Don't Mention the War

Why only officers uniforms banned? For the sake of the accuracy that some seem to be banging on about, I would say that the majority of Germans on British soil in the 1940s were officers. Also, combat dress wouldn't distinguish between officers, NCOs and other ranks anyway.

I'm sure the Jewish group who are complaining about the ELR event haven't spared a thought about the terrorist activities of the Irgun & Stern gangs in 1944 Palestine, murdering unarmed British soldiers and planting bombs in British installations. Perhaps we should include this facet in the next 1940s weekend on my railway!!

Whilst I would not wish to see a camp guard uniform I see no problem with Wehrmacht soldiers having a noisy mock battle. I suspect most people like the spectacle rather than worrying about the underlying political issues.

 

On a similar note, I see no mention of a battle on the GC's site this year http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/Events.aspx?ID=308 . Always seemed very popular in the past, so I doubt this has been dropped due to lack of interest! Politics, per chance?

 

i can see the ELR complaint has s a point, there wouldnt have been any Uniformed SS in britain at any time would there !, but i dont see the harm in a few captured Luftwaffe pilots or submarine crews being 'moved about'... and theres always the Italian pow's.
For the Railways as in many other things, the second world war was a total nightmare, but for the people who worked on them, it could be said to have been their finest hour too. The victorian railway mania which led to our totally excessive railway network came good and that is why a 1940's weekend fits so well with a preserved railway... Remembrance can be a celebration without maiking light of the whole thing, yes theres so much more to wwII than evacuees, pencilled on stockings and GI'S but how would joe public react if a train with a GUV arrived and coffins we're unloaded...