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Naval re-enactors

Naval re-enactors

The British Royal Navy is known as the ‘Senior Service’ from the fact that it can trace its history back more than 1000 years to the time of King Alfred the Great. Britain has a long naval tradition and its navy was once the envy of the world. In fact, looking at one wartime publication which lists the strength of several navies at the start of WWII, the Royal Navy had a tonnage of 2.25 million tons, which was more than the French, Italian and German navies combined. Even allowing for the fact that this may have been propaganda, there would have been a large degree of truth behind this boast.

Indeed, the number of times British and German warships engaged during WWII, it was invariably the Royal Navy which came off best. For example, two of the Kriegsmarine’s heaviest warships, the Graf Spee and the Bismarck, were sunk in December 1939 and May 1940 respectively, as a result of action with the Royal Navy. Today, there are a number of wartime vessels around the country, HMS Belfast, HMS Cavalier and HM Submarine X24, midget submarine of the type used to attack the German warship Tirpitz, which have been preserved as a reminder of those great days.

Re-enacting the Royal Navy

Such a connection with history makes re-enacting the Royal Navy a very popular subject with groups and some museums, such as Explosion; The Museum of Naval Firepower at Gosport in Hampshire (www. explosion.org.uk) and Chatham Dockyard in Kent (www.thedockyard.co.uk), are very accommodating and actively encourage WWII Royal Navy re-enactment groups such as the Wavy Navy to load and fire the guns. At Explosion these guns are 4.7-inch calibre in a turret mounted on a concrete hard-standing. At Chatham the guns are 4.5-inch calibre mounted on HMS Cavalier which saw action during the war. The gun crews of the Wavy Navy are very experienced and their displays are excellent. In fact their presence aboard HMS Cavalier at Chatham really enhances a visit and even the veterans enjoy the experience. The Wavy Navy has a Facebook site and can be contacted through this.

Depicting the entire crew of a warship is out of the question, but a few re-enactors between them can put on a good display of uniforms and equipment as used by sailors. This can be done either on board a ship such as HMS Cavalier or on land by the quayside or even in a field.

Over the years the Royal Navy has been issued with a variety of weapons and during WWII they used No4 Lee-Enfield rifles, revolvers and the Lanchester SMG, all of which can be used to widen a display. One particularly interesting operation was the so-called ‘Altmark Incident’ on February 16th 1940. HMS Cossack entered the Jossingfjord in Norwegian waters and boarded the German supply ship Altmark. The boarding party were issued with weapons including cutlasses for the last time. Their actions secured the release of 299 British sailors.

Naval re-enactors can obtain legally deactivated firearms from suppliers and, with valid documentation, blank-firing examples can also be obtained for live action displays. I am sure that cutlasses of the type used in 1940 could also be tracked down for displays.

Sourcing Uniforms

Re-enacting the navy can be done by male and female re-enactors and I have met some who wear original uniforms which they have obtained from a family member who served during the war. Alternatively, original items can be purchased from dealers. Items such as hats, jackets and badges can be bought at militaria fairs or from traders attending events such as War & Peace Revival. Reproduction uniforms and headdress is also available from specialist suppliers such as Soldier of Fortune (www.sofmilitary.co.uk) which offers a range of US Navy and Royal Navy caps and uniforms. Epic Militaria (www. epicmilitaria.com) has a range of US Navy and Royal Navy items and some German uniforms, including U-Boat jacket and cap, along with other items such as badges.

U-Boats

At some events I have encountered naval personnel of other nations, including French and Polish sailors, US Navy and even Dutch Navy fliers. German navy ratings sometimes turn up at events to depict prisoners of war; in fact, the first Germans taken prisoner came from U-Boats which had been sunk. For example, the crew from U-39 were captured when their boat was sunk on September 14th 1939 and, six days later, the crew of U-27 were captured when it was sunk on September 20th.

A few years ago, standard depiction of navy was transformed when Kevin Slade founded the U-Boat Society. Kevin turned up at events complete with a full-size conning tower of a wartime U-Boat of the Type VIIC with the markings of the 9th Flotilla. It was an incredible item and certainly turned heads wherever he exhibited it. The display he and his fellow members created included crates and provisions as though replenishing the U-Boat for a patrol and was most innovative in its approach. Kevin was simply remembering the men who served in this branch of the German navy and suffered one of the highest casualty rates for any branch of a country’s armed forces during the war. He also showed what could be done if one really tried hard enough.

Kevin and the other members all wore naval uniform and the conning tower was usually bedecked with pennants. He told me recently that he has unfortunately sold the conning tower to a military museum in Germany.

Very few U-boats survived the war but there are some in museums around the world. One of these is the Type IXC U534 which is preserved in Birkenhead, Liverpool. This now forms the core of a special museum and full details can be found on the website at www.u-boatstory.co.uk.

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There are a couple of Royal Navy submarines which can be visited by reenactors looking to recreate submariners. The first is HMS Alliance, which is a late war vessel and is displayed at the Submarine Museum at Gosport. Full details can be found at the website: www.submarine-museum.co.uk.

Another preserved submarine is HMS Ocelot which is open to the public at the Historic Dockyard at Chatham in Kent. The Ocelot is a boat (submarines are known as boats) from the 1960 and further details can be found at the website www.thedockyard.co.uk.

Older Vessels

It is not just the Second World War which is re-enacted, because with such a wealth of naval tradition in this country there is an opportunity to depict other periods. From time to time I have been fortunate enough to see some of these displays. At Hartlepool Docks, for example, there is HMS Trincomalee, (www.hms-trincomalee. co.uk) a Leda Class frigate launched in 1817. Although the ship entered service two years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars she is a design of the period. The site does host some events during the year and it is recommended to check the website for details of these. Visits around the ship are self-conducted and give an insight into how the navy of the period served.

Unarguably the most famous of all ships from the time of the Napoleonic Wars is HMS Victory in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. She was Admiral Lord Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and it was during this action that Nelson was mortally wounded. The ship is open to the public for visits and any re-enactor thinking about portraying this period would be advised to visit the ship for the purposes of research. The gun deck has been restored and the living conditions have been faithfully recreated. Armed with 104 guns of varying weights, this ship was a floating artillery platform and remains impressive today. The website has full details of opening time at www.hms-victory.com.

Going back even further in time there are other replica ships, such as the Matthew (www.matthew.co.uk) which is a recreation of the 15th century ship sailed by John Cabot when he discovered Newfoundland. She is moored in Bristol and can be seen at her berth there. The website gives a lot of information.

From the Tudor period of the 16th century there is a replica of the Golden Hind, famous as the Ship of Sir Francis Drake. This replica is in Brixham harbour, Devon, and tours around this vessel are available and gives an insight into how sailors lived and fought at the time of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The website (www.goldenhind.co.uk) gives full details and some of the history.

Another Tudor period ship is the Mary Rose (www.maryrose.org) which is in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and has costumed interpreters on-site and the museum with its exhibition of artefacts would be great research material.

Rule Britannia

The Victorian period was a time when the Royal Navy literally ruled the waves, as the ships protected the trade routes of the British Empire from India, Australia and Canada along with many other places. The Royal Navy was made up of people from all walks of life and, remarkably, there are quite a few ships preserved from that time. For example, in Bristol Docks there is the SS Great Britain (www.ssgreatbritain. org) dating from 1843, and although a passenger liner she was used to transport troops part of the way to the Crimean War. Today visitors can go on board to look at the living conditions. Re-enactors will be particularly interested in the display of living conditions on board and how horses for the cavalry were transported.

The now fully restored Cutty Sark dating from 1869 was a merchant vessel, but even so, a visit to Greenwich gives another opportunity to study life on aboard a ship in the Victorian period.

There are two ships which lend themselves to re-enacting the Victorian navy: HMS Gannet in the Dockyard at Chatham in Kent and HMS Warrior in Portsmouth, near to HMS Victory. Enquiries to Chatham regarding the possibility of allowing Victorian naval re-enactment on-board the Gannet was greeted with a resounding ‘yes, they would allow it if they were asked’. On-board the Gannet there are naval weapons of the period including Nordenfelt multi-barrelled machine guns as used by the Royal Navy.

Making similar enquiries at the Warrior, a spokesperson said they have done such events in the past, but now they only do one Victorian event each year. This is presented by some members of the Southern Skirmish Association (SoSKan) who depict the Victorian navy. Details of this event can be found on the Warrior’s website at www.hmswarrior.org. In the past the sail and steam powered ironclad HMS Warrior has been used by American Civil War re-enactors to depict the CSS Alabama which was built in Birkenhead, UK in 1862 for the Confederate States Navy.

There is a re-enactment group depicting the Royal Navy between 1879 and 1919, called the Blue Jackets. Unfortunately I have not yet had the privilege of seeing them, but some people who have say they are very good. The period they cover would allow them to serve on HMS Gannet, which would be a display to see. The group has its own website which can be seen at www.bluejackets.co.uk.

World War One

The possibilities for naval re-enactors continue to expand as more ships are restored to provide a backdrop to a period. For example, later this year the last surviving Monitor, HMS M33, literally a floating artillery platform used to bombard enemy positions during the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign in 1915, is due to open. Plus, next year, in time to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of Jutland, HMS Caroline which took part in the engagement is due to be opened to the public. Details of these developments and other events can be found at the website: www.nmrn.org.uk. There is much more about naval re-enactment still to be discovered and depicted, such as Dunkirk, which can be done at Dover Castle, and because of that, naval subjects will remain popular for a long time to come.

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