BOALSBURG — The sound of rifle shots rang out from the brush, followed by clouds of smoke. A German shepherd barked, several kids covered their ears. And through the bushes, about 150 audience members could occasionally spot the men donning brown and green uniforms fire and fall.
CDT/Melissa Doss
An American soldier creeps through the woods during a small squad tactical battle demonstration against German soldiers as part of the "World War II Revisited" Living History Bivouac at the Pennsylvania Military History Museum in Boalsburg on Saturday, May 23, 2009. This is the 10th annual WWII bivouac, or temporary encampment, at the museum, where re-enactors portray army field life of German and American soldiers in Europe during 1944-1945. CDT/Melissa Doss
The 15-minute skirmish, a reenactment of a World War II-era battle, pitted about five U.S. soldiers and one female French resistance member against about a dozen German and Austrian troops. The battle will be repeated today — and spoiler alert — despite being outnumbered, the Americans prevail.
“We lose gloriously,” joked Gilbert White, before Saturday’s re-enactment began. He wound up shooting 60 blank rounds, before falling with a cry that could be heard over the shots of other blanks.
As a re-enactor on the German side, White has a worse win-loss record than the Washington Generals do against the Harlem Globetrotters.
But he’s OK with that. “The goal here is to show the equipment that the Americans and the Allies faced in order to win the freedom of the world, basically,” said White, a resident of Springfield, Va., who started participating in re-enactments 13 years ago.
On Saturday, he wore a dark green uniform and showcased an 8 cm heavy mortar with a range of about a mile and a half, an MG 42 that can fire 1,500 rounds a minute and other pieces from his historic collection.
“Looking at it in a book or in a video game is one thing, but when you can actually see it, and show how heavy something is, it brings it more to life,” White said.
The Pennsylvania Military Museum has hosted a World War II era encampment, or bivouac as the re-enactors know it, for the past 10 years. One reason for the shortage of U.S. soldier re-enactors this year is that many of them are real-life National Guard soldiers and have been called up for active duty.
Pete Michel, wearing the light brown uniform of the U.S. Army, had a display that included food rations, Lucky Strike cigarettes, a baseball mitt and an Aug. 18, 1941, issue of Life magazine. Michel graduated from Penn State in 2000 with a history degree, and heard about the re-enactment while a student. He convinced his dad, Bruce, to join him.
“A lot of the guys do it so they can teach people about what it was like, so they don’t forget,” said the younger Michel, a Jackson, N.J., resident whose grandfathers both served during World War II, one in the Pacific, the other in Europe. “Get the younger ones interested now, and they’ll grow up wanting to learn more about it.”
Ray Partenheimer’s 3-year-old German shepherd, Lucy, was one of the highlights for the youngsters. He rescued the dog so that she could accompany him on reenactments as he acted the role of a German military police officer.
A 1977 graduate of Bellefonte Area High School, Partenheimer now lives in Bowie, Md. He’s also portrayed a 16th century German mercenary during the Maryland Renaissance Festival and a soldier in Civil War re-enactments, which typically take place in open fields and at a slower pace than World War II ones.
Partenheimer sat out Saturday’s battle demonstration, so that he could hold on to Lucy, who doubles as the family pet.
“You could hear her barking,” said Partenheimer. “If I let her go, she would have run into the woods.”
Ed Mahon can be reached at 231-4619.
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