Diersfordter Wald Reenactment
11-13 December, 2026
500 Old Central Road
Lacy Lakeview, TX 76705
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The 24th of March, 1945. The largest airborne drop in history, Operation Varsity, unfolds on German soil.
The German 7th Parachute Division and the Heer 84th Infantry Division, on the east bank of the Rhine, occupy the drop zones assigned to the British 6th Airborne Division and U.S. 17th Airborne Divisions. After enduring the destruction of massive artillery and air bombardments, the defenders are now inundated by a sky full of transport aircraft, gliders, and paratroopers. Despite an umbrella of flak and devastation of these troops coming from the sky, they are now trying to destroy this enemy landing force on the ground. This is the Fatherland, and failure is not an option. The men of the Allied Airborne, now firmly established on the ground, must fight to expand and secure the landing zones, link up the separate landing zones into one, and hold while the "seaborne" elements cross the Rhine and relieve the airborne forces, now covering the amphibious operation. Combat is intense, and losses on both sides are high. The 6th Airborne Division headquarters established itself at Kopenhof farm, on the west side of Landing Zone Peter. Receiving fire from the Diersfordter Wald near the railroad, a force consisting of the 6th AARR and men of the 12th Devons is ordered to seize the area and remove the threat. An all night battle with the defenders, supported by a battery if le. IG 18 infantry guns, has resulted in a stalemate. On day two of the operation, the U.S. and British Airborne forces are still fighting to link up some of the drop zones. The U.S. Airborne in Drop Zone X-Ray and Landing Zone Nan must now fight through this portion of the Diersfordter Wald, to link up with the 6th AARR and 12th Devons. The Germans defending the Diersfordter Wald, with time of the essence, must prevent the linkup, and destroy the British airborne headquarters and it's defending troops north of the forest. Time is running out, with British and American forces who have crossed the Rhine now flooding into the drop zones. Can the Germans in the south of the forest defeat the advances of the of the Americans pushing through? Can the British guarding the headquarters of the 6th Airborne Division hold out against the German attacks? ..........We shall see. |
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SCENARIO
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The British will be defend their division headquarters at Landing Zone Peter. They will not only hold their perimeter, but of course will conduct counter-attacks and try to expand their perimeter....at their peril.
The Germans mission is to annihilate the British headquarters before the Americans can link up. They will at the same time be defending against the Americans pushing from Drop Zone X-Ray, buying time for their comrades to destroy the British forces in Peter. There are boundaries to the scenario. The landowner owns a herd of Longhorn cattle. They roam the property. There are fences with gates along the left and right sides of the battle area as well as at the top above the edge of drop zone Peter marked on the map to the right. DO NOT open or close the gates during the scenario. There is a jeep trail that runs between the two drop zones near the left boundary through the woods. It is vehicle friendly for tracked and 4WD vehicles. The distance between the drop zones is roughly 600 feet, and the width of the woods between boundaries is roughly 500 feet. The distance from the camping area to the battlefield site is roughly half a mile, so either be ready to walk, or hitch a ride with someone. Bring plenty of water, but there will be water points in the drop zones and the woods to refill canteens if needed. There will be open areas that will need to be crossed, so you'll want to bring smoke grenades. Regarding pyrotechnics, it should go without saying that if a fire starts, activity in the vicinity of the fire should stop and anyone from either side needs to quickly put the fire out before it spreads. Use of pyrotechnics will ultimately be decided by the property owner depending on weather conditions (dryness) of the terrain. |
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Admission to the event is FREE! Amenities included (FREE!) are free beer all weekend at the beautiful Bavarian Bier Garten, and free breakfast and supper on Saturday.
Bring your own food for the other meals not included at the event (Friday night, Saturday Lunch, and Sunday morning), and plenty of water for the weekend.
Bring your own food for the other meals not included at the event (Friday night, Saturday Lunch, and Sunday morning), and plenty of water for the weekend.
UNIFORM AND EQUIPMENT STANDARDS
The scenario is designed for D+1, when significant numbers of the "seaborne" forces began entering the airborne perimeters, the initial linkups occuring in the late afternoon of the 24th of March. This allows for non-airborne impressions to be in the scenario for both the British and Americans. All impressions should be late war, and it is understood that by that time there were still remnants of early war gear and uniforms still in the circulation. There will be more details in the standards for the individual nationalities below.
The German troops during operation Varsity were Luftwaffe and Heer. These should also be late war impressions with the same caveat as that mentioned above for the allies.
NOTE! Historically, there were no Waffen SS units present. BUT! DON'T TAKE THAT TO MEAN THAT WAFFEN SS UNITS ARE NOT ALLOWED AT THE EVENT!!! What we do highly encourage, is that for this event, we ask that you just wear your wools, and leave the SS camo smocks, helmet covers and zelts in the car. We're not concerned about your insignia, but we would like to capture the feel of the real event as much as possible. And understand, there will be lots of photos probably taken and posted on the internet, and the one painfully obvious aspect will be SS camouflage in a battle where it wasn't historically there. Again, I stress that you don't have to NOT wear your SS camo, but others at the event will appreciate you going the extra mile. If you have Heer camo, this is a great option.
The German troops during operation Varsity were Luftwaffe and Heer. These should also be late war impressions with the same caveat as that mentioned above for the allies.
NOTE! Historically, there were no Waffen SS units present. BUT! DON'T TAKE THAT TO MEAN THAT WAFFEN SS UNITS ARE NOT ALLOWED AT THE EVENT!!! What we do highly encourage, is that for this event, we ask that you just wear your wools, and leave the SS camo smocks, helmet covers and zelts in the car. We're not concerned about your insignia, but we would like to capture the feel of the real event as much as possible. And understand, there will be lots of photos probably taken and posted on the internet, and the one painfully obvious aspect will be SS camouflage in a battle where it wasn't historically there. Again, I stress that you don't have to NOT wear your SS camo, but others at the event will appreciate you going the extra mile. If you have Heer camo, this is a great option.
BRITISH
The primary impression for the event for the British is Airborne. Standard British airborne uniform and kit is the recommended kit for the event. Correct cap badges for the units historically involved are recommended, but not required.
NO early war impressions, No tropical/desert impressions. YES, SAS impressions are welcome. Roughly 300 SAS conducted Operation Archway, moving ahead of the armoured and infantry divisions in heavily armed jeeps as they advanced toward the airborne LZ's. NO, they did not have beards in Northwest Europe, they were clean shaven. As with our encouragement of the SS reenactors to not wear their camo, we encourage you to shave for the event, but it's not a requirement.
One thing that we are encouraging for British leg infantry impressions, in the spirit of the event, would be to leave the flat hat in the car and don a maroon beret for the drop zone.
The primary impression for the event for the British is Airborne. Standard British airborne uniform and kit is the recommended kit for the event. Correct cap badges for the units historically involved are recommended, but not required.
NO early war impressions, No tropical/desert impressions. YES, SAS impressions are welcome. Roughly 300 SAS conducted Operation Archway, moving ahead of the armoured and infantry divisions in heavily armed jeeps as they advanced toward the airborne LZ's. NO, they did not have beards in Northwest Europe, they were clean shaven. As with our encouragement of the SS reenactors to not wear their camo, we encourage you to shave for the event, but it's not a requirement.
One thing that we are encouraging for British leg infantry impressions, in the spirit of the event, would be to leave the flat hat in the car and don a maroon beret for the drop zone.
AMERICAN
The primary impression for the event for the U.S. forces is Airborne, preferably 17th Airborne Division. M43 Jump Suits with helmet and netting with bandage is the norm. We highly encourage, in the spirit of the event, that if you do regular leg infantry, just get an M43 jump jacket and wear jump boots or double buckles without leggings. It is not required, but we highly encourage it. The spirit of the event centers on the battles going on in the drop zones. If you're portraying airborne, of course we shouldn't see things like '41 field jackets and leggings and whatnot.
Those portraying leg or mechanized units from the "seaborne" forces, wear what those units wore. If in doubt, post a photo of your impression on the event facebook page.
GERMAN
The primary impressions for the German forces are Luftwaffe fallschirmjaeger/field troops and Heer infantry troops. As stated in the intro paragraph above for UNIFORM AND EQUIPMENT STANDARDS, we are not discouraging attending the event. We are encouraging, in the spirit of the event, if you normally portray Waffen SS, to leave the SS camo smocks, helmet covers and zelts in the car, and just wear your wools or drillichanzug (HBT uniforms). If you have Heer camo, by all means this is a great opportunity to bust it out of the closet.
Standard late war uniforms and equipment are the norm, but by this time there was a lot of scraping the barrel and non-standard stuff out there. If in doubt post a photo to the event Facebook page.
Volksturm impressions are also encouraged. We had a great Volksturm group at our Berlin eastern front event years ago at the Camp Gruber, Oklahoma MOUT site. They were primarily a WW1 Landser unit, and went all out for their invitation to the event to play Volksturm. The only complaint I heard was sometimes they ran away or surrendered just TOO readily.
If you want to play Volksturm, BEWARE, you better do it right. We've seen (this is really true) people playing "partisans" showing up at other events here in Texas and Tennessee wearing red plaid jackets and Winchester repeaters, and worse. If in doubt, post a photo of your impression on our Facebook event page.
The primary impressions for the German forces are Luftwaffe fallschirmjaeger/field troops and Heer infantry troops. As stated in the intro paragraph above for UNIFORM AND EQUIPMENT STANDARDS, we are not discouraging attending the event. We are encouraging, in the spirit of the event, if you normally portray Waffen SS, to leave the SS camo smocks, helmet covers and zelts in the car, and just wear your wools or drillichanzug (HBT uniforms). If you have Heer camo, by all means this is a great opportunity to bust it out of the closet.
Standard late war uniforms and equipment are the norm, but by this time there was a lot of scraping the barrel and non-standard stuff out there. If in doubt post a photo to the event Facebook page.
Volksturm impressions are also encouraged. We had a great Volksturm group at our Berlin eastern front event years ago at the Camp Gruber, Oklahoma MOUT site. They were primarily a WW1 Landser unit, and went all out for their invitation to the event to play Volksturm. The only complaint I heard was sometimes they ran away or surrendered just TOO readily.
If you want to play Volksturm, BEWARE, you better do it right. We've seen (this is really true) people playing "partisans" showing up at other events here in Texas and Tennessee wearing red plaid jackets and Winchester repeaters, and worse. If in doubt, post a photo of your impression on our Facebook event page.
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