The weekend of November 21-22 saw another edition of the annual Fall Eastern Front reenactment at Old Bedford Village near Bedford, PA.
As many of you know, OBV, a recreated historic village, is an outstanding location for living history events and reenactments for various time periods. The management at the site has an excellent attitude toward reenactors and goes out of the way to make them feel welcome.
The event is sponsored by Grossdeutschland, which is one of the largest, if not the largest German groups in the east. The Russian Motherland is defended by the 193rd Rifle Division and comrades from several other Guards and Rifle units. This year, the early winter weather gave the event more of an Eastern Front feel than usual, especially when the firewood began to run low on Saturday evening.
As usual, I served on the mortar crew. Early Saturday morning, we set up on the edge of the large cornfield near the front gate. We spent a couple of hours lobbing rounds into a Fascist patrol in the cornfield which had pushed back our infantry screen. Eventually we were flanked and taken out by motorcycle scouts who flanked us.
We then took up positions in a redoubt which has apparently been built for 18th and 19th century events. As the redoubt only had two sides, it was vulnerable and as a result, it too fell to a German flanking maneuver.
In the afternoon, we fought through the town and eventually the Fritzes made a run for the bridge across the river. As we hastened to cut off their retreat, Starshina Pertsov took a bad spill on the gravel street and severely cut his head. This resulted in a trip to the ER and several stitches. He was later awarded a wound stripe for his sacrifice.
That night at the communal dinner, (very tasty, I might add) one of the GD members reported on his visit to Stalingrad (now Volgagrad). As the real 193rd was heavily engaged there, we were particularly interested in his story. He had a number of pictures of various important sites and well as a sample of soil that he took from the site. Everyone found his story to be moving.
Overall, it was a good weekend and an enjoyable opportunity to see old friends. There was no polka band in the tavern after dinner this year, but that was the only real downside for me.
Thanks to John Niemiec and Mike Momot for additional pictures
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