Frontline Sedgefield - June 16th
Photos and report by Stephen Carr

This was the third "Frontline" event at Sedgefield. My daughter and I were only going to attend on Saturday, but we did plan to camp over on Friday evening. However a wet forecast for Saturday changed my mind and I decided to just drive for the day and save having to pack away a wet canvas tent. As in past years, there were displays and re-enactors from many centuries. This year however, I didn't take as many pictures, and few of anything other than the WW2 displays.
There were a decent number of military vehicles with both WW2 and post war. There were also classic vehicles on show at a different part of the show field. While wandering around the large site we caught some of the arena displays but not all the time periods. The Romans were impressive, but there were also medieval and American Civil War demos amongst others.
It was moderately bright across the first half of the day, but quite windy, which pulled the temperature down. There were a few showers too, so I made the right choice not to camp, especially just for one night.
There were quite few German displays, all part of the Northern WW2 Association who also put on the main WW2 battle.
The North East Land Sea and Air Museum had their Morane Bullet replica on show too. It is now heading towards completion with the tail and one wing now covered in fabric.
At 2:30pm, we took "Jessie" over next to the arena to form up for the convoy around the arena. The convoy started at 2:45pm and since we were at the front of the queue, we led the convoy around for four laps.
Late afternoon was time for the battle, and after some Russian troops went on patrol, the German forces began to marshal their troops. It was also around this time that the light rain started to get heavier. We watched from under umbrellas as the Germans battled the Russians and then the Allies started advancing across the field with the Chaffee tank and Jeeps. It was then that the heavy rain became torrential and my daughter and I ran for cover in the Jeep. The battle continued for a while but the rain was so heavy, and the crowds were all running away from the arena, the pyro guys just blew everything up and called the war won!!
I filmed Malcolm's Chaffee for a little while to catch it firing, and the fast frame rate of the video caught a nice sequence of the main gun firing.
The soggy troops trudged back to their camps and a little while later the rain stopped and the sun came out. We went for one last wander around the site, and everywhere we went, re-enactors of all eras were hanging clothes out to dry on guy ropes and fences. We then packed up the Jeep flags and follow me sign and set off home, rather tired and needing a rest before the Tanfield Railway trip the next day.