Re-enactment contains real message

Fingers were pointed to the air. Cameras clicked, and snacks eaten on the sidelines. But 64 years ago on D-Day, the only audience soldiers had was each other, and the atmosphere far from relaxed.
Tauranga's Classic Flyers NZ commemorated D-Day on Saturday at Tauranga Airport, where the sounds of aerial and ground battles could be heard reverberating around a mock M*A*S*H camp.
The first re-enactment in the morning involved a dogfight between a Yak (acting for the Germans _ the Messerschmitt ME 108 couldn't make it) and North American Harvards, before American troops defeated German soldiers protecting the airfield.
Smoke and simulated gunfire gave way to applause for the convincing actors from the World War II Historical Re-enactment Society (HRS) and Military Re-enactment Society (MRS).
Dave McKenzie, who played out a role as a sharp shooter with the German Alpine Troops, said the members took their acting seriously, with some speaking to one another in German only.
"I do it because I have an enthusiasm for the history of World War II and because the vast majority of public have little knowledge [about the era] until recently ... it seems to have fallen away from education. People see us as real military, rather than actors," he said.
Mr McKenzie, who was among the first to join the HRS 13 years ago, said it was also about showing the public how ``real soldiers looked, rather than the Hollywood version'. Battling it out on pristine grass at Tauranga Airport did seem odd, he admitted, but his troops tried to make it look realistic.
Choreography was important _ as was the acting _ with soldiers calling out in pain as they tumbled to the ground, or tussled dramatically with the opposition.
Soldiers were dressed in genuine combat gear _ most purchased at their own expense _ and used weapons from around New Zealand donated for the day.
For safety, the soldiers fired blanks in the ``general direction' of their enemy, rather than front on. When asked what was the more popular side to be on, the Germans or the Americans, Kevin Carberry, 43, whose acting role was as a ``fallschirmj?ger' or sky hunter, said:
"We have an issue with Americans. Band of Brothers [the miniseries] has a lot to answer for. With HRS, we avoid [political units] because it's not appropriate."
Mr McKenzie, a military dealer based in Auckland, said while spectators and actors found the re-enactments entertaining, there was the underlying message of "lest we forget".
One of the historical society's members is an 83-year-old German parachute veteran, who took a bullet through the neck on the original D-Day 64 years ago. Classic Flyers NZ hopes to make the commemoration annual.