War and Peace Revival show 2016
BEST LARGE LIVING HISTORY DISPLAY WINNER 2016
The show if you have never been before is the largest Military Vehicle and Re-enactment Show in the World. With everything from WW1 up to Modern forces and everything in between including all the Military vehicles.

The show is open Tuesday to the Saturday night but most members arrived the Saturday before and didn't leave until the Sunday afterwards so we were there for a long time.
We displayed next to our good friends " No Slack Living History group" who as usual put on a great display of a large encampment with vehicles, tents and associated equipment. We also connected our displays with a walk way between the two displays allowing the public to flow between the two groups.

On top of all this RT and The American Infantry Preservation Society took part in two arena battles, one on Wednesday afternoon and the other on Friday. Both arena events went very well and attracted a lot of attention. We took a selection of vehicles into the arena including one of our gun trucks. As well as this the AIPS very kindly brought both of their fantastically restored M113s into the arena which were armed with blank firing .50 cals and they even fired a charge from their 106mm recoilless rifle. RT members were also lucky enough to dismount via the loading ramp under battle conditions which added another dimension not often seen during arena battles.

Here is our official Video of RT / AIPS in the arena kindly filmed by Christophe.

 

So a big Thank you to the AIPS for working with us and congratulations to you for winning Best Post War Vehicle for both of the M113s, well deserved. look forward to working with you again in the future.

 I would like to thank all the RT Members for another great show and for pulling off another award winning display. I must also Thank No Slack and the Guys from AIPS, Look forward to working with you both again soon.

And also a big thank you to all the photographers 
Sean Vatcher , Scott Davies , Heidi Bonwick, Phil Royal and Christophe Delauve 

Stuart 

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What else can I say, everybody hard work this year was topped up by some fantastic weather 
and the star attraction of our display had to be the Marines display from Hue.
 We have to thanks a small team of them and specially Mike for his outstanding work and his total commitment to Rolling Thunder.

We had a lot of photos taken this year so I will bring them to you in the form of "photographs special report"  or "event/display special photo report" in the case of my brother who was snapping away happily and solidly from Tuesday to Saturday 

 Thanks again to all of you and the weather "Gods" for making WPR 2016 a special one

 Jean-Luc (John)

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Bellow is a selection of photographs is thanks to Sean Vatcher

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Photo report thanks to
Sean Vatcher

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Below is a list of the displays we created showing that RT really does cover a large area of the Vietnam Wars from Indochina right back 
to the US Anti war movement.

VC display
There was a Vietnamese bamboo hut with hidden VC weapons cache and sidecar which gained a lot of interest.

Photos thanks to Christophe, cd_dip

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  Children having a history lesson

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US 25th Inf Wolfhounds display
Representing a 81mm Mortar pit and .50cal emplacement, the Wolfhounds is our are latest infantry element created early this year and have gained in this short time a a solid reputation for their attention to detail.

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 CIA Display
An unknown part of the Vietnam war, not surprising as they will deny being there !

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Charlie 2/7 Air CAV
Our other well established Inf unit. This year they manned the main guard tower and set up a period platoon tent with foot lockers, 105mm crates turned into shelving, cot beds and all the other things associated with living quarters including period playboy posters.

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Peace protestors and Veterans against the War 
showed another side to the conflict and harassed fellow re-enactors and the public.

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Australian Vietnam display
The Australian element during Vietnam was covered with the rare maintenance Landrover complete with gas bottles, tools, vice etc and a couple of members dressed as Aussies to complete the display.
 Photos thanks to Christophe, cd_dip

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French Indochina display
This year our Indochina display was of 61e Compagnie de Circulation Routière (61st CCR) . The French Indochina road traffic Military police companies served all over Indochina and were involved virtually with any major land operations. They assumed light reconnaissance and road convoy escort duties as well as normal traffic duties. The Rolling Thunder static display represent a jeep from a "Poste" -"traffic squad" on traffic control and surveillance mission on the outskirt of their camp at the Cholon Racecourse on the outskirt of Saigon, circa 1947/48. On other photos you will see members of the 73rd CCR a nearby company which had its HQ at Saigon. A CCR "Poste" was equipped with two jeeps and trailers and two motorcycles and had a strength of 8 men lead 
by a NCO.

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 USMC display
This year the Marines recreated a street scene from Hue with great effect and attracted a lot of attention.
The photos speak for themselves!
Feb 1968 Hue Tet offensive . 2/5 hotel company . 
Marines waiting out side hotel lucky which is a resupply and wounded evacuation area.

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We also had our own USMC themed Bar named Jacks in memory of Jack Beehan 
who was a US Marine and served during WW2 and a good friend of Paul Turner.

 

Motorpool display
We had a Large motor pool section with a fuel tanker and our members actually servicing the groups vehicles, replaced brakes, mended punctures etc all for the public to see a different side to owning a Military vehicle.

 

 Vehicles display
As usual we displayed many vehicles ranging from the small mechanical mule and M38 A1 Jeep up to the large M35 and M54 trucks as well M37s and M715 trucks. We also had a 155mm howitzer on display with assorted equipment and projectiles.
There were two M35 gun trucks also on the display, one being Highland Raider with the box body armour on the rear and the other having a Quad .50 turret mounted on the rear, both very different and both attracting a lot of interest.




We were joined by Max Marquardt and Ben Braun all the way from Germany who portrayed Army Military Police and kept the peace protestors under control.

So as you can see a very wide selection of displays for the public to enjoy and learn from remember 
only Rolling Thunder brings you the FULL VIETNAM EXPERIENCE.

 

t

 
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