Mixing it with Russian armour...GD counter attack with a Panther
Hi all, another trip down memory lane for me.
In May 2003 the GD group was invited to France to take part in a steam and military vehicle rally/show.
What made this interesting was the fact that we were told a fully working Panther from the Samur museum would be there and they needed some german re-enactors to man it….yeah right we said !
We went along just in case………..
The organisers assured us we would not be lynched for wearing german uniforms and we were ushured into a tent to change. We came out to a blur of camera flashes from the asembled crowd......and the show began !
What follows is a picture board/story of the event as we got up close and personal with some serious hardware…………..
Scene 1.
The german infantry had dug in and were holding a defensive position: Summer 1944 Lithuania
Suddenly, Alarm ! Russian tanks appear (out of the crowd)
Scene 2.
Lacking heavy weapons the infantry are unable to stop the steel monsters and they drive through their positions.
3.
The Infantry remain in their positions to engage the on coming Russian Infantry whilst the Panzer Jager take on the armour
4.
The attack is held and the Infantry re-group
5.
Counter attack………the heavy stuff arrives
6.
The infantry commander and tank crew gather for a briefing. A fleischer storch overhead grabs their attention (this did actually happen in the re-enactment!) Ignore the yank !
7.
Briefing commences
8.
The crew prepare for action and go to their stations.
(this picture is as original as you can get without being there…the panther was deployed in France 1944, the uniform is original and the person wearing it is the grandson of a GD veteran who was listed MIA in Lithuania 1944)
9
The infantry mount up
10
weapons check and then…………………to battle
That was the show all over apart from the fact that we won the best group in the show and max went and met the mayor and local bigwigs dressed in a Panzer wrap. Then just if you thought it couldn't get anymore surreal we were invited to the recruitment stand of the french foreign legion for a drink and the major insisted we stay in our panzer uniforms...................what a show.
We thought that you'll never top that an then a couple of years later we got an invite to play with a running jadgpanther.............but that's another story.....
cheers
tony
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