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Cedars of Lebanon
The Cedars of Lebanon Eastern Front event used to be the best event every year. It took place near Nashville, TN every year in mid-December, which meant cold weather (well, cold to us at least) which just seems right for an Eastern Front event. The battlefields were quite good, with a variety of different terrain types, roads, and bridges. Even better, the park had these great cabins that we would rent and all pile into for the evenings of drink, song, and WWII movie-watching. Sadly, the event no longer happens since the number of Russians began to decline and whoever was in charge decided to move the site to the Tullahoma National Guard park. So, this is a melancholy trip down what used to be.
Here
you can the 43rd moving past the camera after a tough assault on the Russian
position in the rear ground. This road wound away from the creek and into this
great open field with a little elevated copse of trees. That is where the
Russians were and that is also where we drove them out of. You can also tell
that this is the group moving at "all clear" by the position of the weapons.
while we are moving here in a column which can be used in an assault, almost
everyone has their weapons slung on their shoulders. Joe is the exception here.
Maybe he is guarding the rest of us while we head off to lunch.
I love photos that show your troops doing the maneuvers the right way after you have taught them. Here you can see our group patrolling up a road looking for some unsuspecting Russians. The first thing to notice is the use of the combat column or 'reihe' in German. This formation is useful for moving through enemy terrain to contact since it allows the group to immediately fire to either flank. It takes a moment to deploy forward once you have made contact, but this is why you send out a point man to avoid ambushes. Second, a more impressively, look at what the men are doing with their weapons. Since this is a single column, we have no flank protection on either side. As a result, the men have staggered their weapons from right to left so that half the squad is ready at all times to protect either side. Awesome!
Here you can see Brian as our platoon officer (uebelfuehrer.) Brian has put together a pretty good officer's impression with a nice tunic that has turned back French cuffs and everything. Notice the officer's insignia tape on his feldmuetze and the officer's belt and belt-buckle. Of course, the scariest part is the fact that he has traded out one set of MP-40 pouches for a map case. Scary! A leutnant with a map!