Historiker

One thing that bothers me about trying to do research on the web is the multiplicity of reenactor sites that autoplay music. Nothing worse that sneaking in a little browsing on your break and suddenly loud German martial music blares from your cubicle!

“Hey You! Yeah you! the Nazi over there, turn it down!”

It’s hard enough to explain your hobby and then you get tagged with a reputation as a skin head or worse.

On Fallschirmjäger.net I’ve got a system of marking the links that do this. I figure there should be some warning that you’re going to share your browsing experience with everyone around you before it happens. So look for the links marked with “♪” symbols autoplay music.

Webmasters… no music, no splash intro pages, no flash graphics, unless your goal really IS to alienate your viewers.

I don’t usually rant, but today I’m prepping for March on Rome and I need to reconfigure my zelt tent to make a sun tarp for the registration area…. and argh! the damned holes don’t properly line up on mt repro zelts. (No yes I have some real deal zelts that do work like a champ but I’d like to save them for lighter duty; they are valuable historic items.)

But why in the world can our suppliers not make something even a little bit faithful to the original…mainly because we buy them. It’s time for that to change… It’s time to start the official zeltbahn registry and authentication!

So as from today! Measure your zelt! No vendor I’ve found can consistently make an zelt of the correct size. If it doesn’t measure up correctly - send it back! It will be useless to you in the field except as a decoration.

To be of use the zelt must be able to mate up exactly with other zelts - to make your tents, to make a litter… to be of use to you and your kameraden it must be made to the original specifications. Let’s all join together and insist that our gear be of quality.

Unfortunately the zelt it is often one of the shoddiest pieces of repro gear. Originals are expensive and increasingly rare and so repros are attractive. However… fully 100% of the repros I’ve purchased have huge sizing flaws. The key being that the space between the buttons is not consistent. I’ve even had some zelts where the hole spacing even varies between the sides of the same zelt!

Why does this matter? If you are only a day soldier and all you ever do is button the zelt around you it is only a minor . However if you are making a shelter if they don’t match it renders the zelt that is nonstandard useless.

It’s hard enough if you supply all the zelts and have sorted through them beforehand. However in the field when you and kameraden are trying to build a shelter in the face of the coming cold night mismatched zelts are a huge handicap.

Now why the repro companies cannot (or will not) produce a zelt to the original specifications is a matter of conjecture. I suspect that some MBA has figured out that by making the holes 190mm apart instead of 210mm as the originals will save 1 square meter of cloth per zelt and hence a 50 cent savings per item for his bonus maybe?

Here’s a list of vendors that supply a zelt that matches the standard.

• *** None ***

If anyone knows of one please let me know I’ll happily add a link here and send every Jager your way. - feldwebel@fallschirmjager.net

Lately I’ve seen on Ebay ads for a Drop Case for the MP-40. While I’ve never seen any historical reference to drop cases being used by the Fallschirmjäger I did purchase one to store and carry my SS Room BFNG. It would save the gun from being banged around on the way to events, I wouldn’t show it or place it in any display at an event.

Here’s a couple of photos of mine…

I heard from Jim from Iowa a few days back and he was wondering about the historical provenance of the drop cases he was seeing on Ebay as well. He sent along references to several current auctions. Two were for the type that I’d purchased and one for a style I hadn’t seen before.

The larger style bag on Ebay…

We’ve chatted a bit via email and he’s also done a bit of research but neither of us have found anything close. Well know examples are the breech covers for the K98 and I’ve also seen similar covers for the MG34, however those are for travel protection; and not for jumping with weapons.

Every reference book and photograph I’ve seen shows Fallschirmjäger jumping with only a pistol as was the original practice, retrieving heavier weapons after landing from the drop canisters. Or written accounts of later jumps where the Fallschirmjäger jumped with their primary weapon.

The only photo I could find with a Fallschirmjäger preparing to jump with a weapon is this famous photo, and that weapon is a wooden mockup of an SMG.

One of the large events here in Central Texas is the Camp Mabry Military Forces Museum put on by Jeff Hunt and his staff. It’s a fun time with a lot to see plus two WWII show battles. It’s also a chance to mix it up with the Camp Mabry 36th Division reenactors who are top notch!

One of the hard decisions is to figure out what to bring to an event. Camp Mabry brings out thousands of people and it’s a chance to create a really nice historical display. But the weather poses challenges too. Unfortunately this year there is a high probability of showers. Not a nice prospect for the gear and even worse for your carefully preserved magazines and 70 year old personal letters.

I’m working on my display and one thing I wanted to do is a camp scene… I’ve laid it out on the table at home to see how it may work.

One of my centerpieces is a recent acquisition; a really nice engraved cigar box. I just receives it from Nordost Crates it really is a work of art, with my FJ badge on the top.

One of the more unpleasant sides of this hobby of ours is the pettiness of the arguments that arise. The topics are always the same; authenticity, taking hits, event organization, event scheduling etc. Everyone has their own opinion but nobody want’s to compromise and just sit down and work it out for the common good. It is quite tiring…

My girlfriend teaches kindergarten and the stories she tells of arbitrating daily disputes only varies in subject matter from the things I hear in organizing a reenacting event. Truly amazing!

Recently I introduced the use of hit cards for our tactical events. The system, when applied with a little judgment on the part of the reenactor, can yield good results. It also give our medics something to do during the tactical battles. Still there was grumbling about how people could open the paper strip when they registered and ‘cherry pick’ their hit…. argh!

So being an inventor (it’s my day job, 88 issued US patents so far) I’ve come up with the solution to some of the griping… The HIT COOKIE. I will have them for our next tactical, so you get hit break open your cookie and read your fortune!

One thing that I notice is that reenactors don’t sing while the Germans did; a lot. So I’ve created a Fallschirmjäger Song Book to help those in my unit learn…

It’s downloadable here at Fallschirmjäger Song Book.

There are recordings of the songs as well a karaoke versions to learn from on the Fallschirmjäger lied page of Fallschirmjäger.net.

Goss gut!

We held the Camp Anderson Tactical a few weeks back and it was a rousing success. The Allies were highly aggressive and were attacked from behind within a few minutes of setting up our HQ! Absolutely amazing and totally unexpected.

An exhausted landser…

The Allies were maneuvering and firing like they were Fallshirmjager! These units were elements of the 36th, 502nd and Army Rangers, hats off to them for excellent work!

We had the Krupp radio truck from the 716 Nachrichten Kompanie despite the fact that the rain had made the pathways into seas of mud. Their radio truck is a work of art! It created that surreal sensation of actually being back in time that you feel at certain moments during a reenactment when everything comes together to form the perfect confluence of history without distraction.

I was deployed with the newly restocked G-43 however I had too low gas pressure using my new gas reducer so I was essentially ‘bolt action’ for the activities. Even so it was nice to have 10 rounds in the mag rather than five of the Kar98. I’ll recalibrate for the next outing.

Photos of the event are here on Fallschirmjager.net.

Well we’re back home after the Waxahatchie Veterans Day “WWII Weekend”. It was a chance to see all my friends and make some new ones. The Texas reenactors were out in force… Someone asked me ‘who was there?’. Hmm it’s kind of like birdwatching, trying to spot and remember all the various groups you see; so here’s what I saw and can still recall, my apologies to groups I missed…

• 13 DB Légion Étrangère - out in force
• 101st Airborne
• US Army Rangers
• 82nd Airborne
• 167 Volksgrenadier - out in force also with an R-71
• 45th Infantry
• Baker Company 1st BN 141st Inf Reg
• 984 Grenadiere Regiment - out in force
• Fallschirmjäger-Rgt. 2 - a small but fierce kampf gruppe with an R-71 and an R-75 (real)
• Lots of Wehrmacht Gebirgsjagers from several different units with trucks, and a 222
• Lots of SS though I didn’t get their unit either

  A nice surprise was the Gebirgsjagers from San Antonio had a new vehicle; a nice replica Leichter Panzerspähwagen 222!
  

  The Dallas Fort-Worth flickr group was out in force as well, all of them dressed as war correspondents, most Allied, but a few “embeds” with the Axis as well! They were a nice addition; thanks Guys and Gals!

  One even snapped a flattering photo of me on the R-71!
  
  Photo from Steve 3D“, Thanks!

  Here are some links to photos from the day from the DFW flickr group. If you select each individual photographer’s name under the photos it will link you to more shots that each person took there are some really great photos here!

  Here are the photos that Lyn took…

  All in all a fun weekend, I’m already looking forward to Waxahatchie next year!

Saw this on ebay… of course with all the ‘dealers’ trying to make a buck off of reenactors with ‘rare’ ‘limited’ ’special’ stuff I always scrutinize items with care.

This Fallschirmjager WWII Reenactor Vinyl Sticker VSP010 caught me by surprise…

Now admittedly the British did copy their jump helmet from the Germans so that portion of the silhouette is close, but as far as I know the Fallschirmjager never carried a Lee Enfield rifle!

Take a close look at the rifle… not a Kar98k nor a G43… the sloped mag just in front of the trigger…it’s a SMLE.

Well so much for quality control

Attention: This is obvious fair use of a copyrighted image, so no bogus DCMA takedown notices to cover your embarrassment.

And a big oops! I wrote this last year but forgot to take it out of draft!! .dumb…

Well Waxahatchie is almost upon us again… this year it’s Nov 7th.

… old post …

I had the privilege to meet two really talented photographers who were attending the Waxahatchie reenactment. These guys took some of the best photos I’ve ever seen of a reenactment! - and not because they managed to get a flattering photo of decidedly un-photogenic me - more because they captured reenactors in character - in moments that reflect back in time… they seem to make history come alive. I’m captivated by the shots they took.

The photographers whom I know only by the handles of “TXZeiss” and “Yo Spiff”.. here are the links. Thanks again!

TXZeiss’ photos are here.

Yo Spiff’s are here.