2008 Thunder over MI WWII Battle Reenactment

[m41walker]

It's definitely a fun time. I would urge the people in "charge" to make sure they do a sand-table walkthrough of the battle, last year the first couple were fubar since nobody had any clue what they were doing. Sunday's went great. Let me know if they have any video's of last year available, I have been looking.

[Barneytheguard]

Signed up for the Vietnam reenactment.....looks like both are going to be great!

[24michiganironbrigad]

were any of the allied units from the Michigan area? I am looking to get into ww2 reenacting.-

[tubeparker23]

sounds like a pop rocks factory

[Diansonic]

@tubeparker23 lol win

[iTails92]

Wow, its amazing how many Shermans are left in the world.

[timthestick]

I agree Walker, we had our fair share of engine issues ourselves. The Halftracks ran fine, the Scout Car stuck a starter bendix in the flywheel. We SEROIUSLY don't intend to EVER brush anyone off. Please remember, if we're panting and sweating, there's likely a reason. And it's not just shortness of breath we suffer from when dealing these machines, short tempers too. I once took 3 hours to change one spark plug in the 1/2Track. Every time I'd start working, someone would ask a question.

[timthestick]

Ohh, and then I broke the plug wire. An original shielded plug wire. The ones where there ARE NO replacements for. I bet to this day those 2 guys who were asking me questions when that wire came off in my hand thought I was the biggest dick in the world. It wasn't them, it was the plug wire. And I felt terrible about it later, but at the time, I just broke a "one-of-none" on a vehicle that wasn't even mine. We realy don't mean it. Try us 10 mins later next time, it's just the timing!

[m41walker]

Thats unfortunate whoever you caught wasn't in a talking mood. Please understand that all three tanks broke on Friday night and a ton of work went into getting them up for Saturday morning. That is on top of all the work just to get them out there. So even though we all love talking tanks the idea of popping engine covers is almost never appealing. I apologize for whoever was rude to you - never appropriate regardless. I wouldn't let that discourage you from going next year.

[mgkusmc]

I was on the tank that broke down friday right at the beginning of the Thunder Run and then perused on its own out to the park in town. That was fun.

[m41walker]

How ironic, I was on the Stuart that broke down during the run - we exploded a radiator hose but luckily "Tanker Tim" had a full set of spares for an entire Stuart in the back of his tank! His Stuarts were beautiful pieces and he's a great guy.

[mgkusmc]

you guys were the ones that broke down on the bridge werent ya and we kinda came up on you out of no where. I remember you guys. Massachusetts right? 2nd Armored?

[m41walker]

That's us! The boozebags from the east, the tanks run on gas and we run on beer ;)

I just picked up a M-18 Hellcat which I hope to have out there next summer.

[Kruzn79]

I Was surprised. I asked the guy with the chaffee tank if i could look at his engines. they are too cadillac,s eng in her. I have one on a stand brand new from 1944. was hoping to look at one installed. are all the thank guys that not that nice.?? makes you not want to go next year. oh well.

[m41walker]

Not sure where they were out of, NicNatNob1992 could answer that, but they did jump on Saturday out of the C-47's but high winds kept them  from going again on Sunday.

[SUPERBURRITO]

Cool video awesome stuff. Couldn't go this year. Meijer's said you had to have a debit card/credit to buy tickets. How stuipid is that?! Not everyone has those! The gate fee plus parking, too expensive so i passed. And only Meijer's had tickets. Next year they need to get more companies selling tickets besides those idiots. I bet it hurt ticket sales. Whoever is in charge of the PR for T.O.M should be let go. I have been going for 25 years. This year was the first year that i missed.

[NicNatNob1992]

The Biggest joke was when the German was infront of the Tank and we were all shooting at him.lol

[m41walker]

To be historically accurate, they should have made the Germans kill all of you since Airborne didn't surrender.

Too bad the winds were so bad on Sunday, I was looking forward to seeing the second jump.

[82Airbornereenactor]

jump?!? I thought the only reenacting groups in the U.S. actually trained to jump from C-47's was that one in Washington and the other in Oklahoma(?)

[NicNatNob1992]

I know of only the Oklahoma one.

I herd a few things about the Liberty one but i know they wernt there.

James was the Ailed CO

and he jumped with Liberty but "ADT (Airborne demonstration team) does not allow Liberty Jump school grads to jump with them" For some apparent reason.

[82Airbornereenactor]

ok, thanks

[NicNatNob1992]

I was there. I was one of the Airborne Guys. I We wernt to thrilled of surrendering.

[PanzerVIECommander]

ha bravo uncle andy. absolutely brilliant. i heard that sunday went alot smoother. did you get any footage of that or was your camera completely out?

[m41walker]

I was part of the tank contingent, we are the 2nd Armor out of Mass. I was riding on the Stuart "Nasty Girl" working the .30 up top, this was the stuart that was parked with the Sherman and Chaffee. (couldn't bring the Bulldog since it's a Korean War Tank). Hope you saw the afternoon show on Saturday since the morning show was FUBAR - we got the second one right. Sunday morning's was the best of the weekend.

[BANZITOMMY]

Nice video. I was there on saturday. Its considered the largest armored reenactment in the US.