Peak Railway 1940's event. Aug 2nd & 3rd.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Guys, next weekend sees the return of a very popular annual event at the Peak Railway in Matlock, Derbyshire.

http://www.peakrail.co.uk/40event.htm

Our group "2nd Guards Rifle Division" will be taking part as usual.

http://www.2ndguards.com

Cheers, Ade.

[RaymondG]

Hi

I made the trip over today to see Ade and take a look at the re-enactment battle. It was actually my first experience and I was really surprised at the level of professionalism, as well as the pyrotechnics display they put on.

I only had a quick look around the rest of the show, but the turnout was very strong and it was great to see so many people dressed in styles and uniforms of the era.

I was there in time for the main battle of the day that was between the Russians, Americans and British and the Germans.

I was positioned safely out of the way across the railway line on the platform and I am sure that the chap with the rather professional video camera next to me will have to do a little bit of sound editing as I let out the odd word as the explosions started.

Here are a few random shots as I was walking around before the battle.

Raymond

[RaymondG]

And a few more...

Peak Rail is dedicated to the preservation of the steam engine and has a short railway for trips for visitors and here is a picture of the engine. Note the engine driver instinctively knowing when a camera is trained on him.

[RaymondG]

Here are some shots of the battle.

I was told that the German Halftrack was the one that starred in 'Saving Private Ryan'

There was plenty of loud bangs and we were even treated to a 'burning man'. I was at first wondering if that was part of the act or something had gone wrong. If anyone knows the Mr. Burning Man, then let me know and I can send the high resolution to him as I think I just about captured his early ignition!

[RaymondG]

The Russians were the first to bite the bullet. Our very own Ade one of the casualties. He was pretty well camoflauged do I could not get a decent shot of him.

[RaymondG]

Next up is the arrival of the British and Americans and the pivotal 'Burning Man' moment

[RaymondG]

A few more of the British and Americans arriving on the scene as well as a mortar round explosion

[RaymondG]

A few more....

[RaymondG]

And finally the surrender

[RaymondG]

Tomorrow, I will post up a few images of my time with the Russians in their camp!

As far as I know, no persons were injured during the re-enactment, though I was worried about the man on fire and the chap with half his leg blown off for a while. I was assured that both were fine

Raymond

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Raymond, thanks for the pics, these are great!

No one was injured during the battles. Despite the rather horrific looking special effects. It is nice to see the pics and also get some input from someone who watched the scenario from the public's point of view.

We all had a great weekend with a lot of interest from the public and a lot of pictures were taken of us.

The railway also had a good weekend's takings at the gate and made a decent profit for what is a good cause of restoring more vinatge locomotives and rolling stock and keeping the line running. :thumbup:

Cheers, Ade.

[RaymondG]

Hi Ade

Well the event was really well attended and I struggled to park up.

Here are a couple more images taken after the battle, before I move onto to Soviet camp

Raymond

[RaymondG]

After the battle, I moved onto the Soviet camp in the woods. They take safety very seriously and did allow anyone into the woods until the pyrotechnics were checked to ensure it was safe.

It was a real education for me as I learned so much more about Russian weapons, uniforms and medals than I ever knew before.

Ade clearly missed his vocation as a teacher as he chatted to a stream of visitors to the Soviet trench, demonstrating pretty much all of their equipment. I found it fascinating listening to Ade and it was a real education to me. I knew the Soviet's had simple, yet effective designs but was taken aback by how effective this was in field conditions.

I came away with an extremely good grounding in uniforms and equipment.

Anyway, here are a few images of my time in the camp

[RaymondG]

Here is a couple of shots of Ade and the 2nd Guards Rifle Division.

We have a photograph of Ade in the trench, Ade and Sergeant Martin and one of the group after a long weekend roughing it in the woods.

I am hoping that Ade will find time to be able to fill us in a little more on the ranks, medals etc featured in the thread.

Raymond

[RaymondG]

There was absolutely no creature comforts in the camp, with the members camping out and eating as the troops would have in the war. It is certainly a simple existence and I came away with a real admiration for the group who give up their entire weekends for the benefit of visitors to these shows and to help educate others. Given the number of shows in a year, that is some commitment.

It is certainly no picnic for its members as they come from all over the UK and so there is a lot of travelling and I would hardly call the conditions they live in as a 'holiday camp'. I recall that they come from places like Great Yarmouth, Dover and Warrington and so their dedication can never be called into question. They must be exhausted when they get back home after a long weekend at shows and I tip my hat to them all.

I would strongly recommend members who are in the UK to make the trip to 'The Victory Show' which is held on the weekend of 6-7th of September. For more details, go to www.victoryshow.co.uk

For more information on Ade's group, then you can find out more here: http://www.2ndguards.com/

I thoroughly enjoyed the show and I understand that the Victory Show is even better and even has the odd plane coming over for the battle scene.


Raymond

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Raymond, thanks for the kind comments. I know the lads and lasses from our group will appreciate them. :thumbup:

Our unit has a reputation within the WW2 re-enactment scene of being "hardcore".

Commitment to the group is rewarded through the issue of awards and promotions:

The Guards badge, which most members wear, is awarded for attending 5 weekends/ 10 days of public shows. This will usually take at least a year for most people to achieve.

Martin and I both wear the "Excellent Machine Gunners" badge. We are the only two unit members to have fired live (not blanks) almost all WW2 Soviet infantry weapons, plus quite a few German ones too. :D We had the very rare honour of giving a demonstration and talk to a group of Officers from Sandhurst.

The "Combat Merit medal" can also be seen worn by myself and Martin in both early and later ribbon formats. This is awarded for taking part in 4 weekends of "private battles". We may only do one or two of these events per year. So this award can take a few years to acheive. These events are really tough going, always taking place during winter months. We will hire an area of woodland and a section 5 firearms dealer to supply the SMG's and MG's. Objectives will be set, usualy via sealed orders to be opened at set times, such as capture and hold a roadway etc. Unlike other groups we allow no modern comforts what so ever. No camp is set up and we sleep on the ground with just a "Plash-Palatka" (groundsheet /poncho) and either a greatcoat (shinel) or padded winter jacket (telogreika) and trousers (Vatni sharovari). "Stand to" will be just before dawn and we will continue play out the scenario until dusk. Firing will cease then, but night patrols are sent out until at least midnght. We did one event in light snow at -4 degrees. Nothing compared to the real Eastern Front of course! But it gives you a little idea of what life was like for the common soldier.

Martin also wears a red "Wound stripe". These are very rarely awarded and Martin has the distinction of being the only holder. This is given if you have an accident which draws blood and needs hospital treatment. He got this after having his nose split open during some film work we were doing.

Other awards include "Excellent Cook": Lez is the only holder. Cooking for up to 40 people over an open wood fire for 3 days was just one of the reasons she got this badge. Never mind the great food she manages to produce. One thing we don't do is Russian food. We have tried this, but to be honest none of us really like it. We all have English tastes! But during the day when the public are on site we do have similar dishes to wartime.

10 years service with the unit will see a member award the "Order of the Red Star".

The "Valiant Labour Medal" and "Excellent Red Army Man" can be given for consistant hard work and coming up with good ideas.

Promotions, again, are a reward for hard work both at shows and at an admin level behind the scenes and attendance to all events.

So there you have a little of the ethos behind our group.

I almost forgot to mention, that the girls get to take part on an equal footing with the men. This is of course like in the RKKA proper during the "Great Patrioctic War". Re-enactment for girls doing other nationalities is much more limited as to what they can do.

Our next event is here:

http://military-odyssey.com/

This is the big one of the season! We will have the unit T34/85 taking part in the battle clashing against the German Tiger I , plus for the very first time, close air support in the form of a YAK fighter! We should be fielding over 40 men, including some Comrades from Russia, Spain and Ireland.

The Victory Show is a great event which I can highly recommend. We will have a trench line as will the "Fascists" and each day a small skirmish will take place. We will win one day and the Germans the other.

Cheers, Ade.

[Adrian Stevenson]

A couple of pics from me.

Morning parade for "Nevski" section. Each of our 3 nine man rifle squads are named award the awards given to 2nd Guards Rifle Division. Our other two squads are "Suvorov" and "Red Banner".

Dug in Maxim M1910 MG position.



Cheers, Ade.

[Adrian Stevenson]

In the fire positions.

Weapons shown are the classic PPSh41 smg, DP28 LMG and sniper version of the Mosin Nagant M91/30 rifle.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Lots of photos have just come online here from the event. I like his title to the pics of "Trains, Flames and Automobiles":

http://osbmedia.fotopic.net/c1556684.html

Cheers, Ade.

[bigbad]

For my first post I'd like to thank Ray for the pictures from Peak rail (I'm on one of them )and for Ade for inviting me to join the forum.

[RaymondG]

Hi

It is a pleasure to post up the images. I really enjoyed myself and was made to feel most welcome amongst your group and wanted to share my experience as a complete newbie with other members.

I am looking forward to meeting you all again at 'The Victory Show'

Raymond

[TANK]

hmmm as always i'm very photogenick!

[Adrian Stevenson]

Welcome "Tank"!

For those of you that don't know him, here he is again.

Cheers, Ade.