As part of a longer story about military reenacting, I spent the weekend in Enfield, NC at Hurtgenwald IV, a tactical event hosted by the 116.Panzer-6.Kompanie Living History Group. A tactical event differs from a living history event in that the reenactors and battles are scored by umpires so the outcome might not necessarily reflect history. This particular event was described as "generic specific" so while the idea was Hurtgen Forest, any unit that fought in the Western Front could show up. In this case, reenactors portraying the famed Band of Brothers - Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne - were able to participate despite the fact that during the actual Battle of Hurtgen Forest, the 101st was not present.
I was immediately struck by the reenactors' commitment to the historical minutia, details that most spectators would never notice when it came to the uniforms worn, weapons carried and even the equipment in their camps. Guys from both sides said what attracted to them to the hobby was a serious love of history and how participating in these events connected them to the past, to relatives who actually fought in the war and perhaps to a new perspective on what they read in high school history class. Many of the the actual military veterans said it gave them a new appreciation for all the equipment they use today versus what their predecessors carried over 60 years ago. I understood acutely what they meant as I followed a German patrol down a moonlit road in a pine forest startlingly similar to the Ardennes. Of course nobody had a set of NVG's! All was quiet save for the soldiers' hobnailed boots in the dirt until the night erupted in fire, the muzzle flashes from M1 Garands and Thompson submachine guns illuminating the Germans falling left and right. I sat on the road, hoping I had managed to get a picture in that split second. A sharp American voice broke the quiet, "Auf Wiedersehen!"
The full reenacting story is slated for a later issue of OffDuty in your favorite edition of Military Times.
