So what DOES make a grown man want to dress up as a Nazi at weekends?
Stung by a blitzkrieg of criticism, Britain’s eccentric army of WWII re-enactment devotees return fire
‘The German uniforms are just better’
General Dietrich’s SS stormtroopers are pitching their tents just beyond the Suffolk regiment and the 101st U.S. airborne. I bump into another chunk of the Third reich — the Panzer lehr tank division, the Das reich division of the SS and the Fallschirmjager paratroopers — parking up just beyond the burger vans and the ‘Home Front’.
It’s not just about World War II here at Military Odyssey, one of Britain’s biggest ‘living history’ events, which kicks off this morning at the Kent Showground outside Maidstone.
Several thousand re- enactment devotees will spend the whole Bank Holiday weekend on public display, reliving everything from ancient Greece to the Vietnam War, via the Crusades and the Vikings (who have turned up in strength with a full-size longboat plus Viking wives and children).
Just like at a pop festival, the public can wander between different arenas, taking in the Boer War, the american Civil War or romans versus ancient Britons as the mood may take them.
even so, it’s World War II that is the big draw. It always dominates, not least because it attracts the most ‘troops’ and has the best machinery.
There are tanks, armoured cars, half-tracks and Jeeps galore, plus two full-on battles every day (eastern Front at lunchtime; normandy 1944 later on). This year, for the first time, a Soviet Katyusha rocket launcher has turned up.
Military vehicle buffs are apparently beside themselves with excitement at the first public appearance of a German staff car which was captured by the royal engineers during the war and has finally been restored to its original state.
away from the main battlefield area, there are dozens of trade stands meeting a surging demand for vintage Forties fashion. There seem to be as many dresses as uniforms on sale.
In other words, this is one place where it really is a case of ‘DO mention the war’. except the German troops are rather down in the dumps this weekend — and not just because they end up on the losing side in normandy each teatime.
These are difficult times for German re- enactors. On Tuesday, they awoke to find themselves splattered across several front pages after the national Trust announced it was investigating the presence of nazi uniforms and memorabilia at a ‘living history’ event at lacock abbey in Wiltshire.
Of the 8,000 people who attended the event — ‘ lacock at War’ — just one made a formal complaint.
as well as being offended by the presence of German uniforms, the unhappy punter ( who apparently was reduced to tears) also alleged that an original yellow star — which Jews were forced to wear under the nazi regime — was being sold.
It later transpired that the star was part of a museum exhibition on display.
nonetheless, the national Trust felt compelled to warn the charity behind the show that this must never happen again.
‘The event was organised by the Military Vehicle Trust (MVT) and included uniforms and materials which understandably caused distress and led to a complaint,’ said a spokesman.
‘We will make it very clear to the MVT that these displays were insensitive, unacceptable and should not be repeated.’
Two days later, it emerged that netflix had just released a partmocking, part finger- wagging documentary on nazi re-enactors called Dark Tourist.
While a camera crew following an SS re- enactment group failed to unearth a hotbed of crypto-nazis, it suggested that some of those involved were a bit suspect. ‘It’s definitely not my idea of a holiday,’ said the presenter.
It’s not my idea of one either, but so what? each to their own.
So who are these part- time stormtroopers? Should we be worried or sympathetic? are some members of the public just going out of their way to be offended?
It is easy to poke fun at people in fancy dress. It is even easier to poke fun at those who dress up as villains and losers.
Yet it is pretty clear to me that the re-enactors I meet are combining the noble tradition of english eccentricity with an excuse to meet up with their chums and camp out for a few weekends each summer.
Besides, how better to spark a youthful interest in history than with a bit of role play? I can recall the first jousting display I witnessed as an 11-year-old as if it was yesterday.
It’s absurd to recreate any war situation if you don’t include the enemy. So how could anyone turn up to an event clearly billed as ‘lacock at War’, then grumble about seeing Germans?
Yet the national Trust — now notorious for its aching political correctness — has decreed that there shall be no further German presence at its World War II events.
I wonder how it will mark, say, next year’s 75th anniversary of D- Day. Perhaps those playing British and U. S. forces can fight Jedi knights or roman centurions instead.
The Germans here in Kent — all of them British — are certainly feeling unloved.
I am still intrigued, though, by what makes someone want to spend all weekend dressed as a nazi.
‘We have absolutely no politics here. If anyone starts goosestepping or making stupid salutes or remarks, they’re off the site,’ says Peter, a member of an SS re-enactment unit for the past 17 years. He is pitching his camp in a German section of the showground and is reluctant to be interviewed, saying he and his comrades have been so bruised by media ‘stings’ over the years that he is fed up with trying to make the point. But he makes it anyway: how can you tell a story, he asks, if you only tell one side of it?
Peter explains that he yields to no one in his patriotism, having spent six years in the British army, and is also part of a re-enactment group involving the Home Guard.
So why take an interest in the SS, too? ‘I am into re-enactment. They were the elite troops and they had the best kit and they had the best uniforms,’ he says.
The quality of German tailoring, it seems, has a lot to do with the popularity of being on the enemy side.
I meet engineer Darren, 47, from Oxford, setting up camp with his wife, children and another family. Between them, they represent a mortar section in a unit of luftwaffe paratroopers.
Darren — formerly of the royal air Force — says he chose the luftwaffe rather than an SS re-enactment unit ‘because of all the hassle that goes with being part of the SS’. But why go with the Germans at all?
‘I liked the idea of re-enactment and I wanted to do World War II because it’s what interests me most,’ says Darren, who does not wish to give his surname. ‘It turned out that the German kit is more widely available and much cheaper. The uniforms are better-looking and a lot more comfortable, too.’
Playing a British squaddie, he explains, involves spending hours in a scratchy one-size-fits-all cheap uniform. not so being a German.
‘Do you want to be a Tommy in an itchy wool uniform or do you want a smart uniform in a decent cloth designed by Hugo Boss?’ asks Martin Wall, 58. (The German fashion house did indeed make uniforms for the SS.)
Martin is one of very few German re- enactors willing to talk to me and admits he, too, is reluctant to
‘We don’t tolerate extremist views of any kind’
do so after the latest pummelling in the Press.
He runs a tool-hire operation in Nottingham and says he became interested in re- enactment nearly 20 years ago when a friend bought a replica Tiger tank. He then needed a replica crew to go with it.
Martin and his friends ended up forming the Kampfgruppe Stahlkrieger, replicating a motorised unit of SS Panzer grenadiers on the Russian front, fighting alongside a German tank squadron.
Since then, as well as appearing at history shows like this, they have been hired by several productions including the 2014 film Allies, a National Geographic documentary and a sketch for The Fast Show. His wife, he jokes, is quite relieved when he disappears for the occasional weekend to lead his unit up and down the country.
But why be German? What’s wrong with being Captain Mainwaring or Monty or Richard ‘Broadsword calling Danny Boy’ Burton in Where Eagles Dare?’ ‘ Everyone asks why we do Germans,’ says Martin, a tad wearily. ‘But people want to look at the bad guys. And the uniforms, the equipment, the insignia — it’s just better. It’s more interesting.’
His abiding passion, like that of most re-enactors I meet from every period of history, is authenticity. He is happy to be photographed outside his field tent with an MG34 machine gun or a mug or a tent peg, but not with the mess tin holding his cup of tea as it is historically inaccurate.
What seems pretty clear is that, deep down, it’s all about the kit.
Martin shows me some of the 30 uniforms he has amassed over the years, all painstakingly correct. ‘This is my best one,’ he says, opening a suit carrier. ‘I had it tailor-made in Singapore.’
It comes with the ribbons, Iron Cross and SS flashes his character — a lieutenant- colonel on the staff of General Dietrich’s Adolf Hitler division — would have worn. Some of his caps come from the original wartime military outfitters that still operate in Berlin, though the cap badges are made in the UK.
Selling anything resembling Nazi memorabilia may be illegal in Germany but there is plenty on sale here. This is the point at which many people, myself included, find the whole thing deeply baffling if not creepy.
Why would anyone pay good money for a badge or flag with a swastika on it? Once again, Martin says it’s all about authenticity.
He can speak in great detail about, say, the skull and crossbones regalia on his uniform, pointing out that it has nothing to do with Nazism but is a 19thcentury German cavalry tradition.
‘I want to make this very clear. We do not condone anything the Third Reich or its people did, and we do not tolerate extreme views of any kind. I can always sniff out any extremists,’ he says. ‘We don’t talk politics at all.’ That, he adds, includes Brexit.
They may be the SS but they still have a sense of humour, he says.
Martin’s group used to take part in a ‘living history’ experience on a heritage railway line in Yorkshire. ‘We used to stop the train and have a spot inspection. I’d go through the train and ask: “Have you seen this person?” and hold up a picture of Corrie’s Ken Barlow.
‘I’d say: “He’s wanted for crimes against television”.’ The railway has now disinvited all German troops, however, following a handful of complaints. Future war- themed events are to be Allies-only.
I meet the organiser of Military Odyssey, James Aslett, 45, whose family have been arranging the show for seven years. He says no one has ever complained about the presence of German uniforms or regalia — so far.
‘It’s a living history show so it would be a bit odd to take offence,’ he says. ‘But having said that, I tend to put the Germans in the less prominent part of the ground. When a young family come in, they don’t want to walk straight into the SS.’
Talking to some of the other re- enactors, all say they are happy with having German uniforms on site, though some admit they find the presence of the SS troubling.
‘I’m not entirely comfortable with that. What’s wrong with just being Wehrmacht?’ says Philip from the West Midlands, who plays an Ancient Briton.
Without the Germans, of course, there would be no show. There are 150 of them here, along with similar numbers of British and American troops, plus a contingent of Soviet soldiers — male and female — courtesy of a re-enactment team who have come all the way from Belarus (and have yet to receive a single complaint about Stalinist war crimes).
Some of the most memorable moments, though, happen after hours, long after the public have gone home.
‘You want to be in the beer tent at night,’ says Martin. ‘ Where else would you find a Viking, a Greek hoplite, a medieval knight and an SS officer all having a beer together?’