The 2013 Victory Show (Image heavy)

[Thundershot]

Hi all,
Thought you may like to see these pictures from this weekend's Victory Show an annual event, held on a farm near the small Leicestershire village of Cosby, & is dedicated to WW II battle re-enactments:

First off some random shots:












( Appologies for the poor picture qullity , a rather lager explosion had just happened)





























Next up, the big set piece battle.

[Red Baron]

These are great. I tried to persuade my wife that it would be a good family day (as we live only a few miles away), but as our 2-year old son doesn't seem keen on loud noisey and is napping between about 12.30 and 2pm, we decided to go another year. Damn!

[Thundershot]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with you, it's a very loud & dusty event. Apart from the large explosions, which go off with little or no warning (during the battles) there's a lot of random gun fire going on across the site too.. plus you'd have to keep a very close eye on him due to all the heavy vehicles moving about. A fantastic family day out for anyone with children of school age, I'd say, actually I was surprised how many people brought their pet dogs along too.

[Thundershot]

The Main Event

All quiet in the German trenches:


Suddenly an Me208 spotter plane appears overhead, trailing smoke:


Followed by an artillery barrage & the appearance of Allied armoured column:


The defenders respond quickly:


Under ferocious fire & taking heavy casualties, the allies steadily advance towards the enemy lines:






The Allied advance is momentary stalled by the ambushing STG II, which bursts out of it's place of concealment, taking out one of the approaching U.S. tanks:


But the Stuart soon deals with the new threat:


His vehicle on fire one of the STG's crew bails out, only to run into wall of small arms fire:





The fight continues, now @ very close range...the infantry get to work:




















Sorry most of these pictures depict the good guys, the Germans had loads of heavy armour too (Half-tracks, scout cars & field guns) but there's so much going on it's impossible to capture everything..

Highlights of the air displays up next folks.

[Thundershot]

Air Display

The 'Grace' Spitfire, a twin seat conversion of the iconic fighter:


Ground crew @ work:


For a small fee (£3) us mere mortals were allowed onto the flight line for a closer look & chat to the pilot's & ground crew

This is a Mk I Hurricane, a genuine veteran of the Battle Of Britain, which has been painstakingly restored (all guns are fully functional) & is lovingly cared for:










Other aircraft on display included:

A Yak 11


Mustang


Me108


& very special guest appearance from the beautiful 'Sally B'




I've a special place in my heart for this old girl as she flew @ the very first air show I ever went to (as a very young kid), she also played 'The Memphis Belle' in the movie & continues to be painted as that historic B-17. (One side has the famous 'Belle' nose art the other Sally 'B')





Thanks for looking
T'shot

[Chopper]

A pleasure to behold, as always. Cheers Ed.

[The Kraken Wakes]

Brillint pictures. Would love to go to one of these events.

[paul463]

Some lovely shots there.

[stkhlmdk]

Looks like a really cool event and you've taken some great shots

[paul463]

Seeing the B 17 was the hightlight of my trip to Duxford a few years ago. Laughing at the second photo, chap in the middle is clearly saying "Dick!"to fella doing the talking!