Wartime Re-enactments, ex-Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends - Time to say "Goodbye"?

...now if these re-enactors started using live ammo and bang stuff, t'would take being realistic to a new level!!





Why can't we have a 'tongue-in-cheeck' emoji.

 

I remember one time at the gcr event a genuine ww2 camoflague net got caught on the heat of a tiger tanks exhaust and there were a couple of years when the victory show chaps took "field of fire" a bit TOO literally...

The fake stuff is plenty real enough!

 

Where did they get the Tiger from, Bovington museum?

 

Nah it's one of several T-55 converts. That particular one was in band of brothers.

 

Leaving aside the terminally clueless ('SS? What's that?') , real neo-Nazis might wish to.

(I say 'real' because to some people, anyone to the right of, say, John Major is apparently a 'neo-Nazi'.)

Noel

 

There is a difference between a WW1 re-enactment and a WW2 re-enactment. Yes, there were war crimes committed between 1914-1918 but not on the scale of Nazism. Fundamentally, Nazism is beyond the pale. At no point in time and at no place is it ever ok to dress up and pretend to be a Nazi.

 

That's what was missing from the Military Train, and the vehicle displays, at the 1940's weekend, a tank (or two).
Perhaps the guys at Cobbaton could be approached for next years event, they appear to be happy to visit military themed events.
Although a 40 ton Churchill tank might be a bit too heavy an addition to the train.

 

An interesting one...

Now, I say this as someone whose tastes in clothing could be said to be circa 1935 - 1955, but personally I quite like the fact that 'War on the Line' type events give an opportunity to see a railway with people dressed in something vaguely resembling appropriate clothing, and I expect that some fantastic photographs can be achieved as a result. A bit like a railway equivalent of the Goodwood event... I like that.

However, I do also feel that the events perhaps gloss over the horrors and glorify the whole thing to the point of unrealism. They're enjoyable, but I think as an accurate depiction of a wartime railway are severely lacking.

As for battles and the appearance of German soldiers, I think that practice is not only distasteful but just removes any realism and period atmosphere. If a battle is seen as necessary, then style it on a training exercise without any enemy presence - the sort of thing that would have actually been seen in fields and possibly alongside railway lines. Perhaps even have some amount of defensive installations, manned (presumably) by the home guard. But German soldiers? No. Unless you're going to have POW's, then no. But even then, having German, Nazi in this instance, soldiers is in bad taste - by their very nature these days they are something of a symbol beyond simply being our enemy in that conflict.

So, perhaps I like the idea of a 'period revival' type event, but perhaps feel that 'War on the Line' events aren't quite as good? I'm not sure. Either way, I'm hoping to be on platform duty for the next one I'm at! Typing this has now set me thinking about a 50s or 60s revival event at the MHR... probably wouldn't bring in the same crowds as 'War on the Line' though...

 

Better not make any more war films then if it’s in such bad taste to feature the enemy. And remember, nobody is forced to attend these events. If you don’t like them, don’t go. Simples.

 

Fair comment, actually... and something I hadn't considered! Actually, I think I'm quite probably wrong on the point of it being in bad taste to show the enemy, though I was more referring to these events specifically rather than films.

And I'm not suggesting that I wouldn't attend such an event! Though I don't think that was aimed at me in particular. I just feel that there is room for improvement in them, but equally they seem to do well enough as they are.

 

Good luck finding 60's re-enactors!

 

As I say, it was just a thought! I wasn't suggesting it could be an event that would actually be successful or even able to be held!

 

I know some railways have 1960 weekends, steam, diesels and kaftans and mini skirts (and mini cars)

 

I have seen that some people arrive at tourist railways for a day out not knowing that a war-time re-enactment is being held. So it isn't simply a question of 'don't go'

 

Indeed!

I can see both sides of this! It's quite interesting...

 

There is a world of difference between say Shoah and ‘allo allo’. The point being that one treats nazism for what it is and the other doesn’t. There is a world of difference as to how films different films treat nazism.

You are conflating two issues - one issue is about whether it is acceptable to have people dressed as Nazis and the second is whether such events are a good thing. War on the line isn’t my bag because it romanticises and presents a false impression about the period, so I vote with my feet and my wallet and don’t go. However, Dressing up as a Nazi is never acceptable.

 

Surely that raises the basic question of "Who is the enemy ?" - or this another one of those "Them v Us" scenarios reminiscent of the 1950s "kitchen sink dramas" ?

 

But doesn't that ignore the real question ? Were WWII German military personnel Nazis or were all Nazis military personnel ? Whilst I can accept the SS "re-enactor" as unacceptable, surely standard German military uniform is a valid counter-point to the British military uniform hence acceptable. Or are we entering the discussion initiated by Johnny Speight in his classic drama "If there weren't any blacks we'd have to invent them" ?

 

Not all Germans were Nazi's, that is well known. In fact many German citizens lost their lives opposing the Nazi ethos.
My objection to German uniforms on Heritage railway stations and trains is quite simple. The re-enactment on railway stations and trains is supposed to represent the wartime traffic, people and hardware, carried during wartime by our railways. Apart from the Channel Islands the only German uniforms to be seen in this country were on those, usually, who were prisoners of war.
Now a re-enactment, in, say a large field, moorland or wherever, which portrays a particular battle or theatre of the war, is quite different. There has to be uniforms of both sides of the conflict in that instance.

 

In what situation is the presence of people in German military uniforms at a British railway station in any sense realistic? You could probably just about justify a downed airman being led away as a PoW, but large numbers of Germans - SS or otherwise - or mock battles is straining credulity.

I don't have an issue with war films depicting battles against the Germans where it is obviously a fiction, but I can't see a place for German re-enactors in an obviously domestic British setting such as at a public event at a heritage railway.

Tom