Special Cobra Edition - The Colorado Military Historical Group · Special Cobra Edition . 2 Battleground Dispatches ... - 82nd Airborne ... Kevin’s book is about Don Rich and the

Volume 3,

No 1 Newsletter of the Colorado Military History Group

Spring

2016

Battleground Dispatches

Special Cobra Edition

2


Table of Contents

Cover Photo: German Assault,

American Armor, Operation

Mountain Victory II

-Inside Cover: Officers, Order

of Battle

-Officers Call

-Editor’s Note

-Unit Pages

- 9th ID

- The British Reconnaissance Corps

- 101st Airborne

- 82nd Airborne

- Kampfgruppe Von Treskow

- Kampfgruppe Von Rybus

-The Hobo Roll

-2nd Armored Breakout 2014

-Operation Cobra

-CMHG Calendar

-CMHG SOP Changes

CMHG Address

Colorado Military Historical Group

PO Box 76422, Colorado Springs, CO. 80970

CMHG Website

http://cmhg.net

Allies

K Company, 39th Inf. Reg., 9th ID David Dantzler

[email protected]

C Company, 504th PIR, 82nd Airborne Div. Ron LiButti

[email protected]

G Company, 327th Glider Inf. Reg., 101st Airborne Div.

Mike Foster

[email protected]

6th Guards Motorized Reg., 1st Guards Moscow Motorized Div.

Jon Ainsworth

[email protected]

The British Reconnaissance Corps Martin Kinney

[email protected]

Axis

Kampfgruppe Von Treskow Scott Chartier

[email protected]

Kampfgruppe Von Rybus

Kurt Septon

The Colorado Military Historical Group is a Non-profit Educational/Historical Organization with

Headquarters in Colorado. The Colorado Military Historical Group is not part of, nor does it approve, support,

or condone any paramilitary, survivalist, extremist or racist group. It does not advocate for political influence

or disseminate political propaganda of any kind.

ATTENTION © All material in this publication is Copyrighted Reprints are by written permission only.

mailto:[email protected]



3


Newsletter of the Colorado Military History Group

Officers Call

Commander

Hello CMHG Members!

Welcome to our 6th year as an organization!

We’ve come a long way in that time, and I’m ex-

cited to see where we will go this year.

This is the NEW Battleground Dispatches.

Many thanks to Steven Adams for stepping up to

put together this newsletter. I hope this proves

to be a valuable resource for all of our members.

Please encourage your fellow members to submit

articles, reviews and photos to the newsletter.

Remember, the more you put into it, the more you

get out of it. That said, many thanks also to

Frank Scholer, who was the editor of the original

BD. Frank laid a great foundation on which Ste-

ven can build.

In 2015, we hosted our second national

event, Operation Mountain Victory II. With over

100 participants, and more armored vehicles and

planes than you can shake a panzerfaust at, the

event was a smash hit! Not only that, we’re now

an internationally recognized group! One partici-

pant traveled from Canada to participate. The

event was highly praised, and other reenacting

groups across the country are already gearing up

for our next event. If you haven’t seen the pho-

tos our friend PJ McTaggart took at the event,

you can find those photos on the CMHG web page.

Besides OMVII, the CMHG kept busy this

year, attending 11 events throughout the year.

From memorials and parades to skirmishes and tac-

ticals, our members showed up in force at each

event. Thanks to everyone who participated this

last year! We have a packed event schedule for

2016, with at least one event each month. There

are plenty of opportunities to take to the field

this year, so I hope to see each of you at at

least one event. Many of these events are out-of

-state, and I hope that a handful of CMHG members

can make it to each one. These events are great

opportunities for us to make new contacts and

friends across the reenacting community.

In this issue of BD, you’ll find a list of

the SOP changes voted on at this year’s annual

meeting. We had some great discussion about the

future of the group at the meeting, and I feel

these changes reflect that future.

Thanks,

Sam Iven

CMHG CO

9th ID XO

Executive Officer

No Article Submitted

Executive Officer, CMHG

Ron LiButti

Adjutant

No Article Submitted

Adjutant, CMHG

Matt Burchette

Finance Officer

The financial status of the Colorado Mili-

tary Historical Group is solvent and excel-

lent. Income for the Group includes member dues,

compensation for supporting events with a link to

military history, and donations from the pub-

lic. In return, the Group supports military

charities through out the year, such as The Home

Front Cares, 4ID Museum, Honor Flights, etc. Al-

so, we transitioned from a 501c(4) to a 501c(3),

which better fit our Group's mission.

Finance Officer, CMHG

Jon Ainsworth

Honor and Educate

4



Editors Note

Hello CMHG, as the new editor of the

awesome and epic Battleground Dispatches I

wanted to introduce myself to everyone and

to give an idea of what I’m wanting to do

with it. I’m still fairly new re-enacting,

having only done it for about two years now.

I am a history major currently working on

getting a licensure in secondary social

studies education. The main thing is that I

have a love for history, and re-enacting is

a way for me to connect with it. I love

learning about every aspect of soldier’s

lives in the multitude of wars this earth

has experienced, in particular WWII.

As for the newsletter I want everyone

to feel like they own a piece of it. To that

end I want to put out a call to you as mem-

bers of the CMHG to submit your own articles

related to reenacting or WWII. It can be a

review of a movie, a how-to article like

what you’ll find in this edition, an article

about some point or battle from the war,

tips or tricks, or other information that

can help your fellow members improve their

own impressions.

This is what I want to do with this

newsletter, and I’m all of you will help me

out in some way. With that in mind I hope

you enjoy the rest of this, the newest edi-

tion of Battleground Dispatches!

Steven Adams

Editor

9th Infantry

Division,

39th Infantry

Regiment, K Company

Hello King Company! It’s

nice to see Battleground Dispatches back in

print! 2015 was a great year with a lot of

events, and 2016 is shaping up to be just as

busy. Marc England successfully completed

two years as the 9th ID commander and I was

voted in at the annual meeting with Sam Iven

as the executive officer (XO), Mel Romero

1st Squad leader, Lew Ladwig 1st Squad, as-

sistant squad leader, Ron "Beetle" Bailey

1st Squad assistant squad leader, Aaron Can-

ney 2nd Squad leader, and Jared Schroeder

2nd Squad, assistant squad leader. The rea-

son we have two assistant squad leaders in

1st squad, is because Lew will most likely

be gone this summer for work, so Beetle will

fill in as needed. Matt Burchette also vol-

unteered to be the CMHG Adjutant which is a

Staff Position.

For 2016, the CMHG Staff is already

planning events and there should be something

going on every month until the late Fall. In

particular, there will be skirmishes once a

quarter, with a focus on unit training ra-

ther than burning through a lot of blanks. As

Sam mentioned, think of them as reenactor

camping trips! We hope to have another event

this summer supporting the Fort Carson 4th

Infantry Division museum and of course the

big “Tunisia 1943” event over Labor Day

Weekend at Camp Guernsey, WY. Several mem-

bers have been interested in doing a road

trip to events outside our area such as

Rockford or Conneaut so keep that in mind as

well as you plan for days off from work or

school.

Dave Dantzler Cdr, King Co

VAAA-O!

Honor and Educate

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Honor and Educate

The British Reconnaissance

Corps

Greetings from the British Reconnais-sance Corps, or The Recce as more commonly known. I would like to explain a bit about our groups impression. While vast and vague, we have found this works for us. We base our impressions on the event scenario. If it is an Italian campaign, we pick an MTO based unit. If it is Northwest Europe, then a unit that served there will be the impression. With that said, we have 3 major im-pressions. We do the 56th, 44th and 6th AARR Recces for most of our impressions. The first two are Italian Front units. Why two? The British Army would pull entire divisions out of line for a couple of months to refit. There are times of the year that they would be in the Middle East vs Italy. The other is part of the 6th British Airborne Division. While some of the unit had glider borne tanks, other elements utilized trucks and jeeps. We, for example, portray a section of the 200 replacements sent into Normandy on bikes and jeeps. The bulk of the glider borne units were delivered over the channel on boats. The Americans were not the only ones hampered by lack of aircraft. This is a little information about the impressions we choose to portray in our unit.

Martin Kinney CO,

British Reconnaissance Corps

2015 was a banner year for the men of

G Company 327th GIR. We brought on 3 new

members, increased our Bivouac equipment,

added several pieces of hard-ward to our ar-

mory and made many new community contacts.

We have also added a new ‘honorary’ member

who has increased our historic 327th GIR bat-

tlefield knowledge tenfold. Kevin Brooks,

the author of “Gliderman: Behind Enemy

Lines” was added to our unit in October.

Kevin’s book is about Don Rich and the rest

of the men of G Company from their days in

training until the end of the war. PFC.

Jack Sherman, our other honorary member and

unit sponsor, is featured prominently in the

book. Kevin has already provided a ton of

maps and other material in which we will be

basing the December Bastogne event we will

be sponsoring. Be ready for scant supplies,

overwhelming German numbers and specific ob-

jectives fellas!

During 2015, we focused on our primary

unit positions, expectations and tactical

squad movements. Our first tactical engage-

ment was at OMVII. While all of our members

have participated in tactical events with

other units for years, OMVII was our first

tactical engagement as a unit. As the Unit

CO I could not have been prouder of what the

327th accomplished during that event. Every

unit member knew his job, was engaged in

communication and never delayed an order

given. Afterwards we identified areas of op-

portunity that will be our training focus

for 2016.

Over the course of the next year, G

Company will be adding several unit training

events in an effort to tighten our battle-

field tactics as well as a few recruitment

events designed to boost our numbers.

Best to all of you and here's to another

fantastic year!

Sargent Mike Foster

G Company 327 GIR

82nd Airborne Division

504th PIR

C Company

Hi guys, just a short recap of the past year and some unit info. The group is at 6 members with Marc England moving over

101st Airborne Div.

327th Glider Inf. Reg.

G Company

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Honor and Educate

from the 9th ID along with 10+ additional members as a secondary impression. For a smaller sized group we bring most of the CMHGs heavy weapons, at last count we are at

M1A1 Rocket launcher M9A1 Rocket launcher Panzerschreck rpzb 54/1 Panzerpaust 30 M19 60mm Mortar 1919A6 gas gun 1919A4 gas gun (under construction) Assorted small arms, rifle grenades and 4 bc611 radios We also bring four vehicles to the group 1943 MB 1942 WC21 1942 G506 1939 R71 We look forward to another great year with the CMHG.

Ron LiButti CO/82AB XO/CMHG

Kampfgruppe von Tresckow

The KGvT had another good year in 2015. The highlight was Operation Mountain Victory II at Ft Carson. Frank Scholer was the overall German forces commander for the event and spent many hours planning the event, including visits to the proposed training areas, preparing maps and battle plans, contacting the various unit command-ers from around the country and mailing a complete battle plan package to the six unit commanders. We had units from a number of nearby states and a total of about 60 par-ticipants. We had a variety of vehicles in-cluding a number of motorcycles, armor and light vehicles. We received many compli-

ments regarding the battle plan and the exe-cution of the event in general. As usual, everyone expressed thanks to the CMHG for an event well done and plan to attend OMV III.

The unit recently acquired some addi-tional transportation in the form of Frank Scholer’s 1942 Dodge WC52 weapons carrier, which made its first event at OMV II as a capture vehicle. It came in very handy transporting troops during the event as well as performing shuttle service between the MOUT site and the German campsite.

There were a number of local events during the year at the site located just east of Greeley. We had planned more but weather this year didn’t always cooperate so a few had to be cancelled. We had a more extensive display at the second D-Day memo-rial event at Ft Carson, which included a weapons demonstration.

The unit continues to recruit new mem-bers and gained 4 new members in 2015. Our total membership now stands at 9.

Our active duty member, Kurt Scholer, deployed from Ft Hood to Bagram AFB in Af-ghanistan with the 306

th MI Btn as part of

Task Force ODIN. He expects to complete his assignment by July of 2016.

For 2016, the KGvT will be led by unit CO Oberscharfuhrer Scott Chartier, with the assistance of Scharfuhrer Frank Scholer, who will the new XO. Scott will continue with overall unit command while Frank will be as-sisting with communications between the KGvT and the CMHG staff and unit commanders. We will also be updating our unit procedures and standards.

Frank Scholer Scharfuhrer,

Kampfgruppe Von Treskow


The KGvR organized and participated in several training and skirmish events in 2015. Focus has been given to adhering as much as possible to German army squad tac-tics which rely heavily on the MG as the central piece. Training events into 2016 will continue to refine these skills and in-troduce new recruits to period tactics. Dur-ing all events we also strive to foster the living history aspect of the hobby with pe-riod appropriate encampments or bivouacs. Members who choose not to or can't

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Honor and Educate

participate with a combat impression have the option to stay active by focusing on rear echelon unit duties. High authenticity and camaraderie being the main objectives for all members. January of 2016 brought a change in unit leadership driven by the need to streamline the structure of the group and to foster unity. Under the new leadership structure we appointed one single squad leader and assistant squad leader for all troops regardless of service branch (Heer,

LW or SS). Current leadership as of February, 2016 is as follows: - CO: Kurt Septon (Heer) - Spiess: Andrew Quezada (Heer) - Adjutant: Tad Foster (LW) - Squad Leader: Vincent Mares (SS) - Asst. SL: Ryan Halsey (SS)

Finally, in 2015 the KGvR Panzerfabrik was busy at work building building the new-est addition to the armor pool: the Panzer II Ausf. L "Luchs". The Luchs is scheduled to be field ready by the end of May 2016. 2015 also saw members busy rebuilding the existing Panzer III to now include a period correct suspension with six road wheels. Ve-hicles, men and gear have been used in sev-eral WW2 movie productions based out of Col-orado and Utah."

Andy Quezada Speiss,



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Honor and Educate

The Hobo/Tanker Roll

The hobo roll was used by infantry and armor and vehicle crewmen.

You'll often see the rolls lashed to the sides or fronts of vehicles. Infan-try would leave the roll behind the lines before moving into a position, and then would send runners to collect the squad's rolls once they've occupied a position.

The roll used all of bedding items issued to a GI. The shelter half has some level of water repellency, and is used on the outside of the roll to keep the wool blanket or sleeping bag inside dry.

GIs would also store clothes, and small valuables in the roll to protect them

from the elements.

1. You'll need your:

shelter half, blanket,

sleeping bag, rope, and

pins and poles.

2. Spread the shelter

half out, and fold your

blanket till its a quar-

ter it's original size.

3. Put your sleeping bag

on top of that.

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Honor and Educate

4. Pins and poles go

near the top of your

sleeping bag

5. Fold the triangular ends in

6. Fold one side over

7. Then the other to cover it

8. Roll that thing like

a giant burrito

9. Burrito, er... hobo roll... uh... rolled.

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Honor and Educate

10. Run one end of your rope through the loop

11. Wrap up your roll and run the other looped end through it

12. TADA! Hobo roll with a convenient carry handle

Article submitted by Sam Iven

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Honor and Educate

Our Trip to Europe with 2nd Armored in

Europe Ltd

In August of 2014 members of the Colo-

rado Military Historical Group went to Eu-

rope to participate in a reenactment event

commemorating the liberation of northern

France by the US 2nd Armored Division. There

were about 150 participants of which about

50 came from the United States. The CMHG

was represented by about a dozen people. We

traveled to Brussels where we all met in

preparation to travel by charter bus to the

jumpoff point of Lihon. While in Brussels,

we stayed at the Royal Belgian Military

Academy. The next day the bus arrived and

everyone loaded their gear. We had our cor-

rect GI duffel bags, uniforms and kit. Most

everyone was going as a foot soldier but I

went as a Stars and Stripes correspondent.

My job was to record the action each day,

interview members of the US contingent and

write a report at the conclusion of the

event in the style of a typical S&S field

correspondent.

When we arrived in Lihon, people were

already setting up camp for a two-night

stay. We got our vehicle assignments, mess

tags and a briefing of how things would be

organized for the duration of the event. I

was set to ride in a few vehicles so I could

interview a broad number of people. I

camped with the two combat photographers who

would be recording the event. While there

was no action at this location, we did par-

ticipate in a parade and wreath ceremony at

the town square, attended by the local dig-

nitaries, French veterans and a small band.

The CMHG provided the honor guard that led

the parade. That evening the majority of

heavy vehicles arrived from England via low

loader trucks. We had about 11 halftracks,

9 jeeps, a number or motorcycles and a few

CCKWs and trailers to haul the gear and mess

equipment.

The next morning we got everything

loaded up and moved out towards the area of

the Somme where we would begin to see action

against the German forces. This was the

first time such an event included German

reenactors and their vehicles, a Stug III

assault gun, a 222 armored car and a few ku-

blewagons. We were also allowed to fire

blanks ammo as part of each day’s events.

The daily action usually consisted of the

Germans setting up an ambush for us along

the way and then having a running battle un-

til the Germans withdrew and we would set up

our camp for the night. Our traveling mess

group provided hot breakfast and dinner each

day and we even had a Red Cross Clubmobile,

complete with very cute “donut dollies”.

Most of the trucks came from the 514th QM

truck regiment from the UK(514th.co.uk).

They have a very large inventory of US WWII

vehicles and are very active at events in

England and on the continent.

The weather at the beginning of the

trip was cool and sometimes rainy so we had

the joy of packing and unpacking wet canvas

each day. But is gave us a small taste of

what living in the field was all about in

WWII. By the end the weather was sunny and

dry so things got much more cheerful. Each

days travel involved driving thru small

French villages and towns, battling the Ger-

mans and being warmly received by the local

citizens. There were some very touching mo-

ments when we part of memorials and met some

US and French veterans. The locals were

both curious and thankful for what we were

doing. We got to visit a number of museums

and battle sites along the way, including

World War I sites. This area of the Somme

had intense fighting in both wars so there

were many military memorials and cemeteries.

Over the course of nearly two weeks,

we went thru and recreated the “liberation”

of a number of cities including Bray sur

Somme, Peron and ending in Cambrei. At the

end of each day, our camp was visited by

many locals. The group had people from many

2nd Armored Breakout 2014

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Honor and Educate

countries including France, England, Belgium,

Netherland, Poland, Russia and the Czech Re-

public. Someone said that it was nice hav-

ing a large contingent of “real Yanks” at

this event so they could see what we were

like and how we talked.

After the conclusion in Cambrei, we

said our goodbyes to our new friends and

loaded up for the trip back to Brussels.

Some of the others were going on to the

Tanks in Town event in Mons, Belgium and

others headed for home. After Brussels,

about 15 of us rented a few vans and headed

towards Bastogne for another week of sight-

seeing and visiting museums and battle

grounds in the area. We went thru the Bel-

gian Army museum and restoration shop in Ba-

stogne where we saw a number of vehicles in

the process of restoration and got to see a

Sherman tank drive around the yard. We got

to see the actual headquarters of General

McCauliffe where he uttered the famous reply

“nuts”, to the German surrender message dur-

ing the Battle of the Bulge. We also toured

many of the local museums including the 101st

Airborne museum.

The number and variety of US military

vehicles in Europe is truly amazing. And

traveling thru the actual countryside where

so much action took place was a great expe-

rience. One day, when all the vehicles were

travelling together along small country

roads in France I figured the convoy

stretched out almost a mile. It was quite

impressive to look back along the line and

see them all loaded with GIs. This trip was

definitely a highlight of my reenactment ca-

reer. In addition to all the action, I got

to drive a halftrack for the last part of

the trip and when we were in Bastogne I was

able to purchase a 1944 dated US War Office

map of a part of North Germany where my fam-

ily’s farm is located. Last but not least,

much thanks to Dave Dantzler for being the

organizer and ram rod for pulling this all

together for our guys.

Submitted by Frank Scholer

Operation Cobra

So, you are considering going to Eu-rope in 2017? I never realized that a trip like Operation COBRA even existed until I caught wind of “The Pursuit” in early 2013. A trip to Europe where I could ride in half-tracks for more than a few minutes at a time, dig a foxhole and sleep in it, AND fire blanks at REAL Germans? All on the same battle fields where it happened?! Sign. Me. Up.

So, I begin going through all my gear and comparing it to the list sent from the organizers in Europe. I quickly realized there was no way I was going to get all this stuff in one bag, let alone two or even three. I begin to apply a bit of logic to the problem and ask a few questions of the organizers. In the end, I came up with a list that met all my needs, and those of the event organizers as well. After attending the event, I realized I still packed some things I didn’t need.

This article is my “brain dump” for all you new guys that are thinking about go-ing next year. It includes some advice, some tips, and a list of everything I took the first time and what I plan on taking in 2017.

What to expect:

First and foremost this is nothing like you have ever seen in your life. You will be as close to a WWII GI as you have ever come before. You will live in your half-track (or another vehicle depending on what you sign up for) for eight days. You will ride for hours at a time. You will get dusty, grimy, and sweaty. There is a good likelihood that you might even get sick.

At the end of the day, you may be in a field, a city park, or you may even be in the woods in a foxhole that you had to dig after dark with no lights. You might get dinner, or you may need to break out a K Ra-tion because your squad is on OP/LP duty that night and didn’t have time to hit the chow line.

Within days, you will be dirtier than you thought possible, unshaven, and you will not be able to shower. When you do shave, it will be out of your helmet with cold water. I did not bathe for the entire ten-day event. I had the opportunity, I chose not

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Honor and Educate

to so that my “time warp” was as real as possible. I didn’t die. You won’t either.

Do you have to be Superman for a trip like this? No. Can you sit at your desk eve-ry day for the next eleven months and do this trip? Possibly, but I don’t recommend it. You need to be in some shape to make this trip work for you. When I say “for you” I mean just that. This is not like a reen-actment back in the states. You can’t drive home if you get tired, or it rains, or you get pissed. You are stuck with your squad for the entire time.

You will be running, climbing, crawl-ing, and carrying more weight than you nor-mally do. Do you think your body can handle that for eight days straight? If you are thinking, “well, maybe?” Then you need also to think about getting in better shape. Take up jogging, walk the block a few times each week. Do something. Trust me when I tell you – GET IN SHAPE. You will be sorry if you don’t.

I’m not talking Ronda Rousey shape; I’m just talking “I don’t wheeze when I run 50 feet” shape. You CAN do it. Cut down on the beer, stop eating so much damn fast food, and get your muscles used to being used. That’s all it is.

The other half of getting in shape for a trip like this is mental. First and fore-most you will be part of a squad or crew. You will live with them 24/7 for eight days or more. Your attitude will go a long way in how much fun you have.

You will do KP. Everyone does. You will stand guard. You will stay up all night

looking at empty fields. You will be more tired than you thought possible. Don’t be a huge ass and shirk your duty. Trust me, the other guys will notice and pretty soon you will be shunned. It happened in 2014. Don’t be “That Guy.”

The fact is, this is as close as you will ever come to being a WWII GI without the shooting. If you do jus a little to your physical and mental attributes you will have the most fun you have ever had reenacting. In fact, it might ruin you for other events forever because nothing even comes close.

Tips and Advice (in no particular order)

• Get in better shape. Yeah, I talked about this before. I am mentioning it again. It’s THAT important.

• Check your gear. Are your boots about to come apart? Is that canteen cover ripping? Either fix or buy new stuff before you go. Don’t worry if it’s new looking. It will be a ragged mess in just days. Hell, everyone got new gear at some point.

• Buy the best you can afford. If you need gear for this event, get the best stuff out there. Don’t cheap out. Start buying stuff now, so you don’t outlay a ton of cash right before you go.

• If you need new boots, I HIGHLY recommend that you invest in WWII Impressions boots. Yes, they are expensive but they will last you the rest of your reenacting career be-cause they hold up better than any other boot out there. I know. I have some, and they wore like iron in France and were comforta-ble.

• Break in your gear NOW. This goes mostly for footwear. If your boots are new, wear them – a lot. You don’t want to break in boots when you have no chance to take them off.

• Ask questions! Talk to the guys that went before. Ask them whatever is bugging you or you don’t understand. We had a blast, and we want you guys to have the same experience we did.

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Honor and Educate

• Don’t be a drunk. Like I discussed earli-er, don’t be “That Guy.” Yes, beer is easily accessible in Europe. If you are underage, you can drink in Europe. Don’t be a jerk and get drunk each night. Sure, we all had a beer at some point, but we didn’t get loud and sloppy like some of the others. All that did was make us hate them. Don’t be “THAT GUY!”

• Read the authenticity regulations when they come out. If you think “good enough” will cut it. It won’t. The Europeans are much harder on authenticity than we are. They also have no qualms about pulling you out of a line and calling you on the carpet for some farbtastic thing you have done or are wearing. We saw it happen over the first few days. All of a sudden, farby mustaches disappeared, shirts got tucked in, and phones got put away. If you are a reenactor that thinks “this is good enough” then this trip is NOT for you. Trust me. Either change the attitude or don’t go. If you take the “It’s good enough” attitude with you, you will be sorry you did.

• Learn to use a double edge razor before you go. Trying to shave in the field with a DE razor for the first time will not be fun for you. Start a few months before the trip and get the hang of it first. Look on eBay for razors. They are not that expensive. Be-fore you buy, show me the listing first, and I can tell you if it’s period correct or not. The case and mirror can be had from Service of Supply for about $20. I also rec-ommend a shaving stick over a tube of shav-ing cream. It’s easier to use and easier to carry. Vintage shaving stick holders can be found on eBay as well.

• Don’t waste precious packing space with extra boots, pants, or jackets. Yes, the regulations may say you need two pairs of pants, but I never wore them. Why do you need two jackets? You don’t. Either an M41 or a Tanker. You don’t need them both. If there will be a big parade (I doubt it) then they will tell us about it. Until then, think lightweight.

• This event is shaping up to be even better than 2014. There will be no time away from the “Front.” It will be full immersion the

whole ten days. That means you will want to pack light. Yes, you will have a half track to store stuff in, but you still don’t want to lug two barracks bags overseas. We saw a guy do that and then he had to walk a mile with them both. Yeah, he couldn’t do it. He was out of shape and turned out to be the biggest PITA on the trip. Have I mentioned to NOT BE THAT GUY?!

• Start looking for the correct insignia now for your overseas cap. You can find repro-ductions of the 41st Infantry and the others online, and they are not that expensive.

• Consider taking one shirt that will be for “combat” and one that will be a backup/going on leave shirt. You will have the opportuni-ty to hit the town a few times. I wore the same shirt almost all the time but did change for a night on the town once or twice. It was nice to not smell like a skunk for a few hours!

• Waterproof those boots!! I used Hubert’s Show Grease, and it worked like a charm. You can find that online too. I did it a few weeks before we left to let it soak in. I gave my boats two really good coats and nev-er had a problem.

• Waterproof your shelter half and sleeping bag cover. Trust me on this one. Use a prod-uct called Neverwet. You can get it at Home Depot. Do not get anything else. This stuff is amazing.

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• If the squad you are assigned to does not have a Facebook page for itself, start one. First Squad (best squad!) did this for 2013, and it helped a lot. We all knew each other before we ever got to Europe. I think it made us a more cohesive squad than any other squad there.

• Don’t waste money on overseas plans for your phone! I did, and I regret it. There is almost no wifi where we will be most of the time and even with data plans, I never real-ly got a signal even in bigger towns. Hell, you shouldn’t be surfing the internet anyway! Just take pictures and Facebook your buddies all the fun when you get back.

• Start saving money now. These trips are really not that expensive, but you don’t want to try and come up with the money all at once a few months before we leave. You can expect to pay between $1,300 and $1,400 for roundtrip airfare. The trip fee is about $600 and that includes food. If you rent a blank firing rifle, you are looking at an-other $200-$300. I recommend getting a real weapon with blanks. It’s just too much fun spraying the French countryside!

• Speaking of blanks, don’t go nuts. The last trip they were about 45 Euro for 100. That’s about $50 a box right now. I went nuts and had over 200 blanks left over that I sold to a Dutch guy for a HUGE loss. I rec-ommend about 300 blanks at the most. You might even be able to get away with a lot less as this trip is a few days shorter than the last one.

• How much should I save? Well, most of the

time we are on the road or in the country-side, so there is not much time for spending money at all. The Euro to Dollar is pretty favorable, so food and drink aren't going to break the bank when we do get to a town. I budgeted $75 a day for the last trip and didn’t come close to spending that. This time I am making it closer to $40 or $50.

• Contacts and eyeglasses. If you have con-tacts, you will NOT want to take them and try and mess with cleaning, soaking, etc. each night. Trust me, your hands will be filthy, you will be tired, and it will prob-ably be dark and you will be under light discipline, so you can’t use a flashlight. Buy a pair of correct WWII glasses instead. The company that made the P3 frames in WWII for the military, Shuron, is still in busi-ness. Go here http://www.shuron.com/ronstrong.htm to see their line. You want the silver cable temple glasses. Yes, gold was available, but silver is by far the most prevalent frame. Do what I did, order the SMALLEST three sizes, try them on, and send back the other two pair. They will do that for you and it’s cheap. Glasses ran small in the 1940s. Unless your face is just huge, you will want either their smallest or next smallest size. That means that you want ei-ther the 40, 42, or 44 for the eyepiece. I got 42, and I could have even gotten a 40. Once you have them take them to any one hour place with your prescription and you are good to go.

• Let’s go back to feet. Make sure you cut your toenails before you leave. Long ones will just be uncomfortable and will wear a hole in your socks. While you are at it, trim your fingernails. You are going to get grimy fast, and short nails will be easier to clean at the mess truck.

By Matthew Burchette

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http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shuron.com%2Fronstrong.htm&h=dAQEtQwcWAQGWR_hcY3z68CuhcHcthfk2JmUtoOZgcB7KEQ&enc=AZMryi1Y10t-D2L4yDA0NFDLHxALDs-rwThh55MJnna6HcDAK8LJoze1TFgym0FQQqyKE-F5nVU9BBc7U_VBbSJdcpOK18URprop3eTXOEbY3GsiueDT7AB-84iKETMulPe

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Honor and Educate

CMHG CALENDAR

If you have questions concerning the events in the

calendar, contact your unit leadership for information.

February 19-21

February Immersion Event – Wilkerson Pass

March

11-13: Great War Late 1917-1918 – Erie, KS

April

7-10: Walking Wounded Film Shoot - Wilkerson Pass, CO

22-24: Skirmish - Bennet, CO

May

20-22: Ziel Tobruk – Monahans, TX

20: Achtung Panzer - OR

28: Fort Collins Veterans Plaza – Ft. Collins, CO

June

3: 4th Infantry Division Museum History Day - Colorado Springs, Co

July

16-18: PTO Skirmish – Greeley - CO

21-31: Operation COBRA - France

August

19-21: Conneaut D-Day Landing – Conneaut, OH

September

2-4: Tunisia 1943 – Camp Guernsey, WY

11-13: Rockford WWII Weekend – Rockford, IL

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SOP Changes

The following SOPs changes were passed by 2/3rds majority vote:

-2.1.1 - General Membership -2.1.2 - Family Membership -2.2.2 - Youth (minors) -3.2.1 - Unit Formation Requests -3.2.2. - Unit Recognition -3.3.3 - Unit Activation Process -4.2 - American Flag Respect -6.4.3 - Adjutant -7.1.5 - Contributions, Donations and Bequests -7.1.10 - Election Results -9.1.12 - Skirmishes

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February Immersion Weekend

Wilkerson Pass

Elements of the 9th Infantry Di-

vision and Kampfgruppe Von Rybus

take a break in the fighting to

take group photos during the

February Immersion Event held at

Wilkerson Pass.

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Honor and Educate

Steven Adams, new editor of Battleground Dispatches

Documents

Special Cobra Edition - The Colorado Military Historical Group · Special Cobra Edition . 2 Battleground Dispatches ... - 82nd Airborne ... Kevin’s book is about Don Rich and the