War & Peace Show Beltring
 

Just spent a week displaying at the war and peace show displaying. One of the Highlights had to be Sunday glanced to my Left and there was the BBMF in bound glitering in the sun absolutly magical put on a superb display. On the Friday we had a silver Spitfire take part and brought the shopping area to a standstill.
The Low light of the week was a spitfire mockup marked i-wm and D-ux placed on the ground as if crashed being used by a Luftwaffe re-enactor group for promotional pictures with swastica flag draped over it and female luftwaffe staring admiringly at it. we on a nearby site were getting some very negative comments from the public over that.
On Sunda night after show close we had a look at the spitfire and the repair bill will be fairly bg both wing roots at the leading edge smashed one of the cannons snapped of, propeller broken, leading edges damaged and some of the wing pannels cracked and scratched. Very Very sad

I have never been to the War and Peace show although one year I might. I understand that the vast majority of visitors and exhibitors are normal, well adjusted people with an interest in military vehicles of all sorts. However, I saw an undercover documentary recently that investigated some of the 're-enactors' at the show. Some of these people are a bit worrying. Of the re-enactors, it seems that about 90% want to play Nazis and most of those want to be SS and other such charming units. Many of those were exposed as outright neo-Nazis and BNP thugs - not really welcome at a family day out.

I think most people would find the display you described distateful to downright offensive. If the spit replica was on loan to them from the Imperial War Museum Duxford, I hope you took a photo and sent it to them. I am sure Duxford will be seriously displeased that it came back broken, and if they know that it has had swastikas draped over it, they may take a firm line with these odious little Nazi wannabees.

The Beltring organisers have got these 'SS' reenactors sized up and are in control of it. My father attends the show and is club secretary for one of the major groups in attendance and, although the nazi element of the uniforms are allowed - and appreciated, there are restrictions on what they can do etc. ie. firearms in beer tents etc. It is actually quite good natured and interesting to see. Chat to the nazi reenactors, they're quite an interesting bunch and it's good to see authentic uniforms and dress from that period.

I'll bet they're an interesting bunch all right; if it had gone to plan in 1940 they'd be wearing real uniforms now.

I often wonder what drives these people to dress up in the uniforms of that bestial political system. It's nothing to do with 'Allo 'Allo, is it? If it isn't can we expect them to re-enact Le Paradis ( perhaps with some Royal Norfolk Regiment re-enactors), the work of the Einsatzgruppen in Russia or even the brave actions of 2 SS Panzer (Das Reich) Division at Oradour-sur-Glane? Pathetic, odious and disgusting, the lot of them. Souviens-toi.

On another matter, the Spitfire display must have been good if it stopped the shopping...

Not defending exremeist far right groups here, but I dont see the problem. Would you have an issue with someone dressed up as a Communist Party Member? Or someone dressed up as one of pol-pots henchmen?

It was a (bleak) part of our history. If thats what they get off on, so be it. I imagine a fair few of the hitler youth were snapped with shot-down spits, just as sure as there were probably Home guard units draping Union Jacks over shot down Luftwaffe aircraft. It may be tasteless, no less so than when a relative witnessed former WW2 elderly Japanese officers posing for pictures in full medals on the viewing gallery of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbour.

Its a very very dangerous thing I believe to say to somebody - "you cant say/do that"! And a typical example of how this repulsive government has become part of our thought process. If we forget about groups such as the Nazis/Stalins communists, we open ourselves up to once again becoming their victims, surely.

Sorry, just re-read this Thats pretty disgraceful actually. I hope whoever damaged it got billed. Extortionately.

It's a fibreglass replica and the owner (which is not the IWM!) was well aware of how it was going to be positioned and used - it's going to be refurbished in the near future anyway.

This is all very Daily Mail storm in a tea cup isn't it? Nobody complains about the 'shot down' Me-109 diorama that does the rounds, with Tommies standing grinning in front of it.

Didn't bother with Beltring this year, too many chavs, but the SS etc. reenactors are mostly harmless and there are just as many weirdo tossers wearing British or US uniforms at these dos.

Only going to re-enact the nice bits?
 

On a visit to Singapore the museum was running a WWII exhibition. The full size Zero mockup that was embedded in the front of the building complete with kamikazi pilot hanging out of the cockpit was almost tastefully done.

On a serious note one room was just lots of notice boards covered with witness statements on the Japanese occupation, especially on what happened to the Chinese nationals.

One was left with the distinct impression that the Japanese, tourists and all, were not held in high regard.

Probably as popular as the Luftwaffe re-enactors were is some quarters of the audience.

Re the 109 been to a few shows with it there usually ends up with a lone sentry on it and climbing on it is discouraged as its plywood. It certainly isn't blackened as if it been on fire and never seen any Luftwaffe aircrew hanging out of it looking slightly burnt.