Mons - Tanks in the Town - Bastogne. 2018

**Composite** · 09-04-2018, 11:45 AM

A couple of us were fortunate enough to spend the weekend in and around the Mons area for the Tanks in Town (now "Tanks in Mons") celebrations. The whole weekend is based on the liberation of the Belgian town by the US and has taken place for many years. For us, the weekend consisted of:-

A Militaria market
A not-so-static gathering of vehicles in woods...including tank (45 Euro) and AFV rides (15 Euro)
A trip back to Bastonge...museum, memorial, Square etc
Watching the convoy travel through Cuesme (small town)
Mock Battle
Arrival and final park-up in Mons

To summarise each briefly....for anyone familiar with large Fairs (Ciney, W&P, Malvern, Detling etc) don't get your hopes up....I'd estimate there was 20-30 sellers (though no "tat", kids toys or book stalls) selling uniforms, jeep parts, and a little of everything else. The Woods part turned out to be a highlight in that there was a nice collection of vehicles (mostly tracked), very little "policing" (I doubt it could happen like that in the UK!), vehicle rides (Leopard was a must for us) and the highlight was a totally out-of-place Bradley Fighting Vehicle....obviously from another time BUT one doesn't often get the opportunity to see one of these let alone climb aboard....the crew were charming and seemed to be lapping up the this-is-what-it'll-look-like-next-time feeling. Bastogne was....errr....well....Bastogne...tank in the square, huge and deeply moving memorial, and Museum etc. Cuesme was a classic little town through which poured soft-skins for starters and, once the motorbike ridden Hi-Vis brigade had closed roads, the heavy stuff rolled in....very little fencing, quite casual but very impactful. The heavy stuff then parked up for around 30 mins allowing one to walked amongst them and then they rolled off out of the top of the square - this part of the event seems to differ as folk were saying that in previous years an adjoining car park was the holding area for the soft skins but this year they came straight through. Then off to the "Battle"....and if you're a regular at the Victory Show in the UK don't get your hopes up at all.....there appeared to have been no pre-event set up and virtually everything took place that afternoon.....so 2-3 hours of digging, hammering, chatting...and then a 20 minute attack....probably great for the kids and always sweet to see armour "in the wild" but Saving Private Ryan it ain't!....'tho it's a nice filler. And finally (for us at least) onto Mons for THE highlight......big green metal things rumbling through relatively narrow cobbled streets lined with folk (who get showered in "candy" from the vehicles)...and then into the Square for display.

There's usually a display of Amphibious vehicles on the lake (the Big Large.....don't ask) but we seem to have missed that bit. It was nice to see 98% of those riding the vehicles in period dress and not garish modern clothes that ruin any photos...and, unlike a lot of UK shows, no Pirate Flags or any other out-of-place banners flying from aerials etc.....and it was great to see a current serving US soldier peering out of the turret of an M4 during the battle AND the drive into Mons...whilst his colleagues lapped up the welcome in their street-filling Bradley. I was very surprised at the small number of "civilian" re-enactors....members of the public in the crowds dressed to match the period...I don't know why but I was kinda expecting the "locals" to go dress-up crazy but I obviously misjudged that....we did find a couple of beautifully turned-out period-clad stocking-flashing ladies...who turned out to be visiting Brits!...good for them!!

A great weekend...the clash with the Victory Show in the UK may have impacted the vehicle count (I've seen old photos of the Square brimming with heavy metal) and I suspect the attraction of taking a 35 ton tracked vehicle up the M1 a lot more cost effective that shipping it to Belgium...BUT the collection of various events was well worth the trip (and remember, there will have been other linked events going on which we couldn't get to).

Overall highlights?......tearing through a forest in a Leopard.....experiencing heavy armour rumbling through cobbled streets lined with welcoming folk....and finally, the Bradley...totally out of place, wrong period, wrong colour, wrong camo uniforms for the period BUT charming, polite crew with an absolutely awesome bit of rarely seen kit.

Right, now the pics...these are gonna take some time to present....so I'll do them in batches....first the Fair, then the Woods...then Bastogne. Then Cuesmes, the battle, the Streets and the square.

The Fair:-

Mons - Tanks in the Town - Bastogne. 2018

**Composite** · 09-04-2018, 11:51 AM

The Woods

**Composite** · 09-04-2018, 11:58 AM

Back to the Bastogne museum....it's unusual to have all the mannequins lying down :-)

**greatwhite** · 09-04-2018, 12:01 PM

Fantastic that, thank you, lots of m1 pots in the dealers section, a weak spot for me.

**Composite** · 09-04-2018, 12:03 PM

Cuesmes:-

...obviously the weather helped!

**Composite** · 09-04-2018, 12:08 PM

The Battle.....

...at this point I should point out that as a result of the combination of very dry straw and pyrotechnics a number of the SS became Trumpton Fire Brigade re-enactors as they stamped out the flames before they did any more damage!