On the weekend of February 25, 2012, the 2nd Gebirgs once again sponsored their annual ‘Meeting at the Elbe’ event at Old Bedford Village. This is always a good event and everyone seems to have fun. There was a shortage of Allies this year, as the Germans seemed to outnumber the Americans (and one lone Brit) and the Soviets put together. This made it all but impossible to dislodge them from the village. However, late in the day, when the shoe was on the other foot and the Red Army and part of the Americans were holding the bridge, the Fritzes had difficulty taking it. Hats off to Bill and Linda Donegan for ‘galvanizing’ as Soviets and helping out with the numbers.
Interestingly, the weather seemed to change in honor of the tactical weekend. When I left home, the weather was warm (in the 50s) and breezy. The temperature had dropped over 10 degrees by the time I got to Cumberland, MD, and proceeded to get colder. All night a cold wind buffeted the cabin and when we got up in the morning, there were a couple of inches of snow on the ground. Saturday was mostly sunny, but was windy, sometimes bitterly so.
One nice feature of this event was the large number of vendors. The visitor’s center was full of stuff to buy, German, Soviet and American. So, if you were too cold to run around outside, you could always shop.
Saturday evening, the tavern was open and the Gebirgs put on a nice Teutonic spread for the reenactors – beer, pretzels, sausage and cheese, in front of a roaring fire. A nice way to end a strenuous day. Thanks to the Gebirgs for another good event!
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