The 2010 reenacting season kicked off for me and many others with the annual Battle of the Bulge reenactment at FIG. Once again I rode along with Bill and Linda Donegan, who were kind enough to chauffeur me where I needed to go. I went as Volkssturm this year and was housed with the German field hospital as part of ‘Fortress Breslau.” As you may know, Hitler declared the city of Breslau in Lower Silesia (now part of Poland) a fortress. The Kampfkammendant of the city, Karl Hanke, ordered the city’s civilians to evacuate back to Germany proper while the German army, Volkssturm, Hitler Youth and slave laborers fortified the city. Breslau was surrounded by Marshall Konev’s 6th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front starting on February 13, 1945. The city held out until the general German surrender on May 6th. (Wikipedia)
I must say that the hospital display was one of the best and most thorough living history setups that I have ever been involved with. Our surgeon and his wife, Pete and Kate Gentry and their staff actually had enough equipment and supplies to actually perform surgery had it been necessary! They even had a period X-ray machine. (Yes, Virginia, they had those back then.) We generally had ample crowds of spectators for the barracks and full houses for the surgery demonstrations. Bill served as the hospital chaplin while I portrayed walking wounded much of Saturday with a well-bandaged head wound. I cannot praise the care and devotion of our lovely nurses enough! 🙂
Saturday was also a day for shopping. As always, there were so many vendors in the flea market, that it was hard to remember where you had seen something interesting if you did not buy it the first time around. On Saturday evening the Community Center was the scene of the annual dinner and big band dance. I stayed in the bar area and had a beer with some of my friends and later went to a meeting of the 193rd Rifles. Following the meeting, I returned to Fortress Breslau and joined in the Christmas party held there. It was obviously prior to the siege, as there was no shortage of food!
One of the great joys of WWII reenacting is the opportunity of the meeting the real heroes – the guys who were there. I got to talk with one gentleman who had served as a gunner on a 155mm Long Tom in the ETO. He remembered his big gun fondly and discussed how it was an improvement over its WWI predecessor. He also related the story of how, on July 4, 1944, every artillery piece on the Normandy beachhead was given permission to fire one round at a German target of the crew’s choice, but they all had to fire at once! He said they pulled it off. That must have been some serious fireworks and an interesting experience for those who were downrange!
It was a great weekend, overall and I would like to thank our barracks Commander, Brad Wenger and his wife, Kami for making me feel at home. Also much thanks to Jeff Descheemaeker and all the other kameraden for an all around good time.
Thanks to Bill Donegan and Lee Brandt for additional photos. If anyone else has pics from the GAP and want them added, please send them along. Some more Allied shots would be good.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Breslau
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