MECo.’s Malayan Emergency Display at Soviet Threat

A week or two ago (April 2022) we had the chance to catch up with friends from the MECo. group at the Soviet Threat event at the Hack Green Secret Bunker in Cheshire. Allen and Simon had an excellent display of weapons, uniform and personal kit from the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960) period and kindly talked us through it!

*The weapons and personal kit featured in MECo’s Malayan Emergency display (Matthew Moss)*

Thank you to Simon and Allen for giving us a detailed rundown of the display and kit. I find personal kit absolutely fascinating and MECo. are extremely knowledgeable and always put on an interesting display. In terms of weapons the display included a Bren Mk3, a Rifle No.5 and a very nice example of an Owen Gun. Below is another photograph of the Owen Gun and its magazine pouches, Allen had both a wooden and metal buttstock on display with the weapon.

*Owen Gun & Owen magazine pouch (MECo.)*

Check out MECo.’s facebook page here and Simon’s channel, Rifleman Moore, here.

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Soviet Threat 2019: Parachute Regiment 1964 with Rifleman Moore

Matt had the pleasure of attending the Autumn 2019 Soviet Threat event at Hack Green Nuclear Bunker in Cheshire at the weekend and spoke to many of the reenactors and collectors attending the event. Check out our earlier video about the event here.

One of the people Matt had the chance to speak to was Simon of the Rifleman Moore YouTube channel. Simon is a collector of uniforms and kit and part of the MECo group of collectors and reenactors. Simon was kind enough to film a quick video with Matt and discus his kit.

At Soviet Threat he was portraying a member of the British Army’s PARA’s as they would have been dressed and equipped circa 1964 – twenty years on from Operation Market Garden, which took place 75 years ago this year.

A full-length photo showing Simon’s portrayal of a 1960s PARA, complete with SLR (Matthew Moss)

Here’s a closer look at the deactivated L1A1 Self-loading Rifle Simon completed his portrayal of a period PARA with.

A nice example with period-correct wooden furniture and rifle sling (Matthew Moss)

A closer look at the rifle’s markings (Matthew Moss)

The rifle was an Royal Small Arms Factory Enfield-production L1A1, inch pattern semi-automatic adaptation of the FN FAL, manufactured in 1958, as attested to by it’s UE58 prefixed serial number.

Many thanks to Simon for taking the time to speak to us and run through his uniform and kit. Check out his channel here.

Soviet Threat 2019

This weekend I visited the Hack Green nuclear bunker in Cheshire, UK. They have a bi-annual Cold War history event called Soviet Threat where reenactors and collectors are invited down to display their kit. I had the pleasure of meeting to some really interesting people and seeing some cool vehicles and kit.

I spoke to Lucy, the Hack Green Bunker museum’s curator but sadly had some sound problems. Hopefully, we’ll get to speak to Lucy about the museum in more depth in the future! I also spoke to a number of the groups and individuals attending and we’ll have a couple more videos coming up.

Here’s some photos from the event:

Some of the vehicles on display at Soviet Threat, including a HMMWV and a jet trainer (Matthew Moss)

Members of Lazy Company prepare for guard duty (Matthew Moss)

A pair of East German Trabants (Matthew Moss)

Some of the local lads from a Gulf War reenactment group (Matthew Moss)

Some deactivated weapons from the Gulf War display (Matthew Moss)

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