wwii axis reenactment forum

Here's my little poll on why we all chose GJ impressions. I'm not generally asking why 'the dark side', as I would like to find out - why this impression, not FJ, not grenadiers, not other stuff.

You can choose 2 options that appeal to you most. Pls feel free to leave comment.

When Ill started to take reenacting more seriously and wanted to join some organized Group the one which was closest to my was placed in Cracow and wanted to reenact Gebirgsjagers.No one in Poland those days even think about GJ - almost everyone was doing regular Heer. So thats how it started When I now look in back in the past to those prehistoric ages I see how little we knew about GJ then But day after day, month after month, from one reenactment to another and many, many books Ive started to learn about GJ and was surprised by scale of equipment used, battles they fought, and things they archieved. And most of all -as I said before no one in Poland was reenacting them. That was most important to me - Ive always wanted to aim at things which will be most difficult, which no one else wanted to do and which will gave You some kind of pride when You archieve it.

Now after all those years I think then Ive find few peoples which are enough crazy to do this impression in way it deserves....

Berg Heil und Horrido bergkameraden !!!!

Grüß Di' Bergkameraden,

For me, I think it stems mainly from my mountaineering/skiing experiences. In my early youth, I lived near the mountains in Washington and California. I learned to ski when I was 8, plus did lots of hiking and camping as a boy scout. In college, I started rock climbing, winter camping, and Telemark skiing. When I moved to Germany in 1981, I was collecting everything WWII related that I could find at the flea markets. This got out of hand quickly, and I realized that I needed to focus my collection. So, as a mountaineer and skier, I chose to collect Gebirgsjäger militaria.



Berg Heil und Horrido!

Patrick

One word..Kreta.

Australian military history is specific in its involvement with the Bavarians of the GJ in Kreta! As an Australian and having served in the regular army for a number of years, Aussie history is imbued in me and as I reenact a few different impressions of WW2, Gebirgs was a natural progression. It mixes in well with events here in Australia.

Incidentally, Aussie vets recall with respect, the achievements of both GJ and FJ in Kreta. Add to that the natural mystique of a specific mountain force. While its good for Euro reenacting to do other Heer units, GJ is specific to our history down here.

Stefan

Hopefully not everyone's ticking box No.8

erm why you standing talking to a wooden horse ...lol

oops sorry thats the wooden horse behind you




i chose the last one as my group happened to do it when i was innitially with the signasl unit
i then moved over to gebirgs with my radios unit and kept the signals attacehd to gebs

Well I had to think long and hard on this one ,I have always been a fan of GJ and have a few GJ things at home .But I started of reenacting Wiking a Pioniere and carried this over to Finland .It was not till EK and me hit on the idea of doing a unit that was here in Finland that we whent for SS Nord Heer GJ units served here in Finland but as we had all the SS kit we whent for Nord

I am interested in history of 2-nd world war. In the childhood (13-16 years) was engaged in mountaneering (more mountaineering). Went to Caucasus. Rose to Elbrus. 2 grandfathers were at war during war. One of them has started to be at war even during the Russian-Finnish war then at war on the Karelian front. Was at war against 139 GJR. Therefore interest to Kareliya, to Finland. Itself served in alakurtti (Alakurtille)on border. Therefore reeneacting of mountain parts. And easier speaking (without philosophy) simply it is pleasant.
I receive huge pleasure from dialogue with same as well as I the keen people. Someone loves fishing. Someone has other hobby and I like reeneacting.

unsam wrote:I am interested in history of 2-nd world war. In the childhood (13-16 years) was engaged in mountaneering (more mountaineering). Went to Caucasus. Rose to Elbrus. 2 grandfathers were at war during war. One of them has started to be at war even during the Russian-Finnish war then at war on the Karelian front. Was at war against 139 GJR. Therefore interest to Kareliya, to Finland. Itself served in alakurtti (Alakurtille)on border. Therefore reeneacting of mountain parts. And easier speaking (without philosophy) simply it is pleasant.
I receive huge pleasure from dialogue with same as well as I the keen people. Someone loves fishing. Someone has other hobby and I like reeneacting.

I could't say why any better than that last sentence by unsam

Hi

Im new here and this is my first post

Im relative new to reenactment, and i've haven't found a group yet, and just started to buy gear etc. so any tip would be nice

Iv'e collected ww2 sience i was 12, and discoverd reenactment about a year ago, bought my first repro m/43 tunic, and participated in my first ww2 airsoftreenactment. After that i was stuck, and decided to reenact as a gerbirgsjäger.
I chose Gebirgsjäger mainly because i love ww2 history, mountains and skiing, and the esprit de corps seem very appealing. I also had a relative who were a Gebirgsjäger, but i havn't figured out his unit, yet

Grüß!

Kaiserjäger

Hello Kaiserjager, it would help if you told us were you live. There are Gebirgs from all over the world on this forum. Its good to hear from you . Andy 85th Gebirgs UK

Hi

Im from Sweden.
Just fill'd in the "location" on the profile

Kaiserjäger

I do FJ, but some of the gear crosses over, so I could Gebirgs curious!!!

Hmm, I don't do Gerbirgs but do portray the only mountaineeering trained regiment in the British Army during WW2 - Lovat Scouts and, actually unlike anyone else I know over here (the sniper role is the most prevalent impression - even from Andy Pullen) portray the mountain reconnaissance role they took in Italy from July 1944 complete with mountain boots, snow shoes, pitons, carabiners, mountain stove, sleeping bag, piton hammer, ropes, grappling hook and ice axe. I'll eventually find the skis and poles too.

For me, it's simply for the fact that they were such a small unit that had a wide ranging role in WW2 - the least well known one being the mountaineering role (739 troops sailed for Italy) and I think that it's important to ensure someone remembers. I climbed a lot during my university years but haven't even touched a climbing wall in the last 10 years, sop I don't think that's the appeal.

Now that's not saying that it wouldn't be great to see more people doing the role, I'm not in it for the exclusivity but I think it's important that ALL aspects of a country's army should be recreated for the public where possible.

As I've put on the Allied forum I have a dream that one year we'll be able to get all the French, Finnish, FSSF, 10th Mountain Division, Gerbirgs, Alpini, Commandos and Lovats re-enactors can get together to show the public a forgotten aspect of warfare.

Looking forward to seeing where this one goes - even though I'm a guest on here,
I felt I needed to say (for what it's worth) that I'm right behind anyone who's doing this impression regardless of being dark side, septic, pilou, Eyetie, tommy etc. Would be great to vote on your poll but ....

Take care

Paul

nice one paul ..thanks for the support