Last weekend was the Conneaut D-Day event. This was my 6th year participating and as it does every year, it just keeps getting bigger and better.
Conneaut continues to be the pinnacle of a WWII living history event in the United Sates, and it's really an honor to participate as a reenactor. Early estimates were over 40,000 spectators this year.
If you are close to Conneaut, Ohio in the middle of August and have even the slightest chance to see this event, I can't recommend it enough. It's literally like stepping back in time.
But I have been poking around Ebay looking at vintage camera's that are non-functioning and thinking of ways I can get my phone inside so I can finally take photos myself. So stayed tuned for that : )
The biggest spectacle continues to be the beach invasion. This year had 4 Higgins boats and a Dukw bringing in Allied troops to storm the beaches.
The beach is sectioned off into five "alley's", one for each of the beaches stormed on June 6th.
So many more demonstrations were added this year that for the first time the event took place over three days as opposed to the usual two.
The aircraft are simply amazing to watch in person, and it's crazy how low to the deck they actually get!
The 88 was back and impressive as ever!
The attention to detail in the German camps was amazing.
The French resistance battles are slowly becoming some of my favorite things to watch. I have stopped participating in the Airborne battles as running around doesn't suit me much anymore.
A bit disappointed I've yet to see any photos of our Allies versus Axis soccer match as that is always a fun part of the event for me, but none the less we won again this year 6-4.
I am going to do one more post in the near future about the event - I was given all the letters written home of my great uncle who was killed in Normandy of July of 1944 and I saved those letters to read during the event. It was an incredibly humbling experience to say the least, and quite emotional. I want to write something about the letters for my family so I think the blog will be the easiest way to do that, as opposed to just an word document in an email to everyone, then I can have photos and even maps attached. This photo was sent to me by a lady named Naomi who came all the way from West Virginia to see the event - she snapped this photo of me reading one of the letters while I was unaware, which is the only way to take a photo of me! I think I've finally gotten used to people asking to take photos at the event, but honestly I will never be comfortable with it. She was nice enough to send me a copy of the photo : )
Ivor
