Russian WWII Military Reinactments

[Bongolation]

Found THIS today [three pages] while looking for something else.

[Note -- serious bandwidth problems with site, but the link is good, keep trying]

This is huge stuff these days in Russia. They turn this hardware up with nearly every shovelful of dirt west of the Urals, so it gets refurbed by the clubs and put into action. Lots of tanks and artillery. They winch remarkably well-preserved armor out of bogs where they sunk in battle.

As the clubs are a substantial part of Putin's power base, they get a lot of permissions to have weapons and explosives that others wouldn't.

[Auzzie-Phoenix]

link didn't work, took me to a blank page

[Webtroll]

yar it didna work for me either. recently saw a video of them pulling a StuG III out of a field where it had been buried upside down, and it was in remarkably good shape (to my untrained eye watching a low resolution video). here in TX all we get are arrow heads and old cans of Lone Star

[Relic]

Link didnt work for me, but I've been part of a few of these over here with the restored tanks and whatnot - incredible stuff

[Bongolation]

The site went down for work or something about five seconds after I posted the message. It'll be back up, it's been around for many years.

[MJ5150]

What do you mean by clubs?

-Mike

[kserg]

Heh, i remember growing up there, you could go into a forest and find WW2 stuff no problem... guns, mines, etc...

There used to be cases of people blowing up on old ww2 mines even through out the 90s


My grandfathers house, near Orel, had a tiger tank sitting next to it until early 90s... What a cool toy for a kid...

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

What do you mean by clubs?

Historic military reenactment clubs. Like the Civil War guys here.

It's a fantastic photo spread on this battle on the site, it just that for some stupid reason they went temporarily down this morning.

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by kserg

Heh, i remember growing up there, you could go into a forest and find WW2 stuff no problem... guns, mines, etc...

It's amazing how much stuff is still left in eastern Europe, and even the more remote parts of the west. A guy I know was stationed in a small military installation the middle of nowhere in a forest near the DDR border and his kid used to explore the dense forest every day when he wasn't in school. He found all sorts of things, including a crashed German bomber with the crew's skeletons still on board.

[MJ5150]

Originally Posted by Bongolation

Historic military reenactment clubs. Like the Civil War guys here.

It's a fantastic photo spread on this battle on the site, it just that for some stupid reason they went temporarily down this morning.

Cool, thanks. I keep trying to hit the page. I can't wait to check it out. Thank you for sharing the link.

-Mike

[Bongolation]

It's back up.

[MJ5150]

That is some cool stuff.

-Mike

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by MJ5150

That is some cool stuff.

The restored and operable vehicles are remarkable.

[MJ5150]

I would love to have one of those, although I wouldn't know what to do with it. Same with the VW, that thing looks brand new. Amazing job doing the restores.

-Mike

[Relic]

If you guys like this sort of thing, you don't have to go to Russia . There are many fairly big WW2 reenactments every year here in the US which include restored armored vehicles and even aircraft.

[MJ5150]

I would have mixed emotions about attending. Maybe I'm a wuss, but I get kind of emotional watching war movies even since the events really did happen. I really get into it. It doesn't stir up feelings of hatred or patriotism, but just really sad about the death and loss of life. Then I get kind of nervous like maybe it's really happening again.

-Mike

[jaywa]

I guess I don't get the appeal of war re-enactments. The real thing is so horrific.

The technology obviously is fascinating but the real impact to millions of human beings on the ground is almost beyond comprehension. Celebrating that through re-enactment just feels kind of sick to me.

[Randall]

I take it as not a celebration but a way for younger generations to learn something that should never be forgotten.

[Relic]

Originally Posted by jaywa

I guess I don't get the appeal of war re-enactments. The real thing is so horrific.

The technology obviously is fascinating but the real impact to millions of human beings on the ground is almost beyond comprehension. Celebrating that through re-enactment just feels kind of sick to me.

Yeah that's a common reaction actually and understandable, but that's not really the point of reenacting something like this. The "real thing" being forgotten and relegated to "not important" is what drives most of us.

I am a WW2 reenactor. Also, WW1 and the US Revolutionary War.
I've have given presentations in classrooms and such and you would be amazed at the profound lack of knowledge the modern kid (and adult for that matter) may have of past history.
They may read a textbook and pass a history test because they have to, but that's about it. Ask them about the Bataan Death March, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Kasserine Pass, etc etc ..... the average person (maybe) going to respond..."oh yeah that was some sort of battle wasn't it?"
TBH, it's THAT which drives most reenactors to do what they do - these were instances where people fought and died in some of the most horrific ways, it's an absolute travesty that their sacrifices end up being forgotten, or worse yet, trivialized into a XBox game..... And how many folks these days stop to think about it like that? Many, if not most don't.

What we find is that when we do these events, you can really capture a person's attention. I find myself often talking to a crowd of people all eager to listen. Why? I guess that it's because it's not just some text they have to read to pass a test or whatever, it's something that they can see, hear, ask questions about and so on. They're a hell of a lot more likely to remember something like that, then a few boring paragraphs in a school text book, which may or may not even be accurate.
YMMV

[Relic]

Originally Posted by Randall

I take it as not a celebration but a way for younger generations to learn something that should never be forgotten.

Bingo