Operation Ariel – held on 5th July 2009 at Fearful Silence Airsoft site, Huddersfield. This site is around 30 acres of varying types of trees. It features open areas, thick undergrowth, fox holes, trenches and bases.
July 1940
As British and French troops organise evacuation to Dunkirk and Cherbourg it is left to the stout British infantry to hold back the German advance. A safe haven must be maintained, roads kept clear, equipment left behind put beyond use and extraction of French gold reserves facilitated. It’s grim work but hundreds of thousands of men’s lives depend on it.
Our story takes us to early July 1940. Cut off and left behind as the last organised craft left the shores ten days ago, a small group of British soldiers and airmen have a choice – give themselves up to the encircling German forces or fight on and somehow get themselves to a port and find a boat to requisition. Their saving grace is that the disciplined Germans are not in a hurry and their organised military machine is slow to react to the activities of the plucky Brits…
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This event was the first early war event to be held in the UK and so was rather more prescriptive with required kit than normal which should gave much more of a feel for the days when sub-machine guns were a rarity and rifles were the norm. Once again lunch was provided in the field to add to the experience!
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