A Trip to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's WWII Weekend

Three whole days of living history, air shows, and flea markets!

Three years ago, when my sister was graduating from the University of Pittsburgh, I got my paws on a flyer for an event: World War II Weekend at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania. The flyer boasted that it was a three day event filled with an air show, rides in vintage warbirds, reenactors, a swing dance, and much, much more. 

Anyone who's been reading this blog for more than a few weeks - or who knows me in real life! - knows that my favorite era to study and teach others about is World War II, so of course I immediately wanted to go. Unfortunately, Reading is just far enough away from my parent's house, DC, and where I now live post-grad school that it was always a hard sell to folks to hike out that way with me. Fortunately, my wife is also very into World War II history and doesn't mind long car rides, so this year, we packed up our bags (and Molly and Nanea) to go check out the 29th Annual WWII Weekend!

WWII Weekend is a three day event, running Friday through Sunday, usually on the first weekend of June. It's hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum, a museum dedicated to preserving the history of flight. It's located on the grounds of a regional airport, and boasts an impressive collection of planes and flight related memorabilia. 

WWII Weekend has been hosted by the museum since 1990, and features a huge variety of programming. 

Since it's an air museum, you won't be surprised to hear that one of the biggest parts of the weekend is getting up close and personal with a lot of different old warbirds, and a few modern planes as well. Several planes were parked on the blacktop near the museum, including a P-61 Black Widow they're working on restoring to flying condition. My dad's always liked the P-61 because of it's unusual shape, and I've always liked the plane because of its connection to the successful raid on Cabanatuan to liberate Allied POWs during the recapture of the Philippines in 1945. A P-61 distracted the camp's guards by preforming unusual acrobatics overhead, allowing American Army Rangers and Filipino guerillas to army crawl close enough to the camp to spring a surprise attack once night fell. The raid saved survivors of the Bataan Death March from possible execution at the hands of desperate Japanese guards. It was cool to see one in person!

I was also excited to see a B-24 Liberator, as it was the most produced bomber of the war (and the most produced American military plane ever), but no museum I've visited has an intact one in their collection. This boxy plane was regarded with healthy suspicion over the B-17, but its increased range made it highly suited for long missions in the Pacific, as well as European theaters. It was used by every branch of the American military and several Allied nations before being phased out in favor of new designs in the post war period.

There was also a C-47 Skytrain parked near the Airborne encampments, which you could climb inside and learn about its history. C-47's are also known as Dakotas, and are probably best known to the general public as the planes used to drop paratroopers on D-Day as seen in Band of Brothers and elsewhere. However, they were also important in resupplying Allied forces in the Pacific at Guadalcanal and New Guinea, keeping them in better fighting form against the Japanese. They also continued to be used in the post war period, and some are even still in use as commercial planes in certain countries! 

In past years, WWII Weekend has also featured a paratrooper jump from a C-47, but those planes and reenactors were in Normandy this year. Can't imagine why! 

(June 6, 2019 was the 75th anniversary of D-Day! That was another reason I really wanted to attend WWII Weekend this year - I couldn't be in Normandy, but this felt like it was close enough!) 

One last thing about the planes: if you're brave, you can pay to go on rides with some of these warbirds. I chickened out and didn't want to go this year, and probably won't when I visit again just because I've read enough stories about things going horribly wrong on these planes when they were fresh off the factory floor in 1943 that the idea of getting in one 75+ years later is pretty alarming to me, but the pilots are all extremely skilled and careful, so if you're less of a wuss that might be a cool thing to explore. I know I'd love to do it if I could just get over the feelings of "what if?"

Besides the planes, the hanger was host to vendors, folks with artifacts to display or books to market, and World War II veterans who had come out to share their stories with guests. Near the hanger, there was a stage where you could listen to them share their stories and experiences. Jessi and I stopped to listen to a submariner who joined the Navy when he was only 17!

There were a huge number of reenactors and living historians set up in sprawling camps around the grounds. I was so impressed by the diversity of experiences represented here. There were displays discussing every branch of the Armed Forces, including the Coast Guard which is usually forgotten, and there were displays for or people representing the WAVES, WAC, WASP, and Army nurses, getting us some good women's military history in there as well. 

Some interpreters were representing a specific moment in time or perspective, like the Marines on Wake Island or Army nurses on Bataan during the invasion of the Philippines, but others spoke more generally about experiences during the war. Others highlighted the contributions of specific jobs or groups like chaplains, corpsmen/medics, and the SeaBees.

 

I was particularly excited to see a lot of gear relating to Navy corpsmen, doctors and nurses, as that's a perspective I've always found very interesting and compelling. If and when I get into reenactment or living history, this is definitely the perspective I'd want to teach people about!

There were interpreters representing more than just Americans! We saw encampments of Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, and Brits. Jess even got to meet an interpreter portraying a Digger - an Australian soldier! He let her examine his rifle and some of the rest of his gear.

We had a really great time chatting with the different reenactors, asking them about how they got into the hobby and why they'd chosen this particular perspective to portray. One of the groups we met has been interpreting Easy Company, 506th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division (a.k.a. the Band of Brothers guys) since the 1980's, well before Stephen Ambrose wrote the book that would propel the historical soldiers into world wide fame. 

Pretty much every person my age with an interest in World War II history can point to Band of Brothers as one of the early things that got them interested in the period, and I'm no exception, so it was lots of fun getting to chat with them. They were fortunate enough to know many of the veterans personally and enjoyed long friendships with them, so they had some really interesting stories to share.

We also spotted a few references to a certain Lewis Nixon's favorite scotch stashed around camp!

One of my favorite displays was the functional telephone switchboard in the reconstructed French village, operated by a WAC who let you make a phone call outside. She told us there are plans to fully wire the village so you could make phone calls to the florist, and cafe from inside their building.

Speaking of the French village, they had reenactments throughout the weekend showing either the Germans or Americans taking this small town. They were cool to see, although I was not happy that the Germans won the day the first time we saw it. I know someone has to play the bad guy at events like this and it's probably silly how instinctively emotional I got seeing the Americans surrender, but WWII-era Axis reenactment has always left a bad taste in my mouth, especially in recent years with the growth of the Alt-Right. That's not to say that all German (or Japanese) reenactors are wannabe Nazis or bad people, and most Axis reenactor groups vet their members very carefully to make sure no unsavory characters are slipping into their ranks, but there were a few folks in the crowd at WWII Weekend who made me question their motives of why they came to the event, and I have met some people in the past who were definitely into the idea of portraying the German experience living history wise for the wrong reasons.

Perhaps hypocritically, I was less annoyed by the Pacific Theater reenactment, which was supposed to simulate some of the action during the fall of the Philippines, specifically at Bataan. I think the fact that it was based on a real event made it a little easier for me to watch it without getting distracted by modern politics.

Later in the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday, there was also a Pacific Theater themed flamethrower demonstration, and a recreation of the flag raising on Iwo Jima. I have similarly complicated feelings about the flag raising because from everything I've read, a lot of the guys who actually participated in the real deal were extremely uncomfortable with the pedestal everyone put them on, and this kind of felt like something they would have hated, but the flamethrower demo was really cool. Makes me all the more curious about someday seeing one of the living history demos at the National Museum of the Pacific War!

For those who aren't interested in the military side of the war, there's plenty of stuff to see and look at! The Home Front displays included a USO show with live music, a hair salon and tailor, a sweet shop, a family's home (complete with a kitchen!), a gas station, and a movie theater (showing movies and selling popcorn!), as well as a live radio broadcast. These displays made me think of my grandma and what a kick she'd get out of them.

Jessi bought us lemon sticks jammed in a lemon, which looked cool, but were a huge pain to eat!

Near the Home Front displays, they also had some Burma-Shave signs! I did a major research project on advertising history for the Smithsonian in grad school that featured Burma-Shave, so I had to take a picture with them.

There was also a large flea market of different vendors selling a huge variety of militaria, vintage clothing, and reproductions of vintage gear, clothing, and props. We made out like a bandit at the WWII Soldier's tent, scooping up a bunch of their reproductions of ration boxes for our upcoming VJ Day inspired vow renewal. They're going to make great decorations and cost a lot less than tracking down historical K Rations on eBay!

Each afternoon until about 4:00, the museum hosted an air show, which is probably the major draw for a lot of the visitors. The first day was more of a test run, but I was so glad we were there to see it. The highlight was watching an F2 Wildcat chase down a Japanese Zero, one of only three or four flyable Zeros left in the world. It was such a cool demonstration of the Wildcat's agility. The Wildcat was a carrier based plane used by the U.S. and British navies during the war, and it was one of the only planes early in the war capable of going toe to toe with Japan's feared Zero... if you knew how to outsmart, out fly, or surprise the Zero's pilot. No small task! 

My pictures of the air show aren't great because my lens isn't really meant for distance, but hopefully these give you some idea of how cool it was to see these two in the air together.

The full air show was of less interest to Jess and I, so I can't give a full review of how it went down, but we did make sure to stop and watch several of the planes fly by. They tended to send them aloft in groups, for example spotlighting the Pacific Theater planes together. This included a Japanese Val and Kate, the Zero, Wildcat, and other carrier based planes. Here are some of the land based fighters flying the missing man formation.

On Saturday, Jess and I were sitting under the wing of a C-47 to get out of the shade and got to watch the bombers and transports fly by, including a C-47, a B-17, a B-24, two B-25's, famous for their role in the Doolittle Raid on Japan, and a B-29 Superfortress, best remembered as the type of plane used to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

The entire time we were there, it was cool just to hear the planes overhead and watch them fly by. So many accounts of watching the landings on D-Day or at Iwo Jima describe the enormous amount of aircraft overhead (or all around, if you were in one of those planes), and even though this was just a tiny taste of it, it was still really cool as a historian to finally get to hear and see the planes in action after reading about them for so long.

On Friday and Saturday night after the air show, they hosted a swing dance, complete with live music and speeches by Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. Jessi unfortunately twisted her knee badly right before we left, so we didn't end up doing any dancing, but it was a lot of fun hearing the live music and watching everyone else dressed up in their best dresses or suits was really cool. Next time, we'll definitely need to actually get out on the dance floor.

Food wise... WWII Weekend wasn't really anything to write home about. There are a fair number of food vendors, but it's standard carnival/festival fare and generally extremely overpriced. It's really not feasible to leave the event to go eat somewhere off campus, so unless you pack a lunch or dinner, you're kind of forced to eat there or wait until after the event ends... which I don't recommend because I was hot and hungry even while making sure we stayed hydrated and fed! 

They do offer prepaid tickets to dinner hosted by the museum on Friday and Saturday which weren't unreasonable ($13/$14 per person depending on the night), and I'm happy to give that money right back to the museum instead of a third party vendor. We also bought hot dogs from a stand that was managed by the museum which were tasty - fair ground food does hit the spot in 80+ degree weather!

We also ate breakfast in a mess tent on Sunday, which for $6 got you eggs, spam or sausage, orange juice, toast and crackers. Not bad!

All in all, it was an incredibly fun event, and we are definitely planning on attending again next year! Living history is such a cool way to get in touch with the past, and it was exciting having a chance to meet so many other people who are passionate about getting the public interested in a well known, but often misunderstood conflict in our history. 

If you're interested in visiting, know that it's better to get there early on Saturday and Sunday, or parking and getting to and from the event can be a bit of a nightmare. Buses run from the parking lots to the event, but spaces fill up quickly at the beginning and end of the show. It was crowded, but not unbearably so (although remember, this is coming from a seasoned Disney World goer, so my idea of "not too crowded" might not be yours!) and definitely make sure you bring water to drink if it's sunny because there's very minimal shade! 

In case you plan on attending in full 101st Airborne kit, visitors are allowed to come in period attire, but there are restrictions on what weapons you can bring in unless you're a registered interpreter. We did see a lot of folks who were just guests dressed in uniform or period attire, and not going to lie are fully planning on doing the same next year. A lot of the folks at the event said they've been coming for literal decades at this point, and we're excited to make this an early summer tradition for us, too! Keep an eye out if you go next year.

See you next year!