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Secret City Festival to feature World War II re-enactment

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Secret City Festival World War II Re-enactment 2015

A Flak 88 firing during a Battle of Normandy re-enactment at the 2015 Secret City Festival in Oak Ridge. (Photo by Rob Welton)

 

The Secret City Festival next week will feature a World War II re-enactment.

The re-enactment of the Battle of Bloody Gulch will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 11, at Alvin K. Bissell Park in central Oak Ridge. It’s presented by NSPS, or National Strategic Protective Services.

Here is some of the equipment scheduled to be involved, according to a press release:

  • Returning from the 2015 reenactment, the only fully live firing German Flak 88 in the United States, which will perform firing demonstrations.
  • Authentic Allied vehicles including jeeps, armored halftracks, scout cars, and anti-tank artillery.
  • Authentic Axis vehicles including a German Stug III Ausf G assault tank, Panzer III command tank, a Sd. Kfz 251 halftrack, and a M3 Antitank Gun just to name a few.
  • Static display pieces include a 1940 Ford 20mm gun truck with gun, a Russian 1944 T34 main battle tank, a 1943 British 25 pound field howitzer with limber, and more.
  • Re-enactors representing American infantry, German Wehrmacht, assault troops, Fallschirmjagers, and more.

[Read more…]

Battle of Normandy World War II reenactment at Secret City Festival this year

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Flak 88 Weapon Firing

The only live firing Flak 88 (German anti-aircraft weapon) in the United States is pictured above. (Submitted photo)

The time is June 1944. After more than four years of German occupation, the Allies have launched the invasion of “fortress Europe” as part of history’s largest combined amphibious and aerial assault. The tide of the war has started to change, but in these early days of combat nothing is certain.

Step back in time and experience the sights and sounds of frontline combat on the western front during World War II and learn about the men and women who helped ensure the Allied victory that shaped the world we live in today. See the uniforms, equipment and vehicles that were part of the world’s largest conflict in action. Come and experience one of the largest groupings of authentic World War II vehicles and equipment in the south! Tour period military encampments, inspect authentic period vehicles and weaponry, and learn more about what the life of a soldier was like during the war.

You can see all this and more during the 2015 Secret City Festival in Oak Ridge on June 13. The festival is at Alvin K. Bissell Park and the Oak Ridge Civic Center. [Read more…]