Reconstructors. Impressions

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

There is such a movement - reenactors. This is when people dress in the authentic uniform of the troops of a bygone era and play a battle among themselves. It would seem - fun, nothing more. But this is not the case. This is the most important educational element.

After putting on the uniform of a Soviet soldier during the Great Patriotic War, and at the events of that era, you will look through the eyes of a soldier of the Great Patriotic War.

And if a person is cut off from the Motherland, then such "fun" becomes even more important.

One of the authors of my blog, Sergey Eremeev, lives in Canada.

I bring to your attention his story, his feelings from … the battle with the Germans that happened there in Canada. The Germans were real, the Russians were real. The battle was a reconstruction, which means that there were no injuries and deaths. But the sensations and educational effect were present in full …

“Before the battle, I myself thought that it was a theater, it would be faked. But the reality surpassed all expectations. With the first shot, with the first machine-gun burst in your direction, with the first clanking German shouts - a switch just turns, and you fall into some other dimension, another space. To the past. All that I once watched, read, heard about the war -

everything comes to life in you with the first shot and German screams. How disgusting they scream! And during the shooting and the wounded, and just when they speak quietly.

This clanking speech of them seems to be somewhere deep in our genes that even Sasha, my son born here in Canada, asked when the Germans knocked out our car from a machine gun (we were lying in ambush at the edge of the forest)

- Dad, why are they SO yelling, why do they have such nasty voices?

I say - because they are fascists, son. We must pay tribute - on the other side, there are only a part of the Germans, the rest are Canadians. Moreover, the Germans are really real - a blond guy who shouted the loudest on the field - his grandfather fought in the "Dead Head" division. Even the grandfathers fought with the radio operator, their commander, and many. And Canadians are great artists, they have learned this language and with amazing accuracy conveyed the clanking intonations.

Sometimes even with such a brutal shade, probably specifically to intimidate their opponents. But for us it was just the opposite - you just go into a rage from these screams. Anger and rage appear.

Thanks to them. For what they gave us

feel what our soldier felt during the war - GERMANS !!

They played Germans very talentedly. And we just became ourselves.

Simple Russian soldiers.

Most of the reconstruction participants arrived early and set up camp.

In the dark, we drove up to the German side by mistake; several cars were parked near the trailer. We honked and got out of the car. Silence.

And complete darkness. We went along the wall, shining a flashlight under our feet.

Suddenly a German officer came out onto the porch with a Walther in his hand, pointed him at us and commanded: “Halt! Hyundai hoh! I lit myself with a flashlight and said - we

Russians are looking for our detachment. We were saved from captivity by the fact that we were without form.

After all, with the onset of darkness, hostilities began, we could be shot or taken prisoner. "Kom zu mir" - he took us into the trailer, showed us a map.

He showed us where our camp was and after a couple of minutes we were there. The commander of our detachment, senior lieutenant Tyurin, with TT at the ready, went out, told us to quickly change clothes and carry our things to the tent. While we changed our clothes and began to wear things

in the forest behind the tent there were shouts, fuss, indistinct exclamations, crunch of breaking branches, noise of struggle.

Lie! Do not move! Where a ** ah! Keep your legs! When we approached the tent, there were already four healthy fascists sitting on a bench by the fire, without helmet straps and weapons, with their hands tied behind their backs. They have already been interrogated by our officers. The Germans answered gloomily. An attempt by German saboteurs to penetrate the location was suppressed.

While we were settling down, practically without letting go of our rifles, everything repeated again and ours detained four more saboteurs.

One, taking advantage of the moment, ran away, loudly breaking branches along the forest windbreak.

We took up positions and listened intently and peered into the darkness.

An hour and a half later the captured Germans were released, after treating brandy and taking readings from them.

We decided to rest and set up a guard of three people around the camp.

I, the son of Sasha and Vlad, took up the posts that were determined for us by the breeder

Sasha Susarin. Our time was from one to three …

We stand at the clock. Sasha stands at the first post near the far corner of the tent, watching from the left side of the forest, which comes close to the camp. On the right, he can see me and the sector behind the tent. I am standing at the second post, at the intersection of three wide paths. I can see Sasha and Vlad at the same time. Vlad stands at the edge of the forest, merged with a pine tree, and can observe both the forest and the open space in front of him. Soldiers and officers are sitting in front of the tent, a fire is burning. Once from the side of the field we were fired upon from a rocket launcher. After sitting in the bushes for a while, I could not stand the attack of mosquitoes and went back to spray my face and hands. Not that it was impossible to withstand their bites. The bitten hands itched unbearably, and they had to be scratched continuously. In the bushes, at night, in complete silence, it was absolutely impossible to do it quietly - such a sentry could be seen and heard from many meters away. After sprinkling himself and sprinkling all the sentries, he went to his post. Our reconnaissance officer, Sergeant Sasha Susarin, went with me, deciding to check the posts again. We came to my position from Vlad's side and right by the bushes, about ten meters from the tent, we saw two soldiers lying face down. Sanya even exclaimed "Someone killed ours!" We bent down to turn them over. And suddenly they saw - they were Germans! They lie quietly, thinking that we will pass by in the dark.

Our advantage was that we went from behind. They never expected this. Everything turned out quickly and clearly. The reaction was instantaneous: Sanya knelt on the left one and began to wring his hands, threw a rifle at me: "Here you go!" I grabbed her and, holding two mosinki "in Macedonian", stepped on the right one, yelling at him: “Lie down! Help with the gun! Combat alert! Assault on the second post! The duty officer on the way out! " Ours heard, the stamping of boots was heard. Sanya, twisting the hand of the German and putting him on his knees, searched. Mauser is thrown aside. The right one, either having conceived something, or not understanding the commands, stood up to his full height. I poked him from behind with my boot under the knees: “Lie down! Do not move!". He fell face down. Ours arrived in time. The prisoners were tied up and taken away.

Until the end of our shift, no more incidents happened. Although on the left side, where there was the most impassable forest, from time to time it "crunched". After changing at three o'clock and sending my son to bed, I sat around the fire for a while with Vlad, Volodya, who had just arrived, and our commander Anton Tyurin.

The prisoners slept in the street. At four I went to bed and slept well for an hour, listening to the talk by the fire, the noise of the forest and the sentries and the awake walking around the tent. I immediately remembered the old army habit of falling asleep instantly, at any free minute, in any position. At the same time, hearing everything that is happening around. And from a certain moment and to see …

It was already in the second year of service, when our young siskin, a Tajik, snatched a bayonet-knife from the day Kazakh from its scabbard and tried to hit me in the chest. I caught my hand, piled it on the bed, but Bula took the young one away from me, took him to the toilet and for an hour and a half he was explaining something on his own. He went to the company commander himself and after that our young people were put in an outfit without bayonet knives. The Tajik then came up and said, “I’ll still give a stool over the head at night, and you’ll wake up dead.” I won't say that I scared, but the ability to sleep and hear was added to the ability to see. Asleep and you see - Sergeant Lyosha Gorelov, on duty in the company, is walking. A good guy, older than us, he trained as a flight technician before the army. He drowned a year after demobilization when army friends came to his village. Let's go swimming under this case … And so, he walks along the corridor, enters the cabin, walks down the aisle to his bed. And you know for sure that it is him, not the orderly. You open your eyes and see him right in the same place as you saw with your eyes closed …

Here, too, in the tent, I clearly knew who entered and who left. And how many people are on the street. I can't even believe that 25 years have passed since the service in the army …

At five o'clock in the morning, Sasha Susarin entered the tent and shouted in his echoing sergeant's voice: "Rrotta rise !!!" So that his wife woke up this Susarin on Saturdays. At five in the morning!

"Let's go out to build!" Lined up, many did not get enough sleep, and some did not go to bed at all. Roll call, morning check. Ammunition distribution. Anton, the commander of our detachment, informs our unit about the upcoming tasks. The task is both simple and complex at the same time. Go through the forest, find power lines and destroy everything. Undermine the smoke bombs issued by Captain Banin before the battle. We need to destroy eight power lines. The Germans, of course, have the opposite task - to prevent us from doing this. That's all. It's like blowing up a bridge in war. Or vice versa - not to let it explode. And between the order and the completed task there is a whole life.

We moved out. The commander put Max, me and Sergeant Susarin in the forward guard. We go first with a distance of 10-20 meters. We have no map and no one has seen it. I try to remember the large map on the wall that a German officer showed me. We walked about a kilometer along the border of the site, very quietly, trying not to crunch the branches under our feet. Finally we came to a narrow clearing with a power line. We went straight to the second post from the beginning of the site. Everything seems to be correct. We can blow up two pillars right now. But then we will discover our presence, and the Germans will bring their forces here.

After a little consultation, we decide to leave one soldier at the edge of the forest, opposite each pillar. And move on to fire contact with the enemy. The order was given to the soldiers, if they are discovered by the Germans or hear the sounds of battle, the first thing to do is to blow up the power lines and pull up to theirs.

We continue to move along the edge of the forest along the clearing, leaving one soldier in front of each pillar. On the fifth pillar, a German ambush awaited us. At the very first shots of the battle that began, the fighters left behind blew up their pillars and began to pull themselves up to the main group. Max was wounded, after a while he took off his cap and said that he was killed. We were under the cover of the forest and the Germans could not determine exactly how many of us there were. I saw a German in a helmet peeking out from behind a bump. It was 25 meters away from him. I shot at him once. He looked out again and I fired again. He took off his helmet, got up and, somehow sadly, went to the other side of the clearing. At first I did not understand what was wrong with him. But then they explained to me that in this way he admitted that he had been killed and went to the place where the killed Germans gathered.

The fight dragged on. Part of our people, led by the commander, ran across to the other side of the clearing and, under the cover of trees, fired at the Germans. The Nazis loudly gave commands and shouted something to us, or to each other. I crawled up to Captain Banin and after discussing the situation, we decided to leave the battle unnoticed by the Germans, go into the depths of the forest and bypassing them, undermine the remaining three power lines.

We took with them our youngest fighters Sasha and Andreyka. We counted our grenades. There were four of them. We decided that four grenades would be enough for us to complete the task. Without attracting attention, they began to quietly go into the depths of the forest. I went first.

About a hundred meters later I saw a large white fresh bone from a leg. Not far away is another and large fragments of the spine. Showed it to the captain. The boys came up and stared at these fresh bones: "Whose is this ??". I say, “the Nazis probably ate the prisoners. Since the past battles. " Seeing the horror in their eyes, “reassured”: “Yes, just kidding. Didn't eat. Probably someone was shot, but the wolves then took away the bones. What do you think we count you all the time?"

We walked at a brisk pace, transmitting commands in whispers and gestures. We crossed first one, then another forest road overgrown with grass. Both walked towards the clearing. Each bore the marks of two pairs of forged German boots walking in one direction. We went with great caution along the second road, ready to meet the Germans at any moment. We got to the clearing. Shots rang out in the distance.

Here is the pillar. It must be blown up. But for this you need to go out of the forest into an open space and throw a grenade. There can be an enemy ambush near each pillar. We agreed that if we run into an ambush, then one or two, without engaging in battle, pick up the grenades and go around the forest to complete the task - to blow up the rest of the pillars.

I called my son. “Sasha, I’m going forward now and will cover you. You will go a little further, pull the pin and throw the grenade as close to the pole as possible. And immediately back. The captain and Andreyka covered the road and the left side. I went out of the forest, keeping my sector at gunpoint. Sasha threw a grenade at the post. Dense black smoke poured out. Everything! Let's go!

As soon as Sasha ran away from the open place, I saw a German run from the fifth "blown up" pillar in our direction. I caught up with ours. Quickly! The Germans noticed the smoke, they are running after us. Run! Along the clearing, in the forest, we ran through thickets of thorny bushes, young fir-trees and wetlands.

Pillar! We must have time to blow up another pillar. They reached it. Captain Banin asks on the run: “Do you have another grenade? Explode!"

I took it out of my pocket. Sasha asked: "Dad, can I blow up another one?" I handed him a grenade - throw it!

The pillar is blown up, thick smoke is pouring down. Run, one more! Last! They reached it. The captain commands Andreika - "blow up the last pillar!" Andreika throws his grenade and the black smoke of the eighth pillar, which is visible throughout the clearing, shows all the participants in the battle (both ours and the Germans) that all the pillars have been blown up.

We have completed our task. The German chief wrote this script. It says that we blow up as many pillars as possible. As much as we can. We blew up all eight. This battle, like the unsuccessful sabotage German sorties at night, is behind us! HOORAY!

Wet, tired and happy we returned back to the camp. Time 8:50 and we have already won the most important battle, written according to their own plan. Arriving at the camp, we found there "killed" and newly arrived soldiers in the morning, who loudly shared their impressions of the battle.

They made a fire and Sasha, our captain, began to cook a soldier's soup from barley and real military stew. The rest of the soldiers came up with the commander of the detachment Anton. The captain reported to him about the completed assignment. The weapons were unloaded and placed in a wooden rack in the tent. I personally rechecked and opened all the bolts on the mosinki. Everyone rested, shared their impressions, rewound footcloths or dried them by the fire. Someone lay down in a tent after a sleepless night. On the other side of me lay a boy - he is the youngest in our squadron. It turns out to be generally clean

a westerner, his dad from western Ukraine "handed over" the guy to our detachment so that he would be with us, with the Soviet soldiers.

… According to the script, all of us were gradually shot, and they, these two of our boys, my son and a Western guy, took a German platoon with the lieutenant. The boys did not know what went where.

Dirty, FURIOUS, with torn off shoulder straps and bowlers. Angry that the Germans killed all of our people, they took the German pillbox! After the battle it was no longer possible to recognize them -

they were really grown up guys, with a real fighting spirit in their eyes. WINNERS! It is for them that we need to do such shows, real battles, with real Germans.

That's what shocked me: it was a German idea to create a Russian detachment, so that later we would fight with them. These Germans, they go to the States for reconstruction, there are a hundred of them - so they say that Americans are lazy on the battlefield. They attack with cola. And the Germans themselves got great pleasure from our battle, despite the fact that we killed them all. I myself called them to be photographed and they happily stood with us.

Like this. Germans remember history.