37th Guards at Newville
This past weekend was the Newville Ostfront winter tactical. Essentially, a whole bunch of Soviet and Nazi reenactors huddle into a set of WWI trenches, and spend 24 hours trying to get into each other’s trenches. Initial estimates put the head count at 100 each, Soviet and Nazi.
Rob in front of the German trenches across from our position
The trenches were pretty cool. I’ve read about them in history class, and watched documentaries about WWI, but it’s something completely different to see and fight in them. You satart to understand just how crappy life was in these pits. And for this tactical, since Soviet weapons (at least the ones we had) hadn’t changed much between the wars, you got the feeling that you were fighting in either war.
We arrived, in full battle dress, about 5:30ish. By this time, most the other people were already there, and we had been given our position. We had the honor of being the extreme left flank of the Soviet line. In other words, everyone was to our right, and no one was to our left. Just empty trenches.
Our trench before the action started
We marched out for a safety briefing around 7, where both sides met near a farmhouse that was to be a pivotal position in the next day’s fighting. The supreme commanders of both sides gave us the usual speech, “don’t clock anyone in the head, no shooting directly at people, no stabbing, ‘EMERGENCY’ is the safe word in case anyone gets hurt”. After the meeting, we headed back to our trenches for some trench-made stew, and then dug in for the inevitable German attack.
Rob watches for Jerry from the MG nest
Right before we finished eating, Sergent Dan asked for a volunteer, which I responded to. Turns out a DP machine gun had been detached from the 193rd (I think) that was to our right, and they needed a second man to handle the extra ammo, help with loading, and generally protect the gunner’s ass. Any job that got me some trigger time on a WWII machine gun is a good job, so I bundled up for the night and waited for the green flare to start the hostilities.
The plan for the night was simple, and because we were positioned in a trench to the left of the 37th (AKA “our trench”, which was supposedly the extreme left), we were told just about everything that was going on. The night was supposed to start with a mortar barrage (yes, real mortars, firing bags of flour that exploded on impact, easily marking who was hit) from the two mortars the 193rd brought with them. Then, their Maxim machine gun was supposed to open up to keep their heads down. All this was happening on the right, closer to the center of the line. So while Jerry was thinking we were going in there, Dan was rounding up some volunteers for a raiding party to sneak out, probe the line, and sneak back.
While all this was going on, it was dead quiet on our side of the line. All the sneaking about necessitated our silence, and we didn’t want the nazis to catch on that we were actually extending our line from our previous position. So, for hours on end, all we could do was sit and wait and scrutinize every sound we heard, always thinking that there were Nazis crawling towards us, and waiting for the flares to go up to see what was going on. To try and describe the feeling, it was boredom and exhaustion, tinged with a large helping of paranoia and some fear thrown in.
Around 11, we finally had some movement on our line. German snipers had set up shop in an observation trench no more than 20 yards from our position, and Rob (sitting in the empty MG nest on our extreme left) saw some Nazis moving in the field in front of us. He opened up with Mosin fire, followed by the DP opening up for the first time.
A quick word about blanks. For bolt action rifles, they only need enough power to be convincing. So the cartridge is the normal amount of powder, but a crimped case where the bullet should be. Form automatic and semi-auto weapons that require the pressure created when the bullet is being forced out the barrel to operate their mechanisms, they use a larger round, something we call a “Swanson round”. It’s essentially a case the size of an entire 7.62x54r cartridge, filled with powder, and crimped at the end. The result is that each time one goes off, it’s an ear-shattering experience that shakes the ground. Pretty cool, actually. So when the DP opened up, it was like the entire trench was shaking.
Things calmed down for a little while after we drove the Germans off. We started rotating people off the line to take breaks and warm up in the cook’s cabin we had set up. The MG gunner had taken off for a few minutes when there was some movement in front of us. I issued the challenge, calling out “VOLGA!”, to which they were supposed to respond “Vintovka”, which means “rifle” in russian. But no response came. It was a LOT of movement, so I decided to open up on them. I got off about 20 rounds before I heard them hollering that they were friendly. Oops. It turns out they were the raiding party we sent out coming back, and 3 prisoners heavy.
The rest of the night passed pretty much uneventfully. There was some heavy fighting on the German side to our right, with protracted exchanges of gunfire and even some grenade throwing. But nothing came of it.
At midnight, a ceasefire was called until 8 AM, so that everyone could get some sleep. Me, Rob and Ryan decided to try and sleep in my car, but that didn’t work so well. We were almost in hypothermia when we decided to move back to the trenches. We moved into the cook’s bunker, which still had a warm stove, and started chopping firewood to last us the night. We had an entrenching tool that worked OK as an axe, but it broke before too long. So instead, we figured out that a Mosin nagant, with the appropriate application of force, works as a better and more expedient firewood producing tool.
Rob mid-swing making firewood
We were so amused that it worked, that we came up with a list of unexpected uses for the Mosin Nagant rifle:
- Axe for firewood making
- Disciplining the troops (same way as chopping firewood)
- Cooking aid
- First aid kit
- Flagpole
- Firewood (dude, it’s covered in wood)
We sat in that bunker all night long, no one getting a wink of sleep. If we thought Littleton was cold, this was colder. But at least we had a stove that worked instead of trying to smoke us out. I can’t remember how long we sat in there, but it felt like forever.
Rob trying to sleep
But little by little, the sun started coming up. And it was beautiful, the pre-dawn in the trenches.
Sunrise over the trenches
Soviet trenches and German trenches at dawn
One by one, people started coming to the tent for breakfast, which was supposed to be some sausage (nicknamed “the people’s sausage”, I leave the jokes to your imagination) and water. But before long, we were standing on the line again, firing at helmets.
Sgt. Dan taking some shots at Nazis
I don’t have any pictures of us in action, mostly due to me being at the front of each action. What we really need to start bringing is a combat photographer. But the supreme irony of the day is that we were positioned on the left flank, and did most of the day’s work on the right flank.
The first engagement of the day was a charge straight at the center of the Nazi lines. I was put in second squad, with Crazy Uncle Oliaf as our squad leader. We lined up near an exit to the trenches that was right in front of the mortar positions, and then all of a sudden we were running into no-man’s land. There were shell holes everywhere, and we had to run around them to get into position to the left of 1st squad. Our position put us right in front of a lightly defended line of German trenches. Rob went down first, but I emptied my rifle into their line and was in the middle of reloading when the order to charge came. I got up and charged their line, made it to the trench, and killed 2 of them before one bayonetted me in the leg and another finished me off with a Walther pistol. I was on my back for a good 5 minutes, watching the rest of the charge get slaughtered, when our squad got up and walked back to our lines to “respawn”.
The supreme commander of the Soviet forces was waiting there, asked us if we felt “alive enough for a mission”, and sent us to go shoot and scoot around their right flank. There was a road that led around their trenches, past the house where we had the safety meeting the night before, with a straight shot into their trenches. Our first plan was to distract them from the woods, then have the rest of the squad run straight past them and into the trenches. It didn’t quite work. Dan went first, and was cut down by MG fire. I stopped to take out a German that was drawing a bead on me (and got him too), but then an MP-40 took me out. With the people running out from behind cover being slaughtered, the rest of the squad decided to stay back, and the entire attack was bogged down. We were forced to retreat back to our old position on the left flank.
We rested for a few minutes back at our trench, taking shots at our German friends across the way.
Crazy Uncle Oliaf "making SKEET SKEET BANG BANG!"
37th resting in their trenches
After a few minutes of rest, we were sent back into that road on the right flank. This time, we had grenades, and a better idea of what we wanted to do. We ran from cover to cover, taking the Nazis guarding the end of the trenches completely by surprise. Me, Rob and Ryan made it into a destroyed building behind them and started pouring the fire into the end of the trench. From behind us, some Nazi officer started shooting at us, so me and ryan went to check it out. Turns out there was an entrance to the trenches, so me and Ryan started “slicing the pie” into the trench line. We got a few hundred feet and took out 2 Nazis before being stopped by a SMG and a few grenades. We were regrouping for a second charge when the call came that there was a medical emergency on the field. Apparently, one of the guys in the mortar crew closed the slide on his pistol on his finger, and fired it, taking part of his finger off in the process. So instead of ferociously fighting, we talked and laughed with the fascist invaders.
walking up to the Nazis
Soviets mingling with the fascists
The last action of the day took us right over this ridge, pictured below, and into the Nazi trenches:
Looking into Death Valley
We pushed into the trenches, and rolled up their flank all the way to where we were fighting earlier. It was close combat, and very confusing at times. All around us we could hear fighting in other parts of the trench, but we kept pressing on towards the end. Once we got there, it turned out that some of the Nazis had relocated to behind the building we were using for cover earlier. They had an MG-42, some MP 40s and rifles, and we had only 6 men. Our squad leader decided to try a suicide charge, so we all shouted “Boogee booge!” on our way out, and charged straight at them. And every single gun in their arsenal jammed before they could get a shot off.
Coming home, we were all exhausted, sunburnt, hungry, scratched up, bleeding, and happy. This had to be one of the best birthday parties I’ve ever had.
37th Guards at Newville
