Indiantown Gap's

Battle of the Bulge

My very first WWII reenactment was Indiantown Gap in January of 1996. We made the trip up to Pennsylvania from sunny Florida and were shocked. I was shocked by D.C. traffic, but we were also shocked by how much snow was on the ground. I had never seen snow before and Richard had only seen it once. Brian grew up in the Midwest so he was used to wandering around up to his nipples in snow, but it was a big deal for the rest of us. I have sadly never been back, and I have heard that the battle has really degraded in the last few years. The main reason to go however, is the flea market. If you want to buy some WWII stuff, Indiantown Gap in late January is the place to be.

Here you can see Rocky standing in the middle of a snowy road, surrounded by a snowy landscape, carrying a snowy MG-34, and wearing his snowy snow camouflage. I like this photo because the Rock has totally "snowed in" his impression with the winter jacket and pants, but also with the white helmet cover & fur boots. I have no idea where Rocky got that MG, but I sure wish he still had it. I bet the owner doesn't though.

The two above photos illustrate the need for armor in certain situations. In the left pic we see the Germans having to cross a large open area. This is perfect for armored vehicles to make their presence felt. In this case, the halftrack can act like a battle taxi and get these men across this clearing with a minimum of exposure to enemy fire. In the right photo, however, we see the problems of armor in close terrain. In this instance, the halftrack has entered some woods, making ambush & close assault much more likely. Notice how the infantry is beginning to fan out to cover the vehicle, while the halftrack remains as a base of fire support.

At right you can see that German offensive has stopped, if for nothing else than to get its bearings. More importantly, if you look at the terrain you can see why motor transport would be such an asset in these situations. It is obvious that for the Germans to be successful here, they will have to move large bodies of troops swiftly over open country or roads. The truck on the right and the halftrack on the left should do both of those jobs nicely. This was one of the major innovations of the German Army during WWII. So much so that all major industrialized armies today have attempted to copy this approach. We often think of Blitzkrieg in terms of terms of tanks or stukas but we often overlook the backbone of the advance which is simply men in a truck moving quickly to the battle front.

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