck, set up a skirmish line in the woods, and camouflaged the vehicles. Our gun was so well covered by oak branches that the poor Amis didn’t have a chance of spotting us. We wiped them out in quick order. They didn’t know what hit ‘em. They didn’t even make it out of their vehicles. Will popped round after round at them while I loaded the gun. It was great fun.

Following the German success, we returned to New Oxford to find that the town was barricaded against an allied invasion from the other direction, and another army. Other German troops were getting into position as we deployed our 20 mm gun again. German Calvary troops on horseback were riding past us shouting that an armored column was approaching the town. A runner arrived and advised us to trajectory our gun on the western approach road, which was also being covered by John Dubbs’ gun along with an MG 42. We complied. Suddenly a jeep appeared. Ping it was vaporized by a round from the Dubbs gun. Then smoke, out of which the first tank appeared. Ping! We knocked it out with one round (good shooting’ Will). Then a runner from one of the gebirgs units ran to advise that the Amis were trying to out flank us. We swung our gun around 95 degrees to our left and sent a round down the side road hitting a halftrack. Infantry appeared about 300 meters in the distance. Will started popping shots at the infantry while I reloaded. Suddenly a gunner’s nightmare, the gun jammed. As we tried to un-jam the gun a sniper shot and killed Pete our feldwebel, then another shot and Will went down ; shot in the head. I quickly took cover behind the shield and remained there until the Americans began to reload. I made a dash for my rifle by the truck. I managed to get off five rounds before I was hit in the chest. Down I went. As I lay there I wondered where our two DRK nurses were at that moment. I lost consciousness.

Next on our list was attendance at the fashion show at IKE Farm. Linda and I went back to the digs for a spruce up and she changed into her 1940 Girl Scout leaders’ uniform, while I remained in my German artillery uniform. I modeled my 1944 German uniform sans equipment as I was a POW. The announcer was going through the description of my uniform beginning with my cap and ending with shoe wear. As she was explaining the hobnails on my boots I decided to give the crowd an exhibition of German goose stepping and managed to escape my captors. I found a civilian suit and returned to the show to model that as well.

Next back to the digs again for a nap before dinner and another USO dance. We had dinner at the “Hofbrau Haus” in Abbotstown just three miles east of New Oxford. Following that it was back to Gettysburg for the next dance.

This endeth the report please note the attached photographs.

Respectfully submitted by Bill Donegan

Photos by Bill Donegan and Jeff Roncone

The Pennsylvania  Trolley Museum near Washington, Pa. held it’s annual Antique Trucks and Trolleys event on Sunday, August 28. The 28th Infantry set up a living history display as usual and a fine time was had by all. This is a fun event with a lot happening for everyone involved.  Naturally, there are trolley rides all day as well as the exhibits in the museum. The antique truckers bring a wide variety of old iron out to fill up the museum grounds, including many that fit right in to the time period of  the WWII period military display.

The 28th camp was of good size and even included one lonesome Brit who got separated from his mates and wandered in to hang out with the Yanks. The unit had a good turnout of members,  including  WWII veteran , Jules Desgain. The weather for the weekend was seasonally warm and sunny. There were some good eats easily available thanks to an open air hot dog vendor, who had some particularly good Italian sausage if one was so inclined.

This is a nice, low-key event which is fairly nearby for all of us and features a pleasant environment and friendly, interested crowds. I wouldn’t miss it.

Thanks to Bill Burress for additional photographs.