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
**************************
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)
**************************
Bellow is a selection of photographs is thanks
to Sean Vatcher
Photo report thanks to
Sean Vatcher
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
Children having a history lesson
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.
CIA Display
An unknown part of the Vietnam war, not surprising
as they will deny being there !
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.
Peace protestors and Veterans against the War
showed another side to the conflict and harassed
fellow re-enactors and the public.
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
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.
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.
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.