Blood for the Baron!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

A pleasure to behold, as always. Cheers Ed.

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

Some lovely shots there.

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

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!