Midlands Military Meet and Rendezvous

[phoenix]

Last weekend the MMM&R was on at Campbell Town in tasmania. Apart from dreadfull weather the show went off well. the reenactors had to cancell 2 reenactments due to rain, but were still able to do 2.

Hopefully the show (this is the 2nd one) will continue to grow. now some photos

The very poor weather of saturday, lots of rain, but at least there was gaps in the showers. And the vehicle display of the heritage (The sabre was off the RHS of frame, I couldn't get them all in)





My ambulance on display. they always look good when they are wet.




A table top gaming board inside of the normandy invasion.


the reenactors did a reenactment of a WW2 battle at Balross Pass. Here the lads man the bofors to repell an air attack. this bofors does go bang using LPG and a spark plug, but they are only little bangs, nothing like blanks.


An anti tank weapon ready back at the trentches. It sounds like a much larger weapon when it is fired.


The germans arrive in their vehicles. they did have a german bike as well as 2 'captured' vehicles.


Mortars firing.

[phoenix]

The 25lbder firing back. Beautiful weapon.


Aussie vs germans.


The bren carrier coming in to collect a casualty. the sandbags are actually explosives for when the bren is 'knocked out' later in the battle.


Aussies firing in retreat.


The germans getting ahead in the battle




The aussies defending from the trentches.



The official figures are 4000 through the gate, up from 1800 for the previous event (that was 3 days instead of 2 this year). So a successfull show, especially considering the poor weather.

This land rover 127 was hidden out the back of the carpark as well. Ex UK army.


and a combination photo on the return trip. The ambulance is not mobile under it's own power yet, hence the trailer rather than driving it down.

[Dinty]

G'day All, Good show Richard, thanks for posting the pictures cheers Dennis

[Ryan]

Yes, very enjoyable pictures.

[Scrivo18]

Hi Everyone

I actually took the Blitz Portee with the 2 Pounder mounted down for the show.
The Geelong Convoy also consisted of a C60L towing a Bren Gun Carrier, a Jeep, a Ford WOT, two White Scout cars, My Dodge Command Car, a GMC 6x6, and a Dodge weapons carrier.
We had approx 30 people, the majority went down and back on the boat, but some members had to fly due to commitments.
We did a total of 320 miles for the trip and visited a number of schools as well as participating in the re enactments.
The biggest drama was that the Portee would jump into neutral in the transfer box on the bigger climb's, we eventually worked out how to stop this and then it was just a case of to many gear changes. The ford WOT also had a small fuel line issue, and that was the sum total of mechanical dramas, beyond normal oil, water and fuel.
Considering the distance travelled and the age of the vehicles I think this was a pretty good effort.
I certainly have a great deal more respect for the guys who drove these trucks hundreds of miles back in the day.
The Blitz will be getting some engine work, along with a new clutch, a re conditioned flywheel and a gearbox rebuild before another trip of this length, the oil consumption and the grinding of gears was a little bit extreme :-)

All in all we had a great time, and the hospitality shown to our group was fantastic.

Tim