Uniform ban is detrimental

I was dismayed to read the comment by Nick Brodrick with regards to the annual military event staged at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway and banning German uniforms from the stations on these occasions (SR479). It’s what people come to see.

This event has been running very successfully for years. What sort of a feeble society are we becoming when this happens?

You question the basis for parading in German uniforms around the country. Well it’s an historical event isn’t it? Do we also ban civil war re-enactments?

I totally disagree with this and believe it will be more detrimental to the event and the railway than allowing them as before. The fact that German soldiers were only on the mainland as prisoners of war is irrelevant and of no consequence.

What is relevant, however, is to show generations after that period in history what the military of all sides looked like for added realism. I see no harm in that, unless we have all turned into snowflakes.

Why is it so offensive? We see them on film, and it’s history now for goodness sake. If anyone thinks they might take offence then they should simply not go to the event. It’s a shame the NYMR doesn’t realise this.

David Mellor, by email

There is an important difference in terms of accurate historic portrayals between the ground battles that took place during the English Civil War and the Second World War: the English Civil War was fought in... England. Ed