I have a fairly broad interest in history although it tends to concentrate on the black powder period, then last year some friends and I went on a road trip to the Ardennes and back, including Liege, Bastogne, Arras and Cambrai. Many of these were scenes of particular World war one battles and there were a couple of great museums. My interest in the great war picked up. Then early this year another trip to around Ypres, with similar sites, the ball was rolling...
Great war re-enactment..
But what army? what group? where are good places to buy kit?
I knew I didn't want to do British because there are so many groups doing that in the UK I imagined the scene needed more diversity.. Belgian? I liked the idea of plucky Belgium but would I be a regiment of one? A brief google didn't turn any groups up but should that matter? I could tag myself on to an allied group at events but in practical terms its useful being in a group as you are covered by insurance and event organisers generally go through a group. German? I can speak a little German and am quite a Germanophile and there would certainly be groups, plus I already owned a Feldmutze (cap) that was bought on a whim.. its a start!
Groups tend to have reputations, for great authenticity, or lack of same, for comradeship, for thinking they are actually the real army, for being too dry, for being too drunk! I needed to do some research, I asked some friends into WWI living history and all suggested 'The 1914-21 society' as a good bet.
They do not portray one unit but concentrate on the Eastern theatre so have Russians from the great war and Russian civil war that followed, Austrians, including Bosniaks and mountain troops, and Germans.. all tempting but I'd started down the German path and the gear looked easier to get right on my own as the Austrian stuff in particular was very bespoke. After my American civil war experience and talk with Ian (i.e. e-mail) I liked very much that they invited people to do whatever role they wanted.
Lochnagar crater.
So something that was a little more individual but would still see me on the battlefield/in the trenches.. Medical services came to mind. Part of being German was because every country suffered that got pulled into the war, which I consider 'The last argument of kings' and me today would not really have wanted to fight a massive war because Franz-Josef has a grudge with little Serbia.. but I would like to help people out.. Krankentrager.. stretcher bearer/medic it was. I would basically be a called up reservist from the landsturm who volunteered for the medical service attached to the battalion. I would also be Saxon.
The German army despite unification still had divisions and separate uniforms (well variations) for most of the German states like Bavaria, Wurtemburg, etc. The Saxons had a reputation as being easy going and keen to start unofficial truces, which often annoyed the Prussians who took the fighting lark far more seriously. Despite the stereotype of the major powers the German army soon became one of the most rag tag, partly due to shortages, but also seldom enforced things like shaving regulations, so no one could say I had a wrong beard.
Soon it was all coming together, tunic, trousers, cap, boots (early war brown), breadbag, canteen, wire cutters, cutlery set.. picklehaube.. the spiked helmet of the early war.. with a separate plate for Saxony. The only things I couldn't find were the right size mess tin (googling for WWI German annoyingly mixes results with WWII German and items that are not specified as either, beware!), a tornister backpack and a Saxon belt buckle.. my current one is from Wurtemburg but you'd have to get pretty close to notice, shhhHH!
Early or late war is a consideration, most pictures of the group showed the German contingent as early war so I'd gone with that.. but what if events were meant to be strickly 1916-18? A steel helmet and gasmask/case followed.
I also found Saxon tunics have two buttons on the cuff instead of three, you cannot buy tunics tailored like that so for now due to supply problems I have been issued with a standard three button version, don't you know there is a war on?
My personal impression was growing, why did I speak good English? well in 1913 a full 10% of restaurant and hospitality staff in London were German, an area of the East end was known as German town, even before the war the Daily Mail was railing against the number of foreign devils taking British jobs (coming over here and waiting our tables!) and printing fictional stories about fiendish hun spies (or Austrians, or Italians, anyone really...) which would add to the hysteria when war actually came. So there you are I was a waiter who saw the writing on the wall and returned to my native Leipzig in my last year of being liable for the reserves (age 45) and found myself in the army.
Now I just needed an event to go to...
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