Evening everyone, Ollie here after a very long day. Reece and I both attended a 40's weekend at Crich tramway museum, half an hour from where I live, I was in my Soviet guards impression, and Reece had cobbled together a Byelorussian partisan setup. We only got the go-ahead at the 11th hour, as Reece is up in Rotherham for a few days visiting family. Nevertheless, perseverance paid off, and we arrived just after lunch.

The museum itself is based around a village or town in England with its own tram service. There's buildings such as a pub, tearoom and bank at one end, surrounded by woodland, which makes for some varied patrols as a reenactor. We had decided on a particular scenario. I had been sent to link up with some partisans to act as my company's advance guard through the outskirts of Minsk, liberated in Summer 1944. There were some small groups in attendance, and a great many light vehicles, more often than not Willys jeeps, and more often than not the public had made an effort in terms of vintage attire.

All afternoon, we found ourselves moving tactically through the museum, using hand signals, orders and covering our advances. Despite there only being the 2 of us, I thought we did a great deal more to interact with the public than many of the attending groups, such as asking the public about the possible whereabouts of collaborators, Germans and units allied with the Germans. This, coupled with us, having looked around at the competition, possibly being the most out there impression represented, saw us be mobbed for photos for the most part, even if I do say so myself.

The highlight of the afternoon came towards the end. We moved from the bridge, down the street, behind some vintage cars parked up near the tram shed, while Reece planted some explosives by the tracks, with me covering him. After the explosives were planted, we scrambled for cover behind the cars...only for me to berate my partisan friend with "God dammit Roman, stop making your own explosives!"

While we didn't get any proper uniform shots for this blog, we did get several fantastic shots of the advance to the explosives, courtesy of my mother. I do recommend the Crich 40's weekend, it's a good little event, and there's usually some good groups attending, as well as a swing band or some form of 40's style entertainer. There's a pub and a tearoom as well, both of which are rather good, if very busy on event days. There's also a slew of WW2 vehicles and a fair few vintage cars as well.

More to follow tomorrow...

Ollie