Steaming into the past.

Train enthusiasts are a funny lot.. said the history enthusiast who dresses up at the weekend.

Tracks to the trenches at the Apedale light railway just outside Stoke-on-Trent was the third and final event centred on the role of light gauge railways and steam power in the Great war.

 A number of living history groups were on hand to add colour and atmosphere to the weekend. including myself as 'The only German in the village' though I did have some allied (Austro-Hungarian) Bosniaks to support, who due to their fezes are constantly asked if they are Turkish. The 14th Olonetsky regiment (Russians) would provide the core of our 1914-21 group which focuses on the war in the East. Trying to read up more really brought home how much attention is paid to the British experience on the Western front and overlooking Russia, Poland, Serbia, the Italian front, Syria, Greece, even the Dardanelles with British and commonwealth forces is quite a drop off from the number of books on the Somme.

Several things I learnt this weekend:

1)  How to get an eighteen pounder field gun off the back of a carriage with wheel ramps, ropes and chocs.

2: How to engage in a portaloo with a belted, accoutrement laden tunic over a pair of braces attached to trousers under that tunic.

3: Not to drink tea from an aluminium cup, as the heat will firstly transfer into the metal making it too hot to hold and then dissipate leaving you with a tepid cup of tea.

From experience of being French  I had expected a few people to ask 'Why are you German?' but in fact this never happened, maybe a lot of the public really have taken on the idea that it was a terrible war with out an enemy, without hate, at least to our current generation. I would like to think so.

 Instead I was asked a few times 'If your a medic why do you have a gun?'  The Geneva convention does actually stipulate that medical personnel can carry a weapon for self defence although most countries never did so the Germans often did as part of the duties in looking after/saving the wounded, including to defend them against any crazed enemies who might be keen on bayonetting the wounded.

'Die werwundeten kommen immer zuerst'.

The wounded always come first.

Various sized trains were also on display with various sized great war themes and looked at by various sized people.

Early afternoon each day it was our turn to man the trenches, mainly as a display as the public were free to wander through although there were a few odd shots fired off and a couple of simulated gas attacks during the day. Whilst here on the first day I made a mental note of the nice little dug out as a place to kip later.

It was quite an experience to go riding on a few steam trains, big and small, just clinging to an eight foot long flatbed or in an open-sided cattle box, just enjoyable to look out the door up and down the track. It's another thing you would never get to do if you weren't one of the reenactors, you are trusted not to fall out the door, unlike the general public.

It was quite a relaxed weekend, Great war re-enactment does indeed include staged battles rather like Napoleonics or other periods but therein there is more colour and spectacle of formation charges, lines wheeling, musket vollies, cannons firing over open sights, horses charging etc..  but less often it seems, doubtless in part due to the nature of the war and the terrain and the current hundred year commemorations. Living history is prevalent which concentrates on more static displays and engaging with the public.

Roll on next month! but in the meantime it will be back to 1812 and invading.. Wales.