Wednesday 28 August 2013

Military Odyssey 2013

My two week 'stay-cation' has finally come to an end and I am now back at work for a bit of a rest! Our last big day out was on Monday - a public holiday here in the UK - with a visit to the Military Odyssey show at the Kent County Showground in Detling. I didn't go to this event last year and its been a couple of years since the rest of the family went so we were all looking forward to seeing how this years event shaped up. Fortunately the ground had dried up after the monsoon like rain we had on Saturday and the sun came out for a glorious last day of my vacation. 

The show seemed a little quieter this year with fewer reenactors and traders present, although that may just have been a reaction to the terrible weather on Saturday. I was still able to pick up a couple of books and we got round most of the displays and trade stands by lunchtime, meaning we had the whole afternoon to sit by the main arena and watch some excellent battle displays. As always I went camera in hand and here are a selection of pictures from this years show.

Military Odyssey covers a wide range of periods
ACW Union Drill display
RC Tiger Tank by Armour Tek
WWI British 'Tommys' marched out of the main arena
The American Civil War  re-enactment was good but there weren't many troops in the field. 
Confederate artillery moves forward as the front line shifts
A Rebel charge!
English Civil War - Royalist forces advance
Push of Pike
The Royalists unleash a devastating Swedish 'salvee' against the Parliamentarian forces. 
The WWII battle re-enactment started with the capture of an American GMC truck by German infantry in disguise
Piper Cub reconnaissance plane scans the German positions
Fellow Reject 'Smiffy' leading a squad of Fallschirmjäger on the arena 
A replica Sturmgeschütz and Panzer IV move into action
The Grace Spitfire put in a stunning display of aerobatics over the battlefield
German infantry advance towards the Allies
Highly mobile Jeep and half-track borne infantry deploy against the Germans
Air superiority enables the Allied troops to 'win' this re-enactment
The good weather on Monday made this a very enjoyable day combining a little bit of shopping, some activities for the kids and the battle displays in the afternoon. All in all not a bad way to end my two weeks off work.

12 comments:

  1. The joy of the show is that you usually get to see a very wide variety of re-enactment groups everything from pre-Roman to Post Modern. Usually an excellent show I missed it this year but as an ex-re-enactor I usually tend to catch up on gossip there from people I know. Still always good to see some photos of 2BG, Soskan and the congealed snot!

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    1. The variety of groups present makes this a good show for the family because there is something to interest everyone. There were several 'attractions' aimed at kids as well as plenty of living history camps showing off all sorts of period related activities, not just the military side of things.

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  2. great photos as usual Lee. I went last year and had a really good chat with the WW1 re en-actors and was allowed to hold a Lewis gun (my grandfather was a Lewis gunner in WW1)I think there are now so many shows (I think the WW2 Germans have occupied Kent for the whole summer hope we are relieved soon!) that attendance gets diluted plus Detling can be a nightmare due to weather.

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    1. I dread to think what the site was like on Saturday during the worst of the rainfall but the ground was relatively dry by Monday. Its not as bad as the old War and Peace show site at the Hop farm which would turn into a mud bath at the first sign of rain.

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  3. That looked cool Lee, thanks for sharing. For some reason the Pike scrum looked fun to me.

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  4. Looks like a really excellent day out.

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  5. What can I say..... WOW WOW WOW!!!... :-)

    Marzio.

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  6. I gotta go with fogsoldiers here.WOW, what a great outing.

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  7. Nice GMC photo Lee :)

    As a self confessed GMC anorak I can advise that what you see there is a GMC CCKW 352, an early hard-cab variant. This is the short-wheel based version (21 inches shorted than a 353 version) which constituted only 10% of the production run. It is likely there are no more than about 40 of this particular version (352 Hard-cab) in the country.

    Its primary role was that of an artillery tractor. The clearly distinguishing feature is the two spare wheels behind the cab (so called mickey mouse ears) which is unique to the 352.

    Keep well, and well done with what is an excellent blog.

    Ian

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  8. Great pics Lee!, Nice to see Smiffy in action too!

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  9. Have been to this for few years... looks like it was a good (and dry!) day out!!

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  10. Looks like an awesome event. Thanks for sharing some of what you saw.
    cheers

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