WWII AIRSOFT
WORLD WAR TWO
AIRSOFT
David Pratt gives an overview of World War Two airsoft
T
he concept of reasonably
authentic World War Two
airsoft games was born in
the summer of 2006. While
there had been some
WWII events organised they were few
and far between, and best described
as ‘WWII-themed’ games rather than
attempts at recreating real events and
actions.
A group of five airsofters, three
of whom regularly played at open
days in WWII kit (of which I was one)
got together and called themselves
Comrades in Arms. We set about
working out how a large scale, full day
WWII event could be put together. We
knew there were players with WWII
uniform (mostly US Airborne) dotted all
around the country, who were itching
to use the kit outside of an open day
game. The problem was that too few had
German kit to make a viable opposing
side, so we put together a ‘looks-like’ kit
list. The list enabled players on all sides to
put together kit that looks the part from
20ft away and doesn’t cost a fortune.
To our surprise most turned up in
very authentic uniform though, much
of it bought especially for the day. The
concept was now proved, the Catch-22
(no WWII airsoft games due to too few
players with authentic kit, and yet too
few players because of lack of games)
was now broken – and players were
gagging for more WWII games.
In the intervening five years more and
more games have been organised, both
by established airsoft site operators –
such as Players of War Airsoft, Shoot
‘n Scoot and Gunman Airsoft – as well
as player groups such as Poor Bloody
Infantry and Army Group South. The
busy calendar sees regular WWII games
organised in Scotland and games played
from Dorset to Yorkshire and all over
Wales too.
The advantage of a wide spread
of organisers is that every game
is different, each with a different
emphasis – some have a very specific
and accurate historical basis, others are
a what-if scenario; some are ‘hot’ on
uniform accuracy while others are more
accommodating to what you already
have in the cupboard.
One thing that has grown is the sense
of community – uniforms and guns will
be lent to complete strangers to allow
others to participate, quite extraordinary
when compared to regular airsoft. Even
though there are games throughout the
year and across the country you will
never get to a game if you wait for one
to come to your doorstep – so some
travel is inevitable, and here again fellow
players are happy to give lifts to others.
One of the great boosts to the WWII
airsoft genre in recent years has been
the increasingly wide availability of cheap
and authentic uniforms, and the everexpanding range of WWII weapons. Back
in 2006 for the first ever Comrades in
Arms WWII game the only affordable
weapon was the Toyko Marui Thompson.
I think we can claim that we had the
most Thompsons ever seen in a game
at the same time! These days, with the
advent of Chinese-made guns, MP40s,
STG44s and Stens are everywhere along
with K98s, Garands, MG42s and a fair
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