From November 6th to the 14th, Cumberland, MD held its second ‘Cumberland Goes to War’ event to commemorate the city’s part in WWII history. While there were activities occuring all week, I attended only on the weekend of November 7-8.
This weekend was also the first time that I spent the whole event in my Volkssturm impression. While I am a member of Kaiserlauten 41/15, a western front VS unit, I and my kameraden, Mike Momot, fell in with Jeff Descheemaeker’s Breslau Battalion 41 for this weekend. Jeff and his guys are a good bunch of guys and this afforded us a very pleasant weekend.
When I arrived at the camp on Saturday morning, the other guys informed me that reenactors were entitled to a free breakfast at a local resturant. Since I hadn’t eaten much and not being one to turn down a free meal, I followed their advice and walked up to the eatery. I was just finishing off my eggs and bacon, when an older gentleman who was walking by pointed to my Heer tunic and said, “that’s the real deal, isn’t it?” I told him that it was a reproduction and explained the impression to him. I noted that he had a slight, but noticible accent and asked him where he was from. He told me that he was from Holland. I said, “I imagine your parents saw a lot of these.” He replied that he had seen a lot of them. He had been a child in Holland during the German occupation. He said that it was a”pretty scary time.” He said that my impression looked good. Coming from him, I thought that was a solid endorsement.
Back to the event itself — Reenactor turnout for the weekend probably totaled 25 or so Germans and about that many Americans, with my friend, Don Taylor as the lone Soviet. A special thanks to the Alaskan Coastal Defense unit for providing an ongoing coffee supply for everyone through the weekend. On Saturday, we were treated to visits from President Roosevelt and The Andrew Sisters. Rides on the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad steam train were free to reenactors and lasted a couple of hours. I failed to take advantage of this feature, this time out, but intend to remedy that next year. There were also opportunities to meet WWII veterans and hear their stories. Later in the week, one of the operational B-25’s was scheduled to fly in to the local airport.
We were fortunate to have beautiful weather all weekend. Saturday was a little cool, and I kept my overcoat on, since I was trying to recover from a cold. However, a lot of folks were just in long sleeves. Sunday was even nicer and while I took my overcoat off, some of the others dispensed with tunics if they were wearing them. We all found ourselves moving our chairs around to stay out of the sun all afternoon. Not bad for November.
Overall, “Cumberland Goes to War” is a pleasant event which is still in the process of growing, in this, its second year. The crowds were good on Saturday, although a bit thinner on Sunday. The location is quite convenient, being just off the interstate in downtown Cumberland. Still, it was not particularly noisy or distracting. There are a number of shops and eateries in walking distance and the town and the organizers are very welcoming to the reenactors. I intend to return next year and would encourage others to do the same.
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