The rattle of machine gun fire drew me to my final battle of the day – a full-blown armoured encounter between a German column and some advancing American troops. Here we see the German soldiers defending their position against long-range cannon fire from approaching Tanks.
US soldiers poured down the hill as advancing armour provided them with covering fire.
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The Germans found themselves assaulted on two sides and tried desperately to hold fast.
But they didn’t stand a chance – the Allies had air power in their favour, and planes made pass after pass to dislodge the German positions.
With the armour having done its job, the humble US Infantryman took centre stage as Squads began to advance using cover where they could, or brute force and volume of fire where they could not.
Light armour brought up the rear to cover the advance.
One Squad readied a Bazooka to fire at one of the few remaining German half-tracks. Only to be told rather comically by a GERMAN Officer that they couldn’t fire from there as they were too close to the observing crowd. Yes, it really happened, I only wish I’d caught it on camera, but I wa laughing too much to take a picture.
Having been told the best position to fire at the German armour by the German Officer, the Bazooka team moved forward and took aim once again. BOOM! It’s a hit!
Smoke poured from the Half-Track as the American troops made the final push to seize the position – this battle was all over.
And so ended my time travelling for the day.
In all, I actually thought Detling was even better than its larger cousin at Beltring – the layout was more conducive to getting around to see all the sights, and it seemed a generally "friendlier" environment, especially for families. Paved roads around the show ground also helped and the whole atmosphere was one of fun. I’d thoroughly recommend a visit to next year’s show.
A J Summersgill
andrew@armchairgeneral.com
To view the complete set of images from my visit, go to the ACG image gallery here.
