SS reenactment

Discussion in 'General' started by Hellofawaytodie, Jul 4, 2011.

Tags:
Page 3 of 10
  1. Heimbrent

    Heimbrent Well-Known Member

    Oh dearie me, before you (Hellofawaytodie) pretend to know anything about the Waffen-SS and feel obliged to represent them in order to teach people (!), get your facts straight because, seriously, you`re talking out of your arse.

    (I suspect and hope - for your sake! - that you´re really just amusing yourself by trying to figure out how best to raise hell on here...)
     
    Heimbrent, Jul 4, 2011
    #41
  2. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    Twenty-one years since the introduction of 'Care in the Community' , it would seem that we're still dealing with the consequences.
     
    Rich Payne, Jul 4, 2011
    #42
    cash_13 likes this.
  3. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Last time I chatted to an SS Reenactment mob a few years back (passing interest in their borrowed SdKfz.222s mocked up from Land Rovers), half of 'em were from Essex, and there were serving & ex squaddies amongst 'em.

    Personally, I couldn't really give a toss what military unit's people choose to reenact, from Pol Pot to Adolf's gang, as long as there aren't any actual mass graves being dug and the law of the land's being observed then it's got little to do with me.
    I do remain somewhat puzzled at the predominance of rather 'obvious' units at shows - FJ & WSS are so common. If it were me I think you'd have a lot more fun portraying a rather run down Magen Battalion (maybe not with authenti-latrines as part of the show) or Feldkuchen, but again, s'nothing to do with me, and film companies are maybe less likely to hire such mobs.

    Thinking about it - I'd like to see a Horse-served large artillery piece being moderately authentically dragged across a muddy field one day, that'd be more worth a watch to me rather than the tired, and slightly cliched, packs of chubby geezers in flecktarn.

    [​IMG]

    Nice to see on the allied side of WW2 reenactment that more and more 'normal' units seem to be popping up - definitely a bit of an airborne bias in that area over the years. Saw one lot doing Welch Regiment (or similar) and they looked great as they were made up almost completely of young skinny blokes.
     
    von Poop, Jul 4, 2011
    #43
    Drew5233 likes this.
  4. woapysittank

    woapysittank Member

    First someone said the Wormhoudt massacre was of part time TA, I'm pretty sure 2/Warwicks were a regular unit (a man from my village, commerated on our memorial died in that barn a long way from Warwickshire).

    On topic I don't get the SS re-enactment thing but also not understanding the level of invective, it's not like the Wehrmacht or Para's were exactly squeaky clean. I saw a group the other day who bizarrely chose 12th SS. Only one was under 30 and he was probably the only one under 15 stone!! I sort of get the idea but as a 48 yr old I personally would go as a Volkssturm and probably avoid the atrocity tag as well. Also cheap, an armband, a long coat and a faust and you're there.
     
    woapysittank, Jul 4, 2011
    #44
    Slipdigit likes this.
  5. John Lawson

    John Lawson Arte et Marte

    Hey, Hellofawaytodie, try it. What a dick head. End of.
     
    John Lawson, Jul 4, 2011
    #45
  6. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    Adam, I didn't know that you had a weakness for Feldkuchen and Pferde.

    Here's one that you'll like. I'm sure the officer is wrinkling his nose and telling the cook that the stew tastes of horse-shit again. :)

    [​IMG]
     
    Rich Payne, Jul 4, 2011
    #46
  7. 4jonboy

    4jonboy Daughter of a 56 Recce

    I'm not saying anything!
    I just suggested something, and people took it into something else. I said i might join, and i gave my reasons for doing so. If the majority would rather i didn't then i wont.

    Actually your first post says "i'm even joining an SS group", not that you MIGHT join. I don't really think that most of the forum members really care whether you joined or not.

    We all have opinions about most things, whether it be WW2, gays, sex, tv or even knitting, but one has to be careful how strongly we express them.
    Might I also comment that your spelling leaves a lot to be desired!

    Lesley
     
    4jonboy, Jul 4, 2011
    #47
  8. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    If bald abuse & even thinly veiled threats is the best we can do, I'll probably close it for a day or two so people can spring back refreshed for the internet fight, polish up their insults, sharpen the old keyboard, reload the mouse with hollow-point etc.
    Tune in Wednesday for more exciting chat if it carries on like a circle forming and chanting 'fight', as Kicking the shit out of a 17 year old who expresses a passing interest, that's transferred without context from another (slightly odd) thread, doesn't seem all that interesting to me. I can read that on a dozen other forums, going back years ;).

    I kind of wondered if we can enquire as to the motivation of someone starting out & choosing SS reenactment when not, presumably, a practising Neo. (Don't get me wrong, there are Neos amongst 'em, I've met 'em - but most seem pretty average blokes in their normal lives.) Someone expressing such an interest is understandably gonna be poked with a virtual stick on here to see what they do, and spellinge comments are always funny, but I'd have thought 'awkward questions' were maybe more our style than some of the above?

    So - Back on Ron's original and pretty straightforward query, which is the most interesting thing about all this, and probably the heart of the thread. One I've seen him ask a fair few times before, with never a satisfactory attempt at an answer:
    I would appreciate your telling me and perhaps other equally intrigued forum members exactly why you have chosen to join an SS Group ?


    Is it mostly uniforms?
    Never having heard of any other units if German WW2 Military is what you fancy?
    Big established groups with lots of access to vehicles/kit?
    Want to do film work?
    Militaria collecting got out of hand?
    Baddies! ?
    Total lack of awareness of the wider 'issues'?
    Mates are already in it? (One of the most powerful reenactment recruiting tools...)
    Bumped into someone in a pub (Another cutting edge recruiting tool.)

    I dunno myself, probably as many motivations as individuals, but it'd perhaps be nice if we at least tried to raise the tone a bit. Not requiring anyone to like a proto-ss-reenactor, or even expecting anyone to be particularly nice to 'em (nowt said above surprises me), but I'd quite like to learn something as well.
    I'm interested in reenactor stuff, doing an earlier period myself (much earlier) for years, but it's very difficult to enquire of the whys and wherefores of the 'darker' end.
    Probably too late now, but there you go. :D



    (Rich. I love Field Kitchens, but not as much as Capt. sensible err, another member on here :unsure: - he's probably obsessed, and I shall buy him one to play with in his Garden if I ever get the funds. - Have we got a field kitchen thread? I thought we did?)
     
    von Poop, Jul 4, 2011
    #48
  9. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    Why not Kriegsmarine? Lack of U-boat?
     
    Gage, Jul 4, 2011
    #49
  10. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Why not Kriegsmarine? Lack of U-boat?

    Funny you should say that.
    We once met a bloke dressed completely and authentically as a decorated Uboat Skipper in a beer tent at a multi-period do in Northants. He actually looked bloody good, carried it off well.
    He was however, on a passing chat, quite dull though, and not the slathering loon we'd hoped for, so we pottered back to watch the naked cricket match going on outside...

    There are many 'odd' buggers in the reenacting world.
     
    von Poop, Jul 4, 2011
    #50
  11. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    Quality.
    Do you see many Soviet units reenacting?
     
    Gage, Jul 4, 2011
    #51
  12. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Sov infantry are there at many dos, but they seem a pretty minority interest, presumably just reflecting our cultural thinness when it comes to the Eastern war. Mostly just enough to ride about on T34s having fun.

    Just remembered, there was also a mocked up full-size Uboat conning tower at a show a couple of years back, maybe it was the Prien impersonator I met above finally living the dream :unsure: -
    Aha, Paul took a clear shot of it:
    [​IMG]

    So there ya go mate.
    Kriegsmarine? Bin' done. ;)
     
    von Poop, Jul 4, 2011
    #52
    Guy Hudson likes this.
  13. Kuno

    Kuno Very Senior Member

    "... But when an SS group comes along, it's purly educational. All questions and myths are cleared up. "

    I pretty much doubt that to clear up the myths is the real aim of any of the SS reenactors. It is rather the attraction of the evil which makes them wearing the SS insignia.

    Funny that they always talk about elitecracksblondblueeyedsuperfighters the want to represent....

    ...but if you have a look at te gallery on their website, they have not the age of an active soldier but fairly often the weight of two of them. And what is most amusing - if such people are wearing an originalSSbloodstained helmet which is about 3 numbers too small for their head :)
     
    Kuno, Jul 4, 2011
    #53
  14. Kuno

    Kuno Very Senior Member

    [​IMG]



    Did they approach the area by using one of these secret SS-tunnels which are crisss crossing under UKs meadows and just came up at the right spot to join the display?
     
    Kuno, Jul 4, 2011
    #54
  15. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Clever buggers, Donitz's boys... Doubtless used a secret map, handed down etc.

    Those chaps were actually pretty good despite the incongruity of the scene - dripping in KM knowledge & dead keen to chat. I got the feeling they were just desperate to join in the summer's strangeness and had got a tad carried away.
    I think this is them:
    The Uboat Society
     
    von Poop, Jul 4, 2011
    #55
  16. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    Sov infantry are there at many dos, but they seem a pretty minority interest, presumably just reflecting our cultural thinness when it comes to the Eastern war. Mostly just enough to ride about on T34s having fun.

    Just remembered, there was also a mocked up full-size Uboat conning tower at a show a couple of years back, maybe it was the Prien impersonator I met above finally living the dream :unsure: -
    Aha, Paul took a clear shot of it:
    [​IMG]

    So there ya go mate.
    Kriegsmarine? Bin' done. ;)

    I could reenact Indiana Jones!!!!:lol:
    Wow, that is the best picture I've seen the year!:D
     
    Gage, Jul 4, 2011
    #56
  17. Rich Payne

    Rich Payne Rivet Counter Patron 1940 Obsessive

    I don't really understand the SS re-enacting thing. To my mind the two main reasons for someone who isn't paid for it, and who doesn't have to, wearing a uniform are either as a tribute or because they think they look good in it.

    If one truly regards an organisation as abhorent then dressing up to imitate them is a little questionable in my book. I don't need some self-appointed 'living historian' living out his fantasies to educate me in the horrors of the Third Reich and it would be far more 'educational' to dress up as a fag-smoking self-effacing Tommy and show the world how totalitarianism can be beaten by ordinary chaps if needs be.

    The SS and the horrors they perpetrated should not be forgotten but some oik swaggering around in jackboots is not the way to ensure that the unthinkable never happens again.
     
    Rich Payne, Jul 4, 2011
    #57
    Heimbrent likes this.
  18. Za Rodinu

    Za Rodinu Hot air manufacturer

    Quality.
    Do you see many Soviet units reenacting?

    A few :)

    95th Rifles - 75 Guards WWII Russian Reenactment Group Google "Soviet reenacting" for more.

    On another tack (tacky?)

    Mar 02 Jump - 2.JPG

    But this curse also affects other periods :D

    2340966090010782672S425x425Q85.jpg

    But of course there was the eminent Herr Grossdeutschland himself

    [​IMG]
     

    Attached Files:

    Za Rodinu, Jul 4, 2011
    #58
    sol likes this.
  19. Hellofawaytodie

    Hellofawaytodie No-Combat Experience

    For all the people commenting, i hope that you have acheived what you have wanted. I'm past the point of being afraid of computer screens, so jsut rant away. Nothing we havn't seen before. And everything i say in this post now will have no meaning no matter what i say. But i will finish up with answering the questions asked by somone that hasn't been totally absorbed by this online Mob rule.

    Is it mostly uniforms? Yes actually
    Never having heard of any other units if German WW2 Military is what you fancy? Wehrmacht 116th Panzer Division
    2nd Guards Russian Infantry
    2nd Rangers American Infantry
    Also applying for
    Big established groups with lots of access to vehicles/kit? Meh
    Want to do film work? Not a major factor
    Militaria collecting got out of hand? Hardly, i have no German equipment
    Baddies! ? Nope
    Total lack of awareness of the wider 'issues'? I'm not going to go shooting people now am i ?
    Mates are already in it? (One of the most powerful reenactment recruiting tools...) Nope
    Bumped into someone in a pub (Another cutting edge recruiting tool.) Now how does that work when i'm 17 ?
     
    Hellofawaytodie, Jul 4, 2011
    #59
  20. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    Hellofawaytodie

    Please remember that the time you are talking of is still very much in living memory and shall continue for many years yet.
    If you view the forum you will see WW2 veterans posting.They were there.
    A number of forum members who post also have a touch on that period.



    Take time out to view photographs/stories associated with the ss.
    You will then possibly understand why you have various reactions.
     
    CL1, Jul 4, 2011
    #60
Page 3 of 10

Share This Page