Historiker

I spent the weekend in the cold chasing around the the Normandy countryside during the winter of ‘44. The woods were full of Ami paratroopers, free French and some Brits. Spent my time jumping hedgerows, fences and creeks wearing a ton of gear. Besides the basic Fallschirmjäger equipment I had my MP-40, 12 magazines and some rubber potato mashers.

Our squad preparing to move to make contact…

Listening to the shots you could figure out how the various engagements were happening. And there were lots of scattered engagements all over the sprawling property. You pick out the Ami’s by the rapid fire of the Garands and the Brits and French by the bark of the .303’s … You could tell when the Germans attacked… the buzz of the MG42’s and MG34’s and the bursts of MP40 fire and the sharp but not so rapid shots of the Kar98’s.

The squad I was in penetrated the Ami’s lines and hit a squad from the rear. They never saw us until we fired. The two guys I raked with the MP40 were so surprised they fumbled their weapons and one of them even dropped his Thompson on the ground while turning.

Resting after several patrols…

A testament to our hard charging quick maneuvering Fallschirmjägers was penned by one of our Ami friends… “During that big push around noon on Sat. the Fallschirmjäger boys tore through my airborne squad like they were trying to win the war or something! Had the rookies crapping their pants! I was very impressed with the Germans maneuvering, seems like every time we turned around we had a MG up our nose! AWESOME! Definitely one of the more aggressive
hardcore events I’ve been to.”

Happy Fallschirmtruppen after a hard day…

Some more pics here…

The Camp Anderson tactical exercise is the weekend. I’ve been looking forward to this one, it should be fun. Unlike the public reenactment we have a chance to win. When you portray the losers that comes with the territory, you can’t change history. However you can learn much from it!

This tactical will be small unit operations and and based on the extremely thin lines in the Ardennes area of Northern France in 1944. The Germans are planning an all out winter assault and the Allies are thinking they will be home before Christmas.

The scenario small or large units to utilize tactics on patrols, ambushes, recons and assaults. The winners will be the units that use their skills and tactics to the best advantage.

Each side will set up an HQ with a defense area around their HQ to defend. It must have a visible flag waving! Each side will send out patrols to find and recon the opposite HQ’s. No assault on the HQ can be conducted without recon and location of the HQ. The overall objective is to eliminate the enemies HQ.

Patrols will consist of 5 person maximum and must recon the opposing HQ and return the intel to the overall commander. If a patrol is hit and loses 2 or more of the 5, the patrol must return to HQ. Patrols can also be used for ambushes and vehicle patrols, these patrols can have a minimum, of 2 persons. If half the patrol has been hit the survivors must return to HQ. Patrols are encouraged to take prisoners.

Here’s a video clip from a previous Camp Anderson tactical.