CRESTVIEW, Fla., Aug. 31, 2023—German and Allied troops will invade Crestview during Labor Day weekend and fight periodic skirmishes in Spanish Trail Park in scenes reminiscent of battles fought in the Netherlands and Low Countries almost 80 years ago.

The Sept. 1-3 event is an educational World War II reenactment program sponsored by the city’s Cultural Services Division, its Living History Corps and the Historic Preservation Board.

It’s the fourth WWII event held in Crestview since a 2019 observance of the 75^th anniversary of D-Day.

Called “Race to the Rhein,” this year’s reenactment weekend focuses on the Allies’ sweep across Europe three months after the D-Day landings to liberate the Low Countries, deny the German occupiers access to key ports in the Netherlands and cross the Rhein into the German homeland.

Operation Market Garden

The campaign’s most famous assault was Operation Market Garden, a Sept. 17-27, 1944, combined airborne and ground plan to liberate a series of Dutch bridges and towns.

The operation—depicted in the star-studded 1977 Richard Attenborough film “A Bridge Too Far”—failed to secure a bridgehead over the Rhein River, which remained an obstacle to the Allies advance into Germany but resulted in the liberation of several Dutch towns.

“The operation was very ambitious, risky and daring,” said Grant Brooks, one of the weekend’s event organizers. “And even more daring were the men involved in the operation, putting their lives on the line to bring an end to tyranny and injustice.”

Event organizers, including Brooks’s friend Andrew Daigle, started planning in early March. They explored city facilities including Twin Hills Park, setting for last year’s reenactment, before settling on a wooded area in Spanish Trail Park behind the Senior Center.

The selection of Operation Market Garden as a focus was easy.

“Operation Market Garden, although considered a failure, was a very important operation during World War II,” Brooks said. “The plan was to cut off manufacturers in the Ruhr valley in Germany, hopefully ending the war by Christmas.”

Brooks’s buddy Cade Fisher, whose reenactment “impression” is a fellow 1st battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper, came up with the event’s “Race to the Rhein” name during one of the on-site planning meetings around a picnic table in Spanish Trail Park.

Nearby park facilities will be incorporated into the event.

The Senior Center will become a temporary World War II museum and its adjacent picnic shelter will become the event’s History Pavilion, displaying a WWII vehicle or two and a series of history panels.

Brooks’s wife, Moriah, is coordinating a free USO-style dance for Saturday in the park’s amphitheater, featuring the 15-piece Hashtag Swing Orchestra and schtick from original World War II-era USO shows. 

“We’ve been really excited with the response we’ve been receiving,” Brooks said. “We have reenactors coming from throughout the country. Crestview’s gotten on the reenactment map with its past events. Reenactors know they have the support of the city and community when they come here.”

It’s about the education

As in past Crestview World War II related events, education is the most important component, organizers said. Brooks, Daigle and their team are sticklers for historic accuracy in uniforms, insignia and equipment.

“It’s important for people to be able to have an accurate visual representation of the past because books and movies can only provide so much learning potential outside of the classroom,” said Daigle, who is coordinating the Axis reenactors. “At one of the previous Crestview events, a middle school kid was admiring a restored World War II jeep we displayed. He said, ‘I only ever saw these in a history book.’ We make history come alive.”

Toward that goal, the first day of the event, tomorrow, is students and veterans day, during which groups will be personally conducted by reenactors through the encampments where they will meet reenactors and enjoy demonstrations.

The weekend will conclude with a field church service conducted from a World War II chaplain’s manual with hymns from the 1942 Army-Navy Hymnal.

In between there will be battle scenarios, history talks, opportunities to visit reenactors and their camps, weapons demonstrations and more.

Admission is free for all events, including the dance. Food vendors will be onsite, and mementos will be available for purchase. 

In the event of rain, some demonstrations will move into the amphitheater. 

Entrance and free parking are off of Stillwell Boulevard.

Brian Hughes, cultural services specialist, City of Crestview