Our adventures at D-DAY CONNEAUT - WOOHOO!

Road trip! Packed to the gills we begin the 10+ hour drive to the shore of Lake Erie for our second ever D-Day Conneaut! So grateful to also be meeting up with some of our dearest friends to share the experience!   

First stop - a free ride in a Higgins boat. Those are 2 of our kids in the masks. These shallow draft boats were made of plywood and allowed soldiers to be released up and down the beaches, instead of only at ports. Hello, Operation Neptune.

 

The Sipes + the Mattias are the sailors in the front of the boat - minus Max who would rather be paradropped in, in the middle of the night, behind enemy lines, than arrive anywhere by boat.  ;) 

From there it was hard to choose where to go next. Here the kids overlook the extensive area where the Allies will re-enact the landings/battles of Normandy on the 6th of June 1944. The battleground stretched even further to the west, plenty of room for the 1500 reenactors to each play their part. 

Everyone stayed in character throughout the weekend, including hand digging trenches in the extreme heat wearing authentic wool uniforms.  

The Vermessung und Karten Abteilung 61 are a dedicated group who portray the German surveying and mapping detachments of WWII.  Here an officer explains one of the many ways his men mapped the foreign countryside. 

And not just men, map making was one of the jobs considered safe for women, doing their part far behind the front lines.  

Taking a break from chatting with the enemy, Jack + Luca learn some of the tactics used by the French Resistance. We were all incredibly curious about their authentic gear, like that sweet radio + all the cookware, wines, canteens, guns, grenades + other weapons pilfered from the enemy.  Not to mention the very simple tent set ups (where reenactors actually lived for the event.)

Near the French we met this incredibly knowledable, kick ass member of the Polish Resistance, the largest ungerground resistance group in all of occupied Europe.  She stepped out of character to teach us a little of the Katyn massacre, in which the Soviets mass murdered 22,000 Polish officers and POWs.  So many emotional moments throughout the weekend.

The allies spent months in England practicing all of the tactics they'd need on landing, including mortar firing, complete with a demo of how they handled duds.  

They also demo'ed this 1903 Springfield, the 1928 Thompson, a 1919 machine gun, and, of course, the M1 Garand.

Of all the camps, the Russians seemed to have the most fun in their down time.  Singing + dancing and making the most of life.  

I am still not 100% sure what the role of the Cossacks was, as I believe many also fought on the side of Nazi Germany, but the ones in this camp seemed to celebrate their Russian and Ukrainian heritage.  

Gear lying around the Russian camp

Through the night all over the northern coast of France, groups of Airborne soldiers linked up and proceeded upon their objectives to cut off major intersections and hold cross roads leading from the beaches so that the landing troops could mobilize inland. Here,  American Airborne reenactors take on the mission of securing the area for the landing teams. 

Here, a German pioneer fights loaded down with gear.  Tank mines protecting the bridge in the background.

French Resistance: 1, German pioneers: 0

Germans placing anti-vehicle mines and then setting the charges to blow the brige entirely:

A group of French resistance coordinating with a British Special Forces Officer.  

Panzer 1, short for Panzerkampfwagen +

abbreviated as PzKpfw I, was a light tank produced in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. 

The Germans were generous with extensive Q+A's and demonstrations of the MG 42 + Kar 98K.  I learned how powerful blanks are.  They loaded one into a Kar 98K, screwed on a rifle grenade cup, put a 3D printed representation of an explosive and fired it upwards of 200 mts onto the beach.  

 Czech hedgehogs (named after their origin) are static anti-tank obstacle defenses made of metal angle beams + were part of the German defenses of the Atlantic Wall. Apparently, the Allies would take them + attach the metal to the front of their tanks, earning them the name rhinos for their metal tusks.  (Next time, Luca wants to bring hedgehogs to contribute to the beach. Hey, it's tax deductible so maybe?) 

Luca excitedly posing in the Sd.Kfz.251 or Sonderkraftfahrzeug 251 (which just means Special Vehicle + is commonly referred to as a Half Track) was was designed to transport the Panzergrenadier (German mechanized infantry) into battle. Sd.Kfz. 251s were the most widely produced German half-tracks of the war, with at least 15,252 vehicles produced.

LZ with a Canadian soldier. Notice that in his ammo pouch he included a machine gun magazine, even though he doesn't carry a machine gun. In WWI, the British found that the machine gun was so vital that in WWII each soldier carried a machine gun magazine to give to the gunner, if needed.  The German soldiers also told us that the machine gun was so essential that if it got damaged at your hands (like not changing out the barrel every 2000 shots or if you fired in bursts larger than 5 - 7) the penalty could be death.  (Caveat: the 5-7 burst rule was rescinded during the landings.)

Max absolutely could not pass up an opportunity to talk to a soldier about why, as a German, he had a Beretta in his kit.  

With the Wehrmacht's control of northern Italy, the Germans seized Beretta and continued producing arms until the 1945 German surrender in Italy. After World War II, Beretta was actively involved in repairing the American M1 Garands given to Italy by the U.S

The green sign indicates the 1st Armored Division of the Polish in the West.  The black and white image is the badge of the Division, which is inspired by the armour of the Winged Hussars,  an elite heavy cavalry formation active in Poland from 1503 to 1702. (Also a fantastic song by Sabaton, just for the record 😉 )

M1 155 mm Long Tom

Stuart light tank

Sherman Tank.  I learned that there was an amphibious version that used propellors in water and tracks on land and was used on all 5 beaches of the Normandy landings. When we came to D-Day Conneaut last time we got to ride in Lake Erie and up onto her shores in an amphibious landing vehicle, known as a Water Buffalo or LVT, for Landing Vehicle Tracked.  Can you believe this a free event put on by volunteers?

Allies preparing for the battle of the beach landings:

Higgins boats delivering soldiers:

  In real life it was exceedingly more harrowing.  They'd disembark where the water would be up to soldiers' waists and higher, causing their extensive gear to get waterlogged and even heavier.  German's didn't expect the landings to happen here, but were prepared up and down the Atlantic Wall and picked soldiers off in horrifying numbers.  The tide ran red as the various companies attempted landings.  I'm glad for the sanitized version seen here as the reality breaks my heart + leaves me in mourning. 

 😢

Douglas C 47 Skytrain or Dakota:

Around 13,100 American paratroopers of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions made night parachute drops out of C 47 Skytrains early on D-Day, June 6, alongside 7,000 British paratroopers. 3,937 glider troops were flown in by day.  This year at Conneaut you could buy a ticket to fly in one of these planes over the battle, which I imagine was quite the amazing experience.  

This was the 3rd day of them reenacting the invasion and the furthest the Germans had made it.  But clearly the Allies are energized as the run toward their targets (spoiler alert: the Allies are going to kick their butts!):

The Germans using the halftrack during the actual invasion reenactment.

Allies lending a hand to each other during the advance.

I am going to share 3 videos in a row of moments toward the end of the battle. I like them because they show the medics so in character, which I find adds so much to the experience. I also LOVE when the Americans force the German surrender by the half track:  

Excuse the crappy videography in part of this  next one - it was SO ridiculously exciting to see the huge push of Allies who finally made it to the bottom of the hill + are gathering to run up and take the German bunker at the top.  I am a pacifist and truly struggle with war as a solution. And I know there is a lot of talk about how our country didn't do more, earlier.  But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled to tears each day watching the Allies defeat the Germans, knowing this lead to the liberation of France. When our family went to Normandy a few years ago, the stories + the gratitude of the people were so painfully moving:

On a lighter note: after each day's invasion people would run out onto the beach and collect souvenier shell casings, stripper clips, and M1 Garand clips. The beach is enormous and 1500 people just reenacted a chaotic invasion. Somehow LZ finds a small sliver of wood + decides it is from the stock of one of the thousands of guns at the event.  Not only that, but that he is going to find the owner.  It was the end of the day + I convinced him to wait + try the next day.  At some point the next afternoon he decides to go check in with the Germans, but just outside their camp he decides to change course and walk to the Russian one, where everyone is sitting + enjoying a meal along along wall.   As we walk by soldier after soldier, I suggest, a few times, that LZ inquire with one of the men. As we walk past PPSh after SVT-40 (after Mosin Nagant after Kar98AZ...) I suggest he compare his piece of stock to any one of dozens of guns. But, eventually he finds a soldier he feels like asking, explains the story, and says, "the wood looks curved in a way that I think it would fit right here on this part," and reaches down to demonstrate on a gun lying nearby + holy forking cow - it is the exact gun the piece is from!  The guy's eyes bulge and he starts calling out for Jonathan, the owner of the gun.  As word spreads through camp you can see each guy's eyes light up with disbelief as they stand up + say, "oh my god, someone found the piece to Jonathan's gun?" EVERYONE knew it was sadly missing after the previous day's battle + none of us could actually believe they'd been reunited.  Not only had Luca seen the piece amongst all the flotsam and jetsom of the huge beach, + recognized it as a special sliver of wood, but then found the owner on the very.first.try!  It was such a wild + happy experience.  

The gun with its missing piece of stock.

LZ + a very happy Jonathan.

The entire camp came together and asked Luca to join them for a meal and to chat.  They were so appreciative and kind - I really liked this regiment - from their dancing + singing to their absolute friendliness - they were a great group.  

Here are the ubiquitous lego minifigs who go everywhere with us + get into all sorts of situations.  I hope they appreciate my lengths of fine alpaca yarn for scaling their imaginary Pointe du Hoc cliffs to take out the German bunkers + guns.  

And, finally, your moment of Toby zen:

Toby, sadly, couldn't travel with us.  However, he received amazing + loving care from our dear friend, Lizzie, who was a total lifesaver and sent us sweet pics of Toby throughout his days.  My Mom + Aunt also made a point of loving on him extra, too.  

If you made it this far I am truly blown away!  Thanks for sharing in our adventures at D-Day Conneaut, and for being our friends.  Much love to each of you 💖