Counter Strike
Yanks Living History group was formed back in 1997 & our first display was at the MVT national show, then held at Berkeley Castle , Gloucestershire. We had two tents, one Jeep, a few weapons & 5 members!
Now, into our ninth display season, we have four Jeeps on the road, (with another three in rebuild), a Harley-Davidson WLA, a 3/4 ton Dodge Weapons Carrier & a 3/4 ton Dodge ambulance. In addition, our tentage collection has grown alarmingly, consisting now of two 15 x 15 tents, a 15 x 15 awning, three 9 x 9 tents, a bell tent and around a dozen or so 'pup' tents.
Our membership has grown to 14 and we now specialise in a static display, showing the development of US army uniforms, equipment, webbing, weapons, medical and communications kit during WW2, rather than concentrating a focus on a single, particular unit.
We typically set up two or three of the 9 x 9's, under camouflage, as a command post, message centre & duty tent respectively. The CP has period pattern tables, chairs, maps, documents, lamps & typewriter, even period magazines, while the MC has a working 12 line field telephone exchange & examples of the 'walkie-talkie' & 'handy-talkie' radios. The exchange can be linked to seven working field telephones. A new addition has been the provision of period ‘sound' for the radios, consisting of a morse code message describing the display, genuine combat radio exchanges & other evocative broadcasts. Our small aid-post now also has its own ‘ad hoc' shelter.
An impression of an encampment is added, using a combination of pup tents and either the awning, which is used as a mess tent, or the bell tent, or both, as space allows. We usually work in an area 30ft deep by 50ft wide, but our display is flexible enough to fit in to a smaller area if required. The display is further complimented with a sandbagged, emplaced 60mm mortar position, complete with inert ammunition, scattered small arms ammunition crates, displays of medical supplies, anti-tank weapons, deactivated small arms as used in WW2 & a display of army rations & cooking equipment. Sandbags, angle stakes & fake barbed wire compliment our display.
Group members generally wear a range of US army WW2 uniforms & combat gear to show the various clothing & equipment issued to personnel. We have also turned out as airborne troops, infantry, military police & Army Air Force ground crew at previous events, as a result of particular requests.
In a departure from the norm, we have also taken part in US forces veteran reunions and we have provided a guard of honour for memorial dedications.
While it is near impossible for us to display every vehicle in the group at any one show, (due to some members owning more than one each), we typically bring a couple of Jeeps, the weapons carrier & the ambulance. We camp 'on site' in the display tentage, concealing any modern camping equipment behind canvas screens or camouflage. We have won national awards in past seasons for our display & we regularly work with three professional historical event production companies.
Members of our group have appeared in TV programmes over recent years & group members have taken many of the vehicles and our encampment to Normandy for the 55th & 60th anniversaries of the D-Day landings.
We are always looking for new & exciting venues to take our display to , so if you are an event organiser, looking for our type of presentation, please contact us.
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