reenactment

I am writing to you with the hope that I do not offend either yourself or members of the Burma Star Association. Myself and 9 other members of a WW2 living history society ( World War Two Living History Association) recently held a living history display at the Glenn Miller Festival at RAF Twinwoods in Bedfordshire. For many of us we have for a long time held a great interest in the Far East campaign, myself especially as my grandfather served with the 2nd Battalion KOSB in the 7th Indian Infantry Division (89th Brigade).

The display we did allowed us to inform the general public of the campaign in Burma , and the actions of the 14th army, which is generally ignored by my fellow re-enactors who tend to centre on America's contribution, and predominatly North West Europe. The display also reinforced my viewpoint that the actions of men like my grandfather is still very much forgotten, as the vast majority of the public believed we were Australian ( due to the bush hats), and were surprised to discover the Briitsh even fought the Japanese ( I for one am ashamed of the british education system and media which has fostered such ignorance).

I have attached some pictures from the event, to show you that we are committed living historians, and only wish to portray the men of the British army in WW2 accuratey in order to educate the public - hence the research undertaken prior to the event (12 months to organise) in regards equipment, and uniforms used. The reproduction uniforms were sourced through a group contact in India, and were made to the pattern used in WW2, other members of the group also redyed khaki drill uniform to the modern equivalent of the dye used in WW2.

The event also gave us the opportunity to meet Kirsty Crombie-Smith, who is the great neice of Orde Wingate (picture 5) , who also attended the event to publicise a book relating to the Czech government in exile during WW2, which the Wingate family also had connections with.

Again I hope our efforts do not annoy, as we only wished to authentically as possible portray the men of the 14th army to the general public of today, to educate them members of the Burma Star association's sacrifices, and make them a little less forgotten today.

Yours truly

Steve Orme on stevanorme@hotmail.com