One of the nice touches done at the March on Rome event was the distribution of Feldpost letters for the German troops and the mail call for the Allies… It was a welcome surprise… even more so was to receive a letter from my friend Wolfgang who is posted on the Russian Front! Amazing that a letter would get through in late 1944! It was a welcome treat just before our date with the advancing Allies…
Here’s the envelope, quite nicely done…
And the letter from my friend Wolfgang…
A video shot and edited by one of the 984 soldaten… really good!
Unfortunately since the video won’t allow linking you have to get there by clicking on the photo above.
Wow we just wrapped up the March on Rome event… what an incredible experience. I’ll write more when all the other work I have to catch up on gets done but for now here are a few photos…
KvR Panzer III positioning for a shot at the Hellcat.
Hydration break while preparing for a counter attack.
Sani rests in the back of the Protze.
Armour moves out for a counter attack.
Scouting mission in the Kübel.
It’s just over a week left until the big event! March on Rome and I’m packing my gear - mountains of it (communications, pioneer, weapons and Fallschirmjager) also since I have two vehicles participating - the Kubelwagen and the R-71 there is final prep, tune up and loading to do.
I also have to lay out uniforms - my personal load out is different this time since I’m the overall Axis commander. I have to pack up quite a few items for other people that I’ve promised to outfit… hope I don’t forget anything…
This should be a very cool event. Oh and one other thing… it’s the first event where I’ll have the new PoV HD camera too!
Cheers!
My friend Paul Kepner suffered a heart attack this morning, and is currently in ICU, he’s doing ok for now however expected to be in the hospital for the next three weeks.
Iron Paul as I call him, is a fixture in Texas reenacting, he and his R-75 are at virtually every event. He’s a member of FJ Rgt/2 here in Central Texas and always ready to help with anything related to reenacting. Please keep Paul in your prayers.
An update…Paul had a successful surgery to remove blockages and install stents, and is in ICU.
I entered the Kubel and the R-71 in the IBM car show. Much to my surprise both won their classes! The Kubel took best off road.
Here’s the Kubel parked in the lot for judging and viewing. There was a lot of interest in her..
The R-71 took best classic motorcycle… I altered the generic trophies a bit the Kubel’s trophy had a plastic sand rail on it and the motorcycle had a chopper. I milled them off and replaced the sand rail with a miniature Kubel and the chopper with a Tamiya R-75.
This weekend I again helped my friends out a bit on their movie project, Nebelwand. We used the Kübel and filmed a number of the garrison scenes. The project has taken on a life of it’s own over the more than a year of filming. I think the outtakes are going to be a hit, with out acting I’m not sure that we’d make the cut at Sundance.
What were my lines again…?
The Kübel making a dash through the woods…
Andrew and Bill ready to do the gate scene…
I was out at Fort Stanton this weekend on a recon mission for the March on Rome Event. In addition to being an old West US Army fort the post served as a TB sanitarium, mental hospital and during WWII first as an internment camp and then as a POW camp for German “Hard Cases” and also held some Japanese POWs.
Most of our work was to map out battle sites for the upcoming tactical event; March on Rome. Here’s the entrance to the Fort Stanton BLM land.
The fort itself is a large collection of buildings at the center of the land. It also includes a nice and newly refurbished museum telling the history of the fort. Below is a picture of a barracks building on the fort’s main square.
The internment camp has more standing structures than the camps in Texas that I’ve visited. This large building’s walls are largely intact, though the roof has fallen years back. There is an elevated platform at one end and several enclosed rooms at the other, the main area being entirely open.
The embossing over the door reads Erbaul 1944 (established 1944).
Here is a wooden framed building on the site that’s fares a bit better.
A historical photo from the Fort Stanton Museum of the dining hall at the camp.
Another photo showing a two man barracks room of the internees.
A major project undertaken by the prisoners was a swimming pool modeled after the 1936 Summer Olympics pool in Berlin. A photo from the museum shows it being constructed.
another shows it in use…
The pool still stands…
The original diving platform can be seen in a photo above, here it is today…
The back wall of the pool and the remains of a sitting bench…
Another Campy Mabry come and gone. This is a great show battle put on by Jeff Hunt the Director of the Texas Military Forces Museum. Its a great show with thousands (last year 16,000) well educated enthusiastic people coming out to see our displays of WWII life.
This year it was a bit rainy - both nights had pretty bad downpours. In fact on Sunday morning I had to borrow a spark plug wrench from the Hetzer crew to drain the water that had run into two of my cylinders of the Kübelwagen . Initially the engine wouldn’t turn over and that was a big clue to something wrong.
The rain also limited the number of people and the breadth of the displays. I had a lot of communications gear as well as pioneer equipment and paper goods (period letters, magazines and forms) that I couldn’t risk getting wet. So they stayed at home.
We had a good Westwall show battle each day with a large parade of Axis and Allied vehicles. I even got snapped by the official Camp Mabry photographer during the battle. Pretty cool…
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There are lots of photos here:
My photos taken by LW Kriegebrichter Katerina Elise Dunkleberg
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.
