Well, it was great to meet old and new faces - Lutz, Bootedfeet, Allenby, and all the Pioniers, Johnny, Lardy, Liz, Charlie, Rob, Ade, Andy, the Dagenham Nazis and all in Gordon's chilled-out Waffen SS squad - forgive me if I've missed anyone. This was my first real attempt at squad leading, and with all the bushes and trees, a big challenge to keep a unit coherent. I confess I wimped out on the full kit challenge - my gas mask was missing from the cannister! 
Other than that, I was carrying probably the most I've carried, and my aching thighs are testament to that. Pionier pouch, Pionier saw, breadbag, flask, e-tool, bayonet, 3x Stg44 mags, Stg 44, binoculars, 50x 7.92 MG belt, gas mask cannister, A-frame with messtin, Zelt (wrapped around a shirt) with a stick grenade stuffed in it.
Thanks to all who made it a great event, especially all in the Pionier Zug, who worked excellently together, and made it a great WW2 experience.
The only bad point was the non-working mortar pyro! 
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
Well I had a great day big thanks to Josh and his team 
Shame our awesome preliminary bombardment went fiz 
As always great to see old faces and meet new, The pioneers made a real effort with the kit, well done to all those who managed to carry all off Bosh's extra's as well as their own kit very impressive especially Martin with that shovel. I was so hungover from the night before I struggled with the rough terrain, just goes to show there is no fool like an old fool 
Well done Andy and Neil for some excellant leadership.
Excellant gameplay and hit taking from everyone.
Bring on the next one 
PS sorry to anyone camping near me for the lowd snoring
Big thanks to Andy, Boshman and Lardy for their leadership, it was great to be part of a team that stuck together, thanks to my fellow squad members who all made such an effort to look the part and die so heroically and vocally 
. Shame about the lack of mortar fire and that the MG's broke. I'm not sure I'd go to a WW2 game at that site again though, it just didnt have that WW2 feel for me.
Had a good time as always at Josh's games, and it was good to play with a big bunch of pioneers. We seemed to spend an awful lot of time in the densest bits of the site, and I'm amazed we didn't get split up more.
Thank you to Bosh & Steiner for leading us to glory, or death or maybe both. The engineer assault pack was a great bit of kit, the gigantic assault shovel, less so, but I did at least get to clear one minefield without getting blown up 
It was great to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones, particularly Lutz, and we had a great time on Friday night despite the cold and rain. I sometimes think I enjoy the camping more than the shooty shooty stuff.
I sustained some minor equipment damage, in particular I managed to fall on my gas mask tin and pull off the rear strap clip and damage the hinge so the lid jammed tight. With the aid of a crowbar and hammer I managed to it open today and retrieve my pyros, spare water and camera. Good job the car keys weren't in it.
I did take a few pics before being denied access to the camera, so here are some of the better ones:
The British focus on the important things.
Germans wrestle with their equipment.
The well dressed assault pioneer.
Cheers
Martin
"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" Helmuth von Moltke
Toys: AGM MP40, Cyma M1A1, TM M14/G43/SVT40, TM VSR/K98, SnS No. 4, ASG Sten, Ppsh.
Arnhem3,Gumrak,Campoleone
A typical 1944 SS panzer division.
Oberfeldwebel Steiner.
Lunchtime!
"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" Helmuth von Moltke
Toys: AGM MP40, Cyma M1A1, TM M14/G43/SVT40, TM VSR/K98, SnS No. 4, ASG Sten, Ppsh.
Arnhem3,Gumrak,Campoleone
Well the Hohenstaufen had a great time.
Thanks Josh for letting us use the authentic cart to transport a large amount of kit up to the Mortars on the hill, where we set up our defence. We had a bit of an advantage having played this objective in the cold war game last month we knew the best way to get at them, so out came my barbed wire Teller Minen and `Bouncing betty` Minefield sign's and the MG42 covering.
We saw the 34th advancing in the best direction to take the location, as we did in the cold war game, But they were stopped by our defences! They played well and made a number of attacks during the day and they all played really well hats off to them, they even called for an engineer to defuse a mine and took the Teller mines away but left the `Bouncing betty` I guess he was not trained in dealing with that 
As Steiner said we were chilled, German Radio blasting out songs, Camembert and biscuits for lunch and I even tried out my new Fresh coffee peculator.
Game great and the level of kit and game play by all sides was a delight to see, especially the Pioneers Hats off guys to the kit you carried at least we had the cart 
Best bit of the day holding the position time after time until all the Yanks attacked from every direction killing all of us, then there was a Silence. I thought the Yanks would be on us as we lay on the floor having been killed ny Grenades but the Lufty file Div just wandered up the slope on a Sunday stroll. Not sure what they were thinking we were doing just lying down in the Sun i suppose until it dawned on them we were all dead. They sprang into action and chased the Yanks off. Our `Speck` was saved Cheers guys we certainly didn`t want to loose the position so in the nick of time was perfect
Thanks again to the Allies for great opponents Josh and his marshalls for a great day.
I forgot to thank the young German soldier (sorry did not get your name) who helped an old man (well me) cross the stream/marsh via the log crossing. I took one look at it and thought with my lack of balance I would end up face first in the bog. However the perfect gentleman came half way back along the logs took my rifle and helped me across. I must have looked like Godfrey from Dads Army but mission acclompished. Hopefully no one has photo's of that
not a lot more i can add to the above reports , superb play by all , well organised , and nice to see that a good time was had by all , on the Saturday as a German pioneer we seemed to be in almost constant action through witch we were ably led by Bosh and Steiner , hat's off to those who went in for the full kit plus extra's , i'm to lazy and fat to enjoy being overburdened .
on the Sunday i turned my coat and joined the British side , we could of done with a few more deserters as we were outnumbered by more than two to one , after a day of being hard pushed to even hold our own we were given the opportunity to re kindle our spirit's in a heroic last stand , although we were unable to hold out long enough for Patten and Monty to relieve us we were at least able to give em a bloody nose largely to the credit of one of our Yank buddies and his BAR(never got you'r name ).
armoury
m1a1 Thompson,sten mk2,mp40,stg44,sterling,mk2 bren gun,lee Enfield no4 mk1,Mauser Kar98, Walther ppk,smith and Weston m10 and Mauser m712
Give me a big enough hammer and a place to stand and I could fix the world.
i'll kill a man in a fair fight or if i think he's going to start a fair fight or over a woman or.......
a problem shared is a problem halved ,but an advantage shared is no advantage at all
if a job's not worth doing then its certainly not worth doing well
I had a great time. it almost seems unfair to offer special thanks to anyone in particular because everyone made a fantastic effort, but here's a few; Thanks to the organisers for rewriting the scenario at short notice and making it work, hanks to my fellow pioneers for letting me sign up and making me feel like part of a squad and making such a fantastic effort with all the kit, you fellows looked great, thanks to Boshman for lone of the MG42 and gubbins, and thank you to everyone for playing fair, calling their hits and performing some fantastic death scenes.
Probably the most memorable moment for me was sitting at the depot with Dadio chatting idly about rifles then taking a casual glance to the left only to see what looked like the entirety of the United States Armed Forces stomping up the hill, then the large pitched battle that followed, and thank you to the gentleman who offered me a surrender rather than shoot me in the face at point blank range!
I hope this practice of signing up as squads before hand becomes standard practice.
It was great to see the guys I knew again and to meet so many others. Roll on the next game
I've fired a bullet on every continent. Nearly hit someone, too.
hehe it was no problem my Bar had jammed so took pistol out and went on a charge as you guys had us pinned down well did not expect to get far lol, and was cool asking for you to surrender and well done for taking it, which reminds me well done to the german who came out of the woods and could have shot a group of 6 of us (4 were dead but he would not have known) but he checked first and asked for surrender 
so hats off to you
had a cracking day , shattered now , if i did not know better sure you germans had twice the numbers of us as you seemed to be everywhere loool , still convinced there was secret german tunnels under the site
I for one loved the site, and managed to go the whole day without killing a single 34th with a nade and trust me thats good going
some cracking firefights, loved fighting up the hill under cover of smoke to finally nearly make it then germans had taken out our flank and that was that lol, and yes our engineer was learning on the job
like everyone has said great hit taking and some super death scenes, and was good to see folks not running from the grenades
and lastly loved the level of the kit it really makes the games that much better
Just a couple of pics
Our cart underway and a FJ taking the Radio and hospitality in
forgot to take any in game lol , so our unit shot at the end of the 2 fire teams of 7 and thanks for stan joining us , what's your name on this forum ?
What else can I add to the above comments. Excellent levels of kit and gamesmanship.
Well I had a great day with the SS boys up on the mortar positions. We managed to beat off a couple of American attacks in the morning, but their last assault up the slope of our left flank was a 20 minutes of WW2 airsoft magic.
A well co-ordinated attack in numbers, excellent use of smoke and dogged determination to take our position. We were shooting them down and they killing us every time we popped up above the shallow ditch we were in, and they still keep coming. I could hear shouts of "Engineer", "suppressive fire on the MG", it was pretty frenzied. Our young MG42 gunner was hit, and as I was looking down the ditch I got one as well. I went down and was lying on my back when I saw 3 grenades come sailing over - 2 from the left and the clincher - 1 from the front slope wiped us out.
It was only the timely arrival of the Lufty Div boys then saved the position. Apparently one of our guys radioed for reinforcements and got the reply "we'll be there in 2 minutes", he replied "If you get here in 2 minutes we'll all be dead".
Brilliant stuff, It just reaffirmed why I love WW2 airsoft.
Oberfeldwebel Steiner.
Yay! Sounds like this lowly Unteroffizier has had a treble field promotion!
I had a thoroughly enjoyable time, a huge thank you to everyone who welcomed me into their community with smiles! Thanks also to Josh for organising the entire event and Steiner for being an excellent squad leader
I'm guessing you must be the guy with the nice moving-bolt MP40? It was a pleasure to have you as part of the team.
As far as hit-taking and moaning goes, it was excellent - I never heard a single complaint all day. Well done everyone.
You've got nothing to ein, zwei, drei, vier
Can only stress things already mentioned. It was a pleasure finally meeting everyone of the Pioneer Zug after having had all the communication on the forum before. Outfits and squad tactics made it for me. This is why I joined WWII airsoft.
Great squad leading Steiner and Boshmann...too bad that are final ambush was spotted too early and instead of giving the allies a nice surprise. There were only 5 more Germans dead on the field.
Enjoyed the Friday camping. Thanks for the warm welcome and Tim's support making the camping possible for me at short notice. I have to say, I have to work on my camping equipment. The night was freezing!
Only frustration was technical failures starting with the mortar rounds and then my gun failing until it completely gave up on me an hour before the end of the game. Steiner, thanks for letting me use your StG44...great gun. On my wish list for Christmas.
I'm guessing you must be the guy with the nice moving-bolt MP40? It was a pleasure to have you as part of the team.
I'm lucky enough to have the fancy pants blow-back MP40, and even luckier that it didn't quit on me, unlike our kamarad Lutz's , terribly bad luck in the middle of a game 
! . Glad I was of use though!
I've fired a bullet on every continent. Nearly hit someone, too.
Echos to the comments above, probably think this was one of the best events I have attended. Probably done to just the emphasis on being in a squad think that added so much it was unbelievable. On both sides just to see units moving on positions was awesome so kudos to everyone cause I thinks everyone bought into it and that what made a lot of the event.
Lot of top moments but probably best was in the swamp area with probing into the LZ and I just turned and along the brow of the hill I just saw this line of pioneers moving along the ridge above us just had to stop for a second and think how amazing sight it was! just unlucky I didn't have my camera at that time.
Thanks to everyone loved every minute even going almost knee deep in the swamp couldn't take anything away.
Pic to follow soon.
The British focus on the important things.
Hehehehe 
I've got a few photos of Rifle Brigade troops on the shingle hillside from Saturday I'll post up soon.
A Proud Member Of 'Team Spleen!' who play mainly at Gunman Airsoft, Tuddenham, Suffolk.
Generally, very good.
Some excellent fire fights, good manoeuvring, kit level was the best I've seen at any event hands down, plus everyone was friendly. Had a great time with the pioneers; felt massively under equipped though, time to invest in a shitload of webbing and a helmet!
Organising Zugs in advance of the day is a great way to go and I think really made the difference. We'd all talked online, sorted out kit and what we were doing. Showed on the day; it'd be great to keep that going for future events. I thought we all worked well together. We were a team rather than randoms thrown together. Shone through. Thought Alex and Matty particularly excelled and were a real credit to us.
No real negatives I can think of. Hit taking was good. The site was quite physical, not a bad thing but it was kicking my ass by about 1pm; my base level of physical fitness is on a par with a pregnant Walrus on dope. Didn't envy the guys lugging MGs and Mortars around. I also seem incapable of walking anywhere without slipping on either mud, leaves, dead animals or stagnant combat piss and landing in a heap. Probably because I walk like CoCo the Clown.
The Garand was a charm. I chrono'd in the morning at 260fps but after some tinkering with the hop up it improved and I never felt outgunned. First real run out with the ICS and it was rugged, reliable and accurate. Got some good kills; that said I need to see if the G43 pouches will fit the mags as changing them under fire from the bread bag was a ball ache. Need another few mags as well.
Roll on April 12th!
