Goals

I was wondering what other reenactors goals were in the hobby. I'm constantly setting short and long term goals. Well I'll start it off.

Long term: My two long term goals are to get an mp40 and a kubelwagon.

Short term: Improve and work on my medic impression.

 

1. To get a leather u-boat jacket to finish my ardennes impression

2. To get promoted (within the next few months)

I know this may seem selfish but they are my objectives for myself, in terms of what i want to achieve and obtain for myself. If you meant objectived in going into re-enactment my aims are to a) have fun and b) educate the general public, maybe persuade a few of them that not every german was a nazi or evil.

 

Stefan,
Those are some good goals. What I meant was personal goals related to improving your personal impression and your unit a.k.a getting vehicles,rank, etc.

 

Short term goals: Get a G-43 ammo pouch, another butter dish, and a tent pole and stakes for a Zelt tent. Don't want any higher rank then private: Most trigger time with the least amount of hassle.

Long term goals: Get another armored vehicle into the unit.

Ultra-goal: MP-44.

 

Those are some good goals. I was wondering if you ever do any reenactments in the midwest?

 

Well lets see here.......I got so many things i want to accomplish
short term:
1) improve my impression (get away from east German jackboots, get a real German helmet, oh and shoot a hole in my pocket, that one is for u Pzgrenadiere!)
2) get another zelt and some poles so i can have a tent set up so i will not be wet anymore!
long term:
1) get a short barrel MKIV Panzer
2) get a class 3 firearms license
3) get a MP40, MG34, and a P08 Luger

Oh and a promotion would not be bad. those are my goals. I got a few hopes and dreams I would like to share though.....
1) Russians get a few T34s to go up against the 2nd PZs Hetzer.
2) GIs get more armor!
3) GIs (and some of those German units need to work on hit taken too) take more hits and become a little more aggressive.
4) WW2 reenactors don't have to pay for events!
Well thats all i can think of right now at this moment

 

To get a better paying and FEDERAl govt job, so I can complate my M-39 Heer Artillery Majors doeskin uniform. I have the Visor and Tunic and awards--now I need open clawed belt--better holster and boots.

 

Beating field marshal Evans and his 4.000 posts...

A uniform of a major?! I will go to Corpus Christi some day with one of an Oberstleutnant then!

 

Jason, very funny about the pocket. You wish you had a cool hole like I do.

 

LOL i had to slip that in somewhere Drake. Should I tell everyone the story or shall I leave it to you, we cant leave them in the dark on this one, its too funny!

 

Ya still got a WAYSsssssssssssssssss to go bud

 

PS, lets see if you can beat me in Militaria......

 

I´m just getting to start this hobby. But I am grateful as I have a friend who has quite a lot of stuff by the finnish waffen ss guys. The real clothes that some of them brought with them, pipes they smoked at the front, watches, and even a bottle of Cognac made in France during the years of german power..must be yummy if I ever get to taste that!
He also collects guns, and he promised one day I get to shoot the MG 42, and yes, I´ve held it in my hands!!
I read a day book by one Wiking man ( finnish ) and I must admit it wasn´t too nice reading. The red line was. we went to a village and killed everyone in it, we went to another village and killed everyone...During the autumn I might translate these pages if I get to read them more. I will surely have the time.

But for myself. I´d like to get a waffen SS uniform with LAD cuff, yet I´d be happy with Wiking as well. And tarnjacke is a must. Maybe MP 40 and a picture of me holding the MG42. This start the beginning , you know!

 

Can any WW2 person answer my question?

I've been a re-enactor for ten years now, I'm currently a Feldwebel in an Austrian Napoleonic Grenz unit. Does anyone have any qualms at all about re-enacting a period where many people in the audience are veterans? I've thought about this and it sort of makes me feel queasy. Equally I feel very queasy around Waffen SS units, who most people at the big Kirby Hall event in the UK consider at best odd, and at worst, insulting. I think a couple of years back they were banned from the beer tent: curiously some Jewish re-enactors had some objections to their regalia.

Has anyone any views on this?

Jumbo

 

Jumbo,

I used to be in an SS re-enactment unit, and we found it difficult to get any booking for shows due to this. At many shows we were not allowed to wear our tunics which displayed the runes. Recently however they seem to have grown more popular and widespread. Even though I was a very active member of the group I still have reservations about re-enacting ss troops. Although I have met veterans at shows none seemed to take offense, one commented that it was 'good to see the other side', the problem is the association in peoples mind between the Waffen-SS and the evils of the Nazi regime. I can perfectly understand why Jewish people would be offended to see thirty guys marching about proudly wearing SS runes.

I am hoping to get back into re-enacting next year but still cant decide what... Been an English Civil War pikeman, an SS grenadier...
Think I might try U.S. Rangers...

Once, while at I show I was asked to walk up and down the lines of queing public and as I approached one family the father grabbed his children and exclaimed 'Gotten Himmel Das SS!'

I kid you not.

I think the question of portraying the SS will never be answered due to their crimes.

 

RedBaron

You can always join our mob, if you are in the UK that is. We only re-enact in Europe though. It's nicer and much more fun.

Jumbo

 

Jumbo

I am in the UK, in the West Midlands.

Any chance you could email me some more info?

Thanks,

Red

 

Its not as bad here in the U.S., but there are still problems. At one of my last events me and some guys went into town to get food from a grocery store and even though we didn't have our tunics on we still took some flak from people. Plus during the night we were camped in park next to the road and we had people blaring their ar horns at 3 in the morning scream, "bla bla you @#$* Nazi". Some people

 

I have absolutely zero reservation or guilt or anything like that about my Waffen SS impression.

How is it any different then a Confederate Soldier at a Civil War reenactment? Or a Red Coat or British Loyalist at a revolutionary war reenactment? Does anyone assume that if you play Johnny Reb that you automatically want to see a black person lynched and all others forever bound into slavery? Or that if you're playing a Red Coat, that you wish the crown of England still presided over America? If not, then why are Waffen SS reenactors assumed to be Nazi sympathizers?

As I see it, and as I try to explain it to others, I am just portraying a historical reality. I neither subscribe to or espouse Nazi Racial beliefs. I am politically neutral when in uniform. If folks want to take exception to my historical impression, that is there problem. I have no qualms what so ever about it.

Now, if I saw someone doing an Algemeine or KZ impression, I would be first in line to say "Whoa, that's over the line". But to deny that certain fighting units of WWII existed just because they make us uncomfortable is to me a very lame and weak argument.

If someone wants to call me a Nazi without knowing if I am or not, then I see the problem residing with them and their ignorance, not me and a few yards of wool.

 

Hey guys, this is my first post here, my name is Nick and I'm with the 25th Panzer Grenadiers out of the Chicago area. I took up the hobby this past summer and I am in the same unit as Drake. Hey Drake. Who else from our unit uses this site? Anyway I love all of history but especially the World Wars and the Civil War. I speak German quite well (writting is another issure) and am studying Business at Purdue University.
Well my goals in the long term is to perfect a German sniper impression.

Short term would be to learn as much as I can about the German army and their tactics in the field.