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Post by piper318 on Jun 5, 2010 21:24:39 GMT -5
Hello everyone, I thought I'd start this after action report before it fell into a coma from exhaustion. I will update it with my thoughts when I get a little rest but thank-you everyone for coming and making it such a you fantastic event. Signed piper
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Post by warpath890 on Jun 5, 2010 22:02:24 GMT -5
That was a great game! My wife and I both enjoyed it and will definitely down for more events in the future. A big thanks to FeelGoodFarms for use of their property, Mark for organizing this fantastic event, and everyone who showed up.
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Post by viper on Jun 6, 2010 10:19:40 GMT -5
First off I want to thank the owners of the property for sharing their home with all of us. Second, I want to thank Piper318 for a great game and experience. WELL DONE! If you need any assistance in the future please let me know. Third, congratulations to the German forces on a hard fought game and a well played game. To the US forces and Partisans it was great serving beside you. To my squad, you are all pains in my "foot"but I wouldn't want any one else in the field, including Nick. I have participated in this sport for a while now and have to say this was the most enjoyable event I have ever been to. My lone regret is I had to leave early. But, to quote Clint Eastwood " A man has got to know his limitations.". To all many thanks. Viper(Eric)
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Post by Gordak on Jun 6, 2010 10:56:34 GMT -5
We found a thompson high cap magazine in the woods near the arty batterie, just PM me if you know whose it is, THanks!
I couldn’t help thinking about "guns of navarone" .. a German artilery crew fervently lobbing out shells totally unaware of the impending allied attack.
The battery consisted of 6 men, I took on the forward observer roll, on the commanding heights of the main road. There I could actually see fighting and the occasional GI making a dash. Just about everytime the germans sent out a round, we received counter battery from Ed’s heavy weapons platoon. These hit very accurately and we spent a lot of time diving for cover and scanning the sky for a glimpse of the yellow death. I Usually couldn’t spot them till after they hit though. After some time, and calling out many rounds, and somehow surviving the hail of 81mm mortar fire, I go lit up by a thompson submachinegun mid sentence. The tommy scored numerous hits probably at a distance of 50 feet or so. The guys did good, they were totally silent, I did think I had heard whispers earlier but from a totally different direction. This unhinged the defense of the guns and shattered the fighting spirit of most of the remaining kannoneirs of Batterie Weiss.
The terrain was thick and rolling making for alot of tricky situations, soldiers under cover in one spot were often totally exposed to fire from another location. Aside from the obvious open area dugouts surrounding the village there were a number brillaint well concealed fighting positions which offered excellent veiw and supreme cover at the same time. I think the town could have held with half the Germans that were there, it was a VERY hard posistion to take. For me the most exciting moment was the probing attack on the village where some GIs snuck up and threw three grenades simultaneously into the buildings. THe explosions were a real shock and they then opened up with small arms. Lucky for the germans they didnt have enough men to push the advantage of suprise any further into the town.
IT was great to meet all the new faces! Thanks for comming, and thankyou Peiper for the AWESOME event, Feelgood farm is a great place to play and the owners were constantly checking to make sure we were comfortable and happy, thanks! Gerry and Mike thanks for the Landsner stew which filled our bellies and eliminated the usual mandatory mcdonalds stop on the way home.
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mccallion
Private 1st Class
Official Road Sign Reader (retired)
Posts: 770
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Post by mccallion on Jun 6, 2010 20:00:56 GMT -5
I had an awsome time and would like to thank piper and the owners for letting us hold the game at the Feel Good Farm, whitch in itself is a cool place to go with all the different animals well as an aar the scenerios were awsome but at times did get slow, but for the most part filled with alot of combat
I think my favorate part of the game had to be the suicidal charge tword the allies ! and the artilliry fire on rosovelt Buick Skylark !
McCallion
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Post by Warlord on Jun 6, 2010 20:43:15 GMT -5
Thank you Mark and Feel Good Farm for putting on such an awesome event! Luckily the weather held out for Saturday and it wasn't too hot and humid. I'll throw up a little battle report later on.
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Post by Obergefreiter Raimund on Jun 6, 2010 22:03:15 GMT -5
I had a Great time at this event! Thanks to the Field hosts for allowing this event to happen and to Piper.
I'll throw up an AAR later on.
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WhiteRook
Private
Unofficial Awesome
Posts: 39
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Post by WhiteRook on Jun 7, 2010 7:19:29 GMT -5
As someone who plays at FGF regularly and is getting into WW2 airsoft -- I'm very upset I missed this event. Hopefully I'll be at the next one.
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Post by gman on Jun 7, 2010 7:31:17 GMT -5
First for those who could not make it ... you really missed an event. .... trekking thru the woods hearing 105's shooting off in unison based on the command, in heavy German accent "...FIRE ...", Or having an MG42 firing at you ... as you execute bounding overwatch ... bazooka taking out a MG42 nest ..... I had wood all weekend long A big thank you to Feel Good Farm folks, for your great N.H. hospitality, and that was the best stew I've ever had. Piper for making this event special, all of your hard work has laid the base for an great annual event. With the foks I've taked with they are already asking "when is the next one???" To all the people I had a chance to meet and talk with, it was a pleasure meeting you. You do this sport a great service by your representation of it. All played with honor and with folks like you, this sport can only grow. Looking forward to meeting and playing with everybody very soon.. ~G Man (a.k.a Steve III)
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Post by NH-Rancid on Jun 7, 2010 7:52:33 GMT -5
This was a great event to observe and great day ! Unfortunately the 16 GB mem card I was using decided to play China syndrome, memory card is cooking itself when placed into two separate desktops. Was able to recover nearly all of the photos and video with the exception of the very end of the day. Good portion of the American photos taken at the end of the day were lost, (possibly recoverable, going to send the card to data recovery service), will announce and post up if successful. Have compiled a piece below on the Vimeo page. Will get the photos uploaded to magix 3 page tonight. vimeo.com/12355572nhrancid3.magix.net/nh-rancid2.magix.net/nh-rancid.magix.net/
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Gerry
Master sergeant
Wilkommen zu Italien!
Posts: 819
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Post by Gerry on Jun 7, 2010 9:19:19 GMT -5
Finally recovered from my coma like state and heading out for a four day camping/fishing trip with my wife and son. Ihad a great time and met some great new folks and it is always nice to see the usual suspects. I was a little disappointed that everyone headed out like their butts were on fire at the close of gaming I spent a lot of time and $ on awards and documents and was looking forward to giving them out but could not get anyone to hang around or stay in their kits. My choices for the awards were: General assault badge (authenticity)Sam Johnson (Gordak)- for the only one other than me to stay in their correct wool kit, I was very happy that you went German you looked and played the part great! Nick stayed in his wools most of the time but wore an earing all day Friday and part of the day Saturday EKI (Bravery/Authenticity)No one could take this award as there was no real balance between these 2 requirements. For Bravery It would have been JP McCormick and for authenticity it Would have been Bob. EKII (Bravery in Combat) Obergefreiter Raymond(Raymond Barber) Time and time again always the tip of the spear, the OP of the defensive line, recon, communication, Sniping, delaying action you name it, Ray is doing it and portrays the true persona of the legendary Fallschirmjager. He would have been the choice for the EKI had I not seen modern items in their tents. I had a special award for Otto from the 3rd Panzer grenadiers it was the Panzer assault badge, Mike has been totally committed to WW2 airsoft and has been a huge contributer the the progression of the hobby, he has traveled great distances to attend events in the east. He is always a voice of reason and encouragement when you need it even through Email or PMs. Maybe we will have the ceremony at the Fall event. I am out the door and will post up my AAR at the end of the week! Thanks again to Piper for a great event and a Job well done! Gerry
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Post by Obergefreiter Raimund on Jun 7, 2010 10:28:29 GMT -5
Obergefreiter Raymond(Raymond Barber) Time and time again always the tip of the spear, the OP of the defensive line, recon, communication, Sniping, delaying action you name it, Ray is doing it and portrays the true persona of the legendary Fallschirmjager. He would have been the choice for the EKI had I not seen modern items in their tents. Gerry The modern Ammo Can and the Nam Bag were for medical supplies/First Aid and some gun fixing equipment. But yes... I should have covered them up! Thank you for the generous right up for my reward!
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ersatzjack2
Private 1st Class
"We can still win this thing, once the secret weapons arrive."
Posts: 612
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Post by ersatzjack2 on Jun 7, 2010 11:41:53 GMT -5
I had a special award for Otto from the 3rd Panzer grenadiers it was the Panzer assault badge, Mike has been totally committed to WW2 airsoft and has been a huge contributer the the progression of the hobby, he has traveled great distances to attend events in the east. He is always a voice of reason and encouragement when you need it even through Email or PMs. Gerry Great!!! Another award for Otto and none for Franz. You guys just keep making my life more and more unbearable.
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Post by panzergrenadier on Jun 7, 2010 12:11:21 GMT -5
This was an awesome event!!happy to see everyone.All the familar faces again!thank you piper for an awesome game!Too bad you guys never took the village!lol!!great to see sam and the boys.And the boys from out west!you guys are awesome always a good time.And thanks to my brother for being a great commander as always.Can't wait till the next event!
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Ersatzjack
Corporal
"That silly Franz... he thinks we are winning."
Posts: 1,093
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Post by Ersatzjack on Jun 7, 2010 12:26:30 GMT -5
Well, we are for the most part returned to our home fronts, and I'll post a more detailed AAR later, but for now I just want to thank everyone that came to the event. It was a pleasure to play in the company of such good sports. I don't believe there was one incident involving tempers flaring and that is a testament to the caliber of play. NH-rancid, just watched the video and it is an amazing finished product in the shortest turn-around time I have ever seen. You are a true asset to airsoft in the Northeast and if you ever want to move to Wisconsin, I'll recommend a realtor. The footage at times seems slow but that was the way the battle unfolded. It was pretty stagnant all day with action coming in fits and short bursts. It accurately portrayed the tempo of operations I believe. I liked 18:06 in the video when you see the German POWs from the gun crew being marched back to the American camp and out of the frame Franz Verkaufer is mowing down the lot of them with the MG-34. Very amusing. He did manage to shoot their guard but out of sight Americans prevented a German escape. At 25:06, I play cat-and-mouse with some Ami's buried in thick foliage and try to ruse them into revealing more of their location preparatory to a grenade toss. Both Steve and I missed. At 28:50, I admit to my friendly kill (he didn't die but required aide station care) of one of our SS troops who shot Manfred in the back. Manfred was a stalwart defender all day long and when he was eliminated I wasn't looking to get password verification on this miscreant who shot him but rather just wanted to settle the score. Later, I discovered him to be one of us. I did get him back to the camp for medical treatment. It was a better fate than he gave Manfred. Gerry - Panzer Assault Badge? You are too kind. I will accept it with great humility as is my custom. EJ2 (Franz) - Whenever I wear the award I will think of all your contributions too. There... that should make you happier. Congratulations to other winners as well. Okay, gotta run as this is a BIG day for Midwest Ostfront Airsoft regarding a future operation (I will reveal more later) and will get my AAR up tonight.
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ersatzjack2
Private 1st Class
"We can still win this thing, once the secret weapons arrive."
Posts: 612
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Post by ersatzjack2 on Jun 7, 2010 14:16:53 GMT -5
To begin, thanks for a great event and lots of fun. The 3rd Panzergrenadiers sent a three man contingent from Wisconsin and Minnesota to this and arrived early on Friday to a warm welcome. It was nice to see old friends again and to strike up conversations with new ones. The sides in this were pretty even with about 15-20 on each team. Piper could give the exact numbers. The owners of the land were friendly and welcoming. Now, on to the after action. An after action report focuses both on the highs and the lows and is used to improve future mission events. So, with that in mind I'll use a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being needs lots of improvement and 5 being can't improve because it is perfect. The categories to grade will be: Historical ambiance and immersion quality - Weather - Mission variety and balance - Facilities and gaming site - Planning and event organization - Safety - Overall - Historical Ambiance and Immersion Quality (4.5) The uniforms for both teams were great. Other than a few items of non period or non authentic garments for some of the younger players on both teams, impressions were spot on. The group of five Virginians in their 101st Airborne impressions looked great for relatively newer WW2 airsofters. They also brought custom Garands to the event that looked very nice. The French partisans looked spot on and added to the overall ambiance. There was period music playing off of period radios with secreted ipods that added a lot. Gerry, his brother Mike, and Piper did a lot of work on this one. Prepared field kitchen food, iron rations and period labels, wine (apple cider), flags, artillery pieces, you name it...it felt like France 44. Weather (4) I know this can't be controlled and I would never give a "5" unless it was about 25 degrees, partly cloudy and plenty of snow. ( I love winter airsoft events. I really don't care about the weather as I'm pretty willing to play in anything except torrential downpours. Friday night was warm and then it cooled slightly and cleared. We had plenty of rain thru the evening but by 10:00 am it had cleared and it was game on. The terrain (rocky and sandy) allowed for quick drainage and the heat of Saturday dried things up quickly. On Saturday it warmed up but a breeze now and then kept things manageable and heh, it's supposed to be warm in June. Still, it wasn't anywhere near sweltering and hence, overall, a four. Mission Variety and Balance (3) My god! I felt sorry for the Americans. They had to attack uphill all day over rough terrain in fairly warm weather. They had to first take the gun batteries and then the town. They managed to spike one of the three guns, capture the gun crews, and they had two brief soirees into the town that were stopped quickly with continual losses. At my age I would have been whipped by noon or perhaps even before that but as I was a defender I had things much easier. Had the Americans accomplished their missions the only other scenario planned was simply a reset of the initial. The terrain was pretty rough and thick and a well organized American push could have probably done the trick but it never came. Perhaps they thought things were lopsided but our German defences were not that unbreakable. Our command control was lax and the terrain provided us with few clear fields of fire. We were vulnerable more than they probably knew but the diversionary attack and massed tommy gun push never came that would have whipped some humility into us. Facilities and Gaming Site (3) Although the farm was 500 acres we played on about 20 or less. It was thick forested area with lots of undergrowth and it was interwoven with steep rocky foot paths that made maneuver pretty hellish for the team that had to do it. I know the field isn't in the control of the event organizers so I'm not knocking them. This field also hosts a variety of games and so there were things that definitely weren't WW2 like the rusting 50's City Bus sitting in the town. The town buildings actually made defense of the town more difficult as they really didn't support each other, had windows facing out towards other buildings four feet away and had no windows carved out that would have provided clear fields of fire. In short many of them were death traps or line of sight blockers and urban battle would have been at extreme close range had it materialized. There were pallets and debris piles on various parts of the field that had nails sticking out of them and are accidents waiting to happen. Some positives included plentiful nearby parking, lots of portable toilets, and garbage receptacles. Keep in mind that I'm spoiled here and that the Minnesota and Wisconsin fields I'm used to offer more varied terrain and varied obstacles. Planning and Event Organization (5) This event was broadcast well in advance and Piper and Gerry did a fantastic job of organizing it. Their efforts were clearly visible in everything that came off. From building artillery, arranging for a video guy, setting up all of the period props, holding a raffle, designating awards, etc. They deserve our well deserved thanks. Thanks guys. Safety (3.5) I'm not a safety nazi. Gunsocks, removing magazines, clearing weapons, etc. add an element of analness that I'm not fond of. I believe these things may be more needed at events that have a greater percentage of youthful players but not so with the older WW2 crowd. Many of us possess the common sense not to hurt others and even the younger players at these events follow step or have parental influence. Event organizers didn't push that on us and I'm happy with that. They did explain and have a clear airhorn system for goggles on/game on and for goggles off/game off which is good and which worked well. Safety plusses - At the initial briefing, thought was given to identifying those with First aid skills. There were first aid supplies and kits on hand. The grade drops some because of the aforementioned debris piles with nails sticking out but mostly because there was no chrono station. That should be an absolute must. Still, I don't believe there were any injuries and so that always speaks well of an event. Overall (4) Planning and effort really push this up and of course attendance is important and for this event, there were an adequate number of players. The video and pics that come out of this will memorialize the event and are great. There was an adequate variety of weapons and impressions, and great atmosphere. Personal highlights - I was able to cycle about 3000 rounds of ammo thru the MG34 and while I didn't kill a lot of people I know the Americans didn't come at us the easy way. The main road was pretty much blocked to them thruout the event and added to their overall weariness. Towards the end of Saturday I made my play for the valor award. The Americans had made their second attack on the town and Piper (their commander) had been captured and placed into the German stalag. Realizing that they all must have been dog tired at this point I headed down the main road with a white flag of truce tied to the barrel tip of my K98. I came upon Sfcmigs, his son, and two other young American players by their base camp and to their credit they did not shoot me outright. I discussed the possibility of their surrender and pointed out that while they had fought bravely, they were beaten and also pointed out that by surrendering they would be saving the life of their Captain who, I warned, would be executed if they did not surrender. I had visions at this point of leading 6-8 American prisoners back to our lines and scooping the Iron Cross Second Class award. Sfcmigs responded, "Nuts." Disappointed with his response I headed back the way I had come. I wasn't able to go but twenty yards when they started shooting at me first ;D (very dishonorable) but I was able to turn, snap off a shot, and get back to safety. Another high point was watching Cryonics and his battle prowess. He was assigned with us in defending the town and he was constantly in the thick of things and had a hey-day with his pea grenades killing a good 6-7 Americans with his various grenade tosses. I'll finish by tipping my hat to the American team. What a good group of guys and great sports. You guys did the best you could and I admired your zeal and determination given the hard task you had. Thanks to everyone for a very fun event. Now I'm going to sit back and enjoy the pics and video. Hmmm..., I think I just might have a new avatar at 29:49 of the video.
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Post by SfcMigs on Jun 7, 2010 14:51:09 GMT -5
What a Great Event!! Special thanks to Feel Good Farm and hats off to Piper for pulling off the best event to date. There are so many memorable things to mention: All the hard work and such fine details Piper put into this event. K rations, P-38 can openers, Kill cards, the actual 88mm guns he made and the overall apperance of the battle grounds was just terrific!!
Sam and Gerry calling out the Coordinates and fire commnads for the German Artillery was so kool and amusing at the same time.
But the highlight for me was when Piper, and my son Dean and I decided to take on the whole German Village all by overselves. Piper led the way around to the rear of the Village. With great stealth we laid in wait for at least a good 10 minutes just waiting for the right time to strike. We remained perfectly still as two Germans walked right by us on the way to their re-spawn. We watched as our two French friends were captured and marched into the village for interrogation. When the time was right the 3 of us simultaneously threw our grenades waking up the Germans from their mid day slumber!!! Unfortunatley we did not have enough man power to overcome the German defenses and were ultimately killed or captured.
What a great time we had. Seeing all the familiar faces and meeting some new friends as well. It's always a pleasure playing with all of you.
And just a side note to Gerry, I hope you don't play cards, because you had the worst luck with those kill cards!!!
Take care all and see you at the next event!!
Joe and Dean SfcMigs
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Post by SfcMigs on Jun 7, 2010 15:13:39 GMT -5
In regards to the surrender meeting, I can only speak on behalf of myself and my son Dean. We did not fire a single shot at 'ersatzjack2". In fact, I was supprised when I heard a shot come from his direction. I remember saying out loud 'You can never trust a Kraut!"
Perhaps one of my other younger "Brothers in arms" squeezed off a round that I am not aware of. I also recall that when I was told of Piper's capture I responded that we didn't like him all that much anyway!!
Even though this was not Bastogne, I thought I'd quote General McAuliffe by telling them "nuts"
That was a lot of fun!!!
Take care Guys,
SfcMigs
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Ersatzjack
Corporal
"That silly Franz... he thinks we are winning."
Posts: 1,093
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Post by Ersatzjack on Jun 7, 2010 23:40:59 GMT -5
It looks like Steve said pretty much what I wanted to. We, (Ryan, Steve and Myself) had 18-hours to dissect the event on the ride home and our consensus was that there needed to be more variety. Having the Allies pound their heads against the Germans all day was (we felt) a recipe for demoralizing the other side in a region where the scarcity of events doesn't lend itself well to getting even the next week or month. It seemed more like reenactors doing airsoft at Brecourt whereas at our events, it is airsofters attempting to do some reenacting - if that makes any sense. Gerry and his contacts do the immersion part very well and better than we do but I think variety and a sense of urgency in mission design such as we do at MOA events would further improve the quality of their next event. I think if we at MOA adopt some of the East's ideas, and they move towards more variety and shorter defined scenarios both organizations will benefit. I want to stress that I liked the event as is but AARs are used to provide lessons learned and one of the lessons learned here is that the attacking side should have some hope or a time limit and then move to the next idea. Also, a regular mistake and we make it too, is to have the spawn point too close to the objective. For most of the day, Germans spawned at the cafe in the town and how were the Allies supposed to win if that was the case? They had to take the town. Only later was the spawn point pushed up a hill that was a hardy hike away and by then Germans had become accustomed to spawning at the cafe and some did climb the hill and I'm guessing others did not. There was also no wait time in the cafe. Just walk back and presto, you are back in action. This made it impossible for the Allied side to win and immersion or not, I want a chance to win when I play airsoft and I bet others do as well. For the above reasons, I take no pride in the German victory. But we can all learn from the events of the day and make sure that it doesn't spoil the next event. Enough negative. I will have to say I had a great moment and a first for me at this event. It was just starting to blow a little breeze in the morning after the rain and the dampness was clearing and sun breaking through the clouds and I was positioned on a distant flank with overwatch of the woods approaching the town. An easy job as I lay on my little patch of dirt and I was day-dreaming and enjoying the lazy moment alone when I heard steps behind me and low-and-behold approaching was the waitress from the cafe offering me a refreshing drink of vino (apple juice) before marching off to serve others. (It was Wolfgang's idea to utilize her a bit for role-playing, so he asked her to serve the men on guard duty). I have to say it was a pleasant surprise. "Merci, Mademoiselle," was all that came to mind and expended my French vocabulary but at least I had that to use. It reminded me of receiving last rights at a blank-fire once. Totally unexpected immersion at the correct moment. Perfect! Thanks! Traveling with Wolfgang and Franz on the homebound trip we had a little adventure as both rear springs on my car broke and we had a five hour delay as the car was fixed with new shocks and springs. But it had a silver lining and it showed me how we could meet trouble situations in good cheer and with resolve and that made the misfortune easy to deal with. I was a little disappointed we could only muster three members of the 3rd PzGr to make the trip. I wanted desperately to practice with a half squad (halbgruppe of 4). You see, in the coming months, we will have a new toy to deploy a 4-man group onto the battle field. Several of the Eastern players stated they want to travel to a MOA event in the future and I will recommend keeping Aug 20-22 open on your calendar. Fort McCoy, WI is giving us four sq. Kilometers for a armor on armor operation and I'll announce further details in the coming weeks that will explain more. More than likely, this will all get posted after Battle for Bagration AAR's die down but I will post a basic announcement tonight. Final thoughts. Grenades!! The pea grenades and cannon explosions and mortar and bazooka fire all added but the grenades are the cat's meow. Really cool. Pricey but cool. Nice to see all the old regulars, Gerry and Mike, Piper, Sean, Raimund, Gordak, and meet newer players. Next time I will adopt an all-wool outlook Gerry. I didn't know you felt so strongly about it and I blame Fusilier for rubbing off on you. Thanks to my travel mates, Wolfgang and Franz for sharing the expenses and fun.
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Post by NH-Rancid on Jun 8, 2010 6:34:24 GMT -5
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Post by Gordak on Jun 8, 2010 9:02:31 GMT -5
Rancid, the Pix are AWESOME!!!!!! Thankyou! E-bros..... HOLY CHRIST!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!
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Post by cryonics on Jun 8, 2010 10:22:34 GMT -5
Sorry guys, did not know there was an AAR site set up. Was blindly posting in the other forum. Noobie mistake I just wanted to say that being our first WW2 reenactment event that we thoroughly enjoyed it and are totally hooked. The authenticity that every one exhibited was fabulous and really made us feel like we were thrown back in time. Having spent several months trying to perfect my tunic impression, I was disappointed that the heat and humidity forced me to have to fight in a Service shirt. Even with that, I was still sweating quite profusely as many of you probably saw from my water soaked attire. I probably would have dealt with the tunic if it were not for the glasses fogging up and being totally blind. Gerry I know you are very much into being in proper attire and I truly respect and appreciate that; I apologize for letting you down in that regard especially after all the advice you offered and your great Facebook site re the topic. I also want to thank Gerry for doing such a fantastic job putting the German camp together. Your props and Halbeiserne Portions were fabulous, delicious and really added to the environment. The music was delightful and you looked and acted the part perfectly. Piper, thank you for putting this together. I believe this was your first WW2 event and I can only imagine that future ones will get even better. I would not miss them for anything. We met some really great people that made us feel very welcome and very at home. I thank you all for being so gracious. I know I made some mistakes in some of the items we brought and attire we wore and many of you were kind enough to correct us. I also know that next time we will be 100% better now that we have gotten a flavor for what these events are all about. I am already starting work on another tunic that will not be quite as hot for future events, as I know how important it is for everyone to be in proper impression for the enjoyment of all participants. I hope some of you will not mind if I seek advice from you once in a while. At the time I was amazed that many of you came from so far away, Wisconsin, Virginia and so forth, but having had the experience, I realize that I would hop on the first plane out there to go to one of these just as far away. This is a great sport, hobby, game and I am hooked. There were many many great moments, way too many to recount here but to name a few: What a thrill when Piper and his group did the 3 grenade coordinated attack on the village. I remember hearing the grenades going off, hearing the machine gun fire and looking at the village engulfed in smoke and thinking "holy crap! they are going to overrun us". As I ran to the village I saw the whole German army mobilize and converge on the village. As we fought, our fearless leader Gerry laid dead in the street, but we fought on and repelled the attack only to squash the last GI with a grenade thrown over the building. What a high, it was an awesome and thrilling moment. Another memorable experience was watching sentry over the side trail for potential incursions and hearing Gerry on the other side of the field giving orders to the cannons. Hearing him speaking in German and yelling "Fire!" I felt his commanding and confident voice echo throughout the valley only to be reinforced by the loud bang of the cannons. I was thrown back in time and truly felt like I was at the front in Normandie. To the poor SS soldier that shot me in the back as I was trying to rejoin Ersatzjack in his position. No harm done, this kind of stuff happens and having been in a brown Service shirt, I am sure it was easy to confuse me with a GI. To the GI that I shot dead and who walked down the hill to his mates yelling "He is in the pile of logs!" ... Dead men don't talk. To Ryan (Wolfgang?), who was our unit leader, you were very kind and considerate of me and my son, thank you. It was an honor to serve under your command and a pleasure to have met you. To the Ersatzjack brothers, you guys are great, and really left us with warm feelings. You made us feel very welcome and did not make us feel out of place at any time. I did have a hard time telling the two of you apart, but I am sure over time, I will figure it out . You two were fearless warriors and it was very comforting knowing you were nearby whenever I was in the field. I enjoyed watching you pick off the Americans with your custom Mauser's and impressed at your one shot kills. Against short range machine guns, it appeared it was no contest. Gerry I am very sorry that no one stayed behind for the awards, I know my group was not aware that they were being held as it looked like everyone was leaving. Had we known, we would have definitely stayed. I know you put lots of time and effort in putting these awards together and I can only imagine how disappointing it must have been. I do want to thank you for the recognition and hopefully next time I will be able to stay in full impression the entire time. To all the great people I met, some for only a brief moment, thank you for a fantastic time and for being such good sports. This was a memorable experience that Tom, my son and I will cherish for a long time. I guess that is enough ranting, I will close by saying that you can add a new WW2 reenactor to your midst as I am sure I will be seeing some of you again. JP McCormick aka Cryonics aka Manfred
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mccallion
Private 1st Class
Official Road Sign Reader (retired)
Posts: 770
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Post by mccallion on Jun 8, 2010 13:35:39 GMT -5
The Pictures look awsome
McCallion
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Post by Garrick Udet on Jun 8, 2010 18:10:20 GMT -5
Gerry, Man, looking at the pics I'm bummed I couldn't make it out for this one. As always you guys do the little stuff so well!
Cheers and congrats on what looked like a great event. I hope to rejoin the 3rd's mobile detachment for the next one.
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Post by Gordak on Jun 9, 2010 9:55:15 GMT -5
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Gerry
Master sergeant
Wilkommen zu Italien!
Posts: 819
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Post by Gerry on Jun 10, 2010 9:16:29 GMT -5
At the start of the event I deployed my Grenadiers in the town to await a counter attack upon my orders. I deployed the Waffen SS and Fallschirmjager in a foward recon position with orders to delay the advance and pester the approaching allies. Then I took my position amongst the Batterie with my 5 Artillerymen and began firing the 10.5cm canon. Gordak took the forward observers position and I took the Batterie commanders position the remainder of the kanoniers took their positions on the guns. We kept the batterie commands in German to give the Allies the feeling that they were actually assaulting a German battery as they crept through the woods. Piper and I had preplanned it that the batterie would go down with only minor resistance and that the kanoniers captured and be given a thorough search and march but after nearly an hour of calling in coordinates on everything from Roosevelts dog to a Buick Skylark the Allies could not bring an all out fix, fire, flank and finish but a piece meal attack by 1 or 2 men here and another 1 or 2 there all the while we were dodging very accurate rounds from Ed's Mortar. What did impress me as while under guard seeing the Airborne troopers (I believe from VA) attack from the Western end of the Batterie Mike made a futile attempt at attacking our guards but was subsequently captured as well. We were then Marched back to the Allied CP where Tom from the Waffen SS soon joined us. We marched back to our respawn point and then began to move back to our batterie where we found only one canon disabled then after another short skirmish we slowed activities to have some lunch. After about an hour of enjoying a period packed lunch and Mail call we redeployed 2 of our canon as PAK's in defense of the town. Again the Allies could not bring an all out force to attack and take the town against the German defenders bringing only piecemeal attacks by one, two or 3 infantrymen. The closest coordinated attack came at the rear end of town lead by Piper but was stalled resulting in Piper being captured. After Franz's failed attempt to have the Allied platoon surrender we employed an all out suicide charge at their CP which resulted in GI's scrambling and running firing from the hip. I was in the front of the pack and was cut down by Tommy gun fire I then watched as my brave Soldaten carried on with the attack from my final resting place, in Frankreich, jumping over my corpse and overwhelming and destroying the invaders. I had a great time! FGF was a great venue and the owners were very accomodating. Piper put a lot of work and effort into this event and it showed! It was great to see the usual faces and meet a bunch on new guys! Thanks to everyone! -Gerry
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Post by gman on Jun 10, 2010 10:20:54 GMT -5
What did impress me as while under guard seeing the Airborne troopers (I believe from VA) attack from the Western end of the Batterie Yep that was us. Plan was for me and the guy with the shot gun to distract you from the eastern back road while the other "Steve's", and the crew from CT flank from the western side. I did have a chance to either take down your flag or kill Nazi's ... I decided to kill Nazi's .... We were the same group, the night before, on patrolling that area so we were somewhat familiar with it. Took us over an hour to get there thinking there might be mines or patrols, but none were encountered.
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Post by SfcMigs on Jun 10, 2010 16:04:43 GMT -5
G Man, I think Gerry was referring to the 3 grenade attack Piper, myself and my son Dean did towards the end of the day. we really need more forces to overtake that town!!!
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biged
Master sergeant
Posts: 468
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Post by biged on Jun 10, 2010 19:06:22 GMT -5
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Post by goldengeneral on Jun 11, 2010 15:06:55 GMT -5
Greetings from Feel Good Farm in the beautiful state of NH. We are still marveling from the authenticity that the folks brought to the event; not to mention the anticipation as a whole. It was so much like a movie production with all the props of the time period, especially on the German side; which Rancid's pics and video truly reflect! The horse, llama, and Samy the bird extend warm salutations on the next Airsoft Association's arrival. Warm Regards, Larry and Sharon Boisvert/Field Owners Fear Less, Hope More, Eat Less, Chew More, Whine Less, Say More, Hate Less, Love More, And All Good Things Will Be Yours.
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