The Russians are coming too: Russians living in New Zealand dressed as members of 10th Stalingrad Rifle Division, NKVD. Photo / Geoff Lewis
The Russians are coming too: Russians living in New Zealand dressed as members of 10th Stalingrad Rifle Division, NKVD. Photo / Geoff Lewis
I should be really scared - there's two Doughboys (American infantrymen) looking like trouble walking towards me with (fake) automatic weapons - but then they break into laughter and shoulder their arms.
These guys are military re-enactors, a growing hobby around the country and big business overseas. In this case they are Chris Bass and Jakob Taylor, members of the 101st Airborne - a unit modelled on its real-life namesake which was pivotal to the 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy.
The outfit was busy digging itself in at the Tauwhare Military Museum on Saturday, February 13 during the second annual Tauwhare Military Museum Living History Weekend, in a special sand-bagged emplacement complete with Browning .30-cal machinegun.
Members of the 101st airborne, in their dugout, (from left): Jakob Taylor, Jared Smith (with .30cal) and Sam Cawston, 2nd Bn US Rangers. Photo / Geoff Lewis
Hamilton railway inspector Bradley Taylor, himself a sergeant in the third company of the SS Panzer Grenadiers, and acting as general ringmaster for the eclectic groups that turned up to enjoy the day - is a member of the Military Re-enactment Society of New Zealand.
"I grew up making models and playing computer games and developed a fascination with military history. The society has members all over the country.
"Most of us are focused on WWII, the Russians, Germans, British and Americans. We do a bit of WWI and take part in events including the Cambridge Armistice Day, the Art Deco events at Napier and the Kumeu show."
Wolpertinger blacksmith Jordan Tolsma. Photo / Geoff Lewis
Also at Tauwhare were re-enactors based around New Zealand's home guard of the WWII era, an Auckland-based group of Germanic 'Wolpertingers' - mercenaries employed as the 'enforcers' by the Holy Roman Empire, who had a smithy's forge going making dangerous things, and Roman legionnaires complete with shields and helmets.
A Russian contingent, composed mostly of Russian nationals, re-enacted the 10th Stalingrad Rifle Division of the NKVD. In 1943 this division met the German army head-on defending the Volga River city - and paid dearly for it.
Commanding officer Oleg Maksimov, explained, in detail, that the NKVD were not political commissars as they are frequently misrepresented, but interior-ministry troops.
The weekend was organised by museum owner and avid military restorer and historian Grant Moreland.
The Tauwhare Military Museum is located at 1147 Victoria Rd, Hamilton, and is open by appointment.
Military re-enactors will be part of the Frankton Thunder Automotive and Community Festival, Sunday, March 14, Frankton Hamilton.
Thunder festival
The annual Frankton Thunder automotive and community festival will be held from 9.30am to 4pm, Sunday, March 14 in and around Commerce St, Frankton, Hamilton.
Chris Bass and Jakob Taylor dressed as members of the 101st Airborne. Photo / Geoff Lewis
The festival includes displays of custom, classic, special interest vehicles, club displays and motorcycles along with plenty of live entertainment, food and street stalls, photorama, Miss Frankton Thunder, burlesque, street theatre, Thunder Ink tattoo competition and Steampunk.
The supporting Frankton Thunder cruise-in and Toys for Charity event, for cars and bikes, assembles at the Cambridge raceway, from 8.30am and leaves for Frankton at 9.30am.
