beamjockey (
beamjockey) wrote2012-08-09 06:36 pm
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Wehrmacht on the Interstate
Coming home from Musecon Sunday night on Interstate 88, I was startled to find a large tractor-trailer in front of me, burdened with two sinister brown shapes.

It dawned on me that not only did I recognize those shapes-- a World War II German Army halftrack and a tank destroyer-- but that I had met them before.

Here I am, in 2008, standing in front of the Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer. It belongs to the Illinois re-enactment group known as the 2nd Panzer Division, which operates a number of German military vehicles.
Behind the Hetzer is the SdKfz (Sonderkraftfahrzeug but nobody spells it out) 251/1 halftrack. Actually this started life as a postwar model-- the Czech army continued to produce and operate this design as the OT 810-- but it has been modified to resemble its German ancestor.
I was surprised that both heavy vehicles (17 tons for the Hezer, 8 tons for the 251) are carried on a single transporter. I suppose their owner was bringing them home from some re-enactment outing.

It dawned on me that not only did I recognize those shapes-- a World War II German Army halftrack and a tank destroyer-- but that I had met them before.
Here I am, in 2008, standing in front of the Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer. It belongs to the Illinois re-enactment group known as the 2nd Panzer Division, which operates a number of German military vehicles.
Behind the Hetzer is the SdKfz (Sonderkraftfahrzeug but nobody spells it out) 251/1 halftrack. Actually this started life as a postwar model-- the Czech army continued to produce and operate this design as the OT 810-- but it has been modified to resemble its German ancestor.
I was surprised that both heavy vehicles (17 tons for the Hezer, 8 tons for the 251) are carried on a single transporter. I suppose their owner was bringing them home from some re-enactment outing.
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For instance, Rommel was a brilliant tactician, so some people would want to portray a member of his Afrika Korps.
As jeffreyab kinda approached below, reenacting is more fun if there's somebody to play with/against.
My family likes to build 1/35-scale armor models, and most of the ones on our shelves are WWII-era German equipment. Does that mean I'm a Nazi modeller? Does the guy that thinks German equipment of that era is fascinating, collects it, and takes it to reenactments while dressing in a uniform to fit in with his equipment is a Nazi?
I hate Nazis and Neo-Nazis, but there's a difference between Nazis and the vast majority of these reenactors - yeah, there's probably a few suffering from cranial-rectal inversion, but I'd say the same for the guys playing the Allies.
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I think that how problematic this is depends on how close one considers that tie between the equipment and the ideology of its users to be, and I think that varies widely for different people with different backgrounds.
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Elsewhere I just saw someone make a joke about the extras in Gone With The Wind: "If we'd had that many soldiers in real life, we'd have won!" That's where I draw the line, referring to the Third Reich as "we".