Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

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Paulkd
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Paulkd »

Superb!!!
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MP44
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by MP44 »

With not a few of the protagonists shown in this thread having since died perhaps there should be a roll of honour list somewhere to recall the names of those past reenactors who helped spur on the current generation of farby followers?

Have things progressed in the past 30 years, well yes in places they have.
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Bill Medland
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Bill Medland »

Thruxton public show 6th June 1977

( I can not rmember from who I recieved this, if it was you, then thanks)

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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Bill Medland »

1978 part 1

The hobby established itself very fast in the UK, within a year public shows were the norm. Although there were about
five private events to every one public event. The German unit was known as "Sturmgruppe Adler" for the first year or so.
We would mark our kit with our membership number, I still have a gasmask tin with "32" marked on it. We were proud to
call ourselves "Adler Men"... later we became the 352nd Infantery Division, 916th Regiment.

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We started obtaining grey GPO trousers, the first Swedish tunics were arriving, but in small numbers as yet.


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Some of the songs we were asked to learn at training days, were not political correct by todays standards.


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For a brief period of about six weeks, we were known as the "Grossdeutschland", but for various reasons this was dropped,
it only appeared in one issue of the newsletter during early 1978.

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Programme for Thruxton training day, issued 21st May 1978.
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Bill Medland
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Bill Medland »

1978 part 2


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A leaflet handed out for a training day for BRA South.

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From an early newsletter.

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This image and the next one are both from a newspaper.

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Bill Medland
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Bill Medland »

1978 part 3

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Another newspaper picture.

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A 1978 photo which was reprinted in a later newsletter.

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The article in "After the Battle" which did a lot to push the hobby forward and get us noticed by the public.

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The membership list of those in Sturmgruppe Adler, May 1978.
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Bill Medland
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Bill Medland »

1978 part 4

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Martin Medland still wearing the BGS camo jacket.

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Bill Medland with the German police dark green tunic, soon replaced by the Swedish tunic. The Anti-Partisan badge
was awarded to "Otto" and "Willi" for service in Northern Ireland during the 1970s.

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No photo shop back then, it was all done by laying photos on top of each other and then taking another photo.

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early Fallschirmjäger reenactors, partly with original kit, the rest, we made ourselves.
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Franz repper
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Franz repper »

Keep them comming bill I am enjoying this
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Bill Medland
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Bill Medland »

1978 part 5

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Wolfie Dickinson.... now lives in Paris.

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One of the very early newsletter bulletins.


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WW2 haircuts were just being considered, I do not think anyone had long hair after 1980.


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The caption says it all........ to be continued, cheers, Bill.
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Paulkd »

This is great! I'm glad to have spotted Mike Passmores name!!! He got me into all this in the late 80's when we both worked at the AA, he as the head of the archives, me as a office nobody!! I'll never forget how exited I was to have "Discovered" It happened here..... He very kindly explained that he was in fact in it!!!!!

Of course Pat Sullivan (SBG) was also in that superb film.
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Chorlitz|12.SS|
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Chorlitz|12.SS| »

To Bill and other 'Originals'.. Did you ever think it would get this big :?: Because in the few years that I have been doing it I can see how much its grown.
Thanks to the BRA and any other groups for starting all this, They started a awesome hobby that as given me lots of fun,knowledge,friends and enjoyment.
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Bill Medland »

Paulkd wrote:This is great! I'm glad to have spotted Mike Passmores name!!! He got me into all this in the late 80's when we both worked at the AA, he as the head of the archives, me as a office nobody!! I'll never forget how exited I was to have "Discovered" It happened here..... He very kindly explained that he was in fact in it!!!!!

Of course Pat Sullivan (SBG) was also in that superb film.
Mike Passmore played a very active role in the early years and although other people brought Allied reenactment forward,
it was Mike Passmore who played the key role in Wehrmacht reenactment in the UK. I spent many hours talking to Mike
about a range of topics and I am the richer for it.

"It happened here" is beyond all doubt my favorite film of all time and is a "must" for every Axis Reenactor.
It can be considered the "start" of Axis reenactment, it was a "hobby project" and was made with militaria collectors in 1965.

The link to the official cinema trailer.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH8KFlbwqFc

The link to some stills from the film.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIIUfrYggDU

Cheers, Willi.
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Bill Medland
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Bill Medland »

Chorlitz|12.SS| wrote:To Bill and other 'Originals'.. Did you ever think it would get this big :?: Because in the few years that I have been doing it I can see how much its grown.
Thanks to the BRA and any other groups for starting all this, They started a awesome hobby that as given me lots of fun,knowledge,friends and enjoyment.
Take a look at the group list I posted, that was the entire list of German reenactors for the whole of Great Britain!
The Allied grouping was about the same size as the Germans, my membership number was 32, that means I was in
the first 15 Germans. Did we think it would get bigger? Yes, we knew there was a lot of interested people out there,
our problem was that we did not know how to reach them. There must have been many who never joined the hobby
because they simply never read our adds or never discovered the public shows......the days before the internet.

The hobby nearly folded several times in the early days, I will give three examples:

1. FIRE AND THEFT

We had just arrived at an event and a farmer let us use his barn to sleep in. We were told to drop of our kit in the
barn, in the straw lay six tornisters loaded with original WW2 kit items. (In the early days there was no real check on
who was coming and going, some people you only saw once or twice and never heard of them again).
We were on parade and smoke started to rise from the barn! The Fire Brigade arrived but could not save the barn.
It was later discovered that the fire was started to cover the theft of the tornisters and two people were never seen again.
There was a bad feeling during the whole weekend, the police were asking everyone questions. A young 17 year old reenactor
was very upset, it was his first event, and as it looked, very much like his last. I said not to worry we will find a way out of
this mess...... he went on to be a well known name in LHA........ Tony Dudman.... we got through it Tony :wink:

2. UNDER LIVE FIRE

There was a private event in Wales where American units stormed the German defences. The odd thing was that we kept
hearing "ping" on the walls behind us and in front of us earth kept getting kicked up! We refused to accept the obvious, until
police arrived later in the day to arrest an "American" who had been using live ammo all day! When he was being taken away
he kept shouting "I hate everyone in German uniforms!" ..... indeed we REALLY were under fire that day! :shock:

3. EARLY PYROS

3. In the early days there were no rules or even safety regulaions of any kind. There were lots of home-made bombs, plastic
panzerfausts that would melt into your shoulder when fired! At one event there was a blue demestos bottle covered in grey
tape and mounted on a tripod in a clearing in the woods. No one knew what it was meant to be, but we all showed it repect.
Many greatcoats were set on fire by molotov cocktails, I think at Tavistock about half of my petrol from my motorcycle went
into the production of molotov cocktails :lol:

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Blanks seemed a lot more powerful back then. I had a pain in my left arm and some of the lads noticed blood dripping out
of my sleeve. Dave Bennett escorted me to the First Aid tent, but the pain was soon forgotten when other grenadiers
started congratulating me on the award of BRA´s first wound badge! 8)

Tomorrow I will upload some images from 1979...to be continued
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Paulkd
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Paulkd »

How I would love a "Black Prince" cufftitle!!! Ficticious I know but great for a beer tent uniform to be a "it happened here" soldat! Or what about an "Instant Action" uniform? I understand they where Fire Brigade uniforms!!

I also believe that the young soldiers used for the "Black Prince" scenes were in fact Borstol boys, chosen for their tough look!!!
Of course its Pat Sullivan who rides out of the village with the British policeman on the back of his BMW r35 motorcycle!
Bill this is just superb!! Yes i was one of those that would have joined the BRA at the time had I known of its existence!! I used to go Youth Hosteling in HJ kit, Brown shirt, tornister and all!!!

Regards

Paul

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Looking for stills from "It hapened here" I found this, yes there is Pat Sullivan!!! Botom step on the right wearing the marching boots!!! I must show him this! The location is St Martin in the fields i think?
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Re: Photos of the first ten years 1978-1988

Post by Bill Medland »

I used to go Youth Hosteling in HJ kit, Brown shirt, tornister and all!!!
In my younger days, me too! :lol: ....and I thought I was the only one who had done things like that.

I do feel that the film "It happened here" really does have a place in reenactment history.
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