FORCES
80

Members at Dockyard 800
Welcome to the home of Forces 80
A living history group dedicated in representing the British
Armed Forces
from 1978 to
1988 .
From Germany to The Falklands.
Members of the
Twentieth
Century Warfare and Living History Society
Important News:
Ooops! Sorry; the web site was down for a few weeks. This was outside our control despite what the page said.
The F80 site is under constant construction and development.

Supporters of the South
Atlantic Medal Association 1982
Either click the section you want or scroll down the page.
Our Creation :- About us bit.
Events :- Informs you of upcoming events we will be attending and what events we have attended.
Units :- Shows which units we have portrayed and contains the order or precedence for 1983.
Combined Operations :- Affiliated groups and sub groups of Forces 80
Uniforms :- Information on the various uniforms and patterns worn during the period.
Equipment :- contains information on the various personal weapons, equipment and webbing issued at the time (Includes webbing contents)
Deployments :- Information on the various conflicts and deployments we cover.
Training exercises :- Information on recruitment weekends and other non event activities the group get up to.
Photo Gallery :- Various pictures of the group.
Reference :- Contains information on reference books and pictures.
Links :- links page to useful sites and over Re-enactment groups.
Joining Us :- A small section on how to join us and what we expect from you.
Show Organizers :- information on how to book us.
Wanted Section :- The bit where you can help us track down items that we need.
Contact Us :- Contact section.

Members with Falklands Veterans, David Yates author of "Bomb
Alley", Tony Groom author of "Diver",
and Malcolm MacLean author of "Naval Accidents" at Meet Your Navy,
2008
Whilst at The War and Peace Show (Beltring) in 2004 we noticed that the living history groups mainly dealt with the British Army in World War Two or from the 1st Gulf War onwards. As I had some British Infantry equipment for the early eighties I donned my uniform and walked around the living history field where I was complimented upon my appearance. Several ex-service men stopped and talked to me and gave me advice and information on how to make my representation more visually correct, especially an member of 23 Parachute Field Ambulance Group history group who was a serving member informed me that he was well pleased as what I had done as it was his History... Light bulb time.
Having had such a positive response and feeling rather encouraged we started looking into how to create a group. After several head banging sessions amongst a few friends Forces 80 was created ready in time for Beltring 2005.
Our display attracted a modest amount of attention again from ex-serving members of the armed forces and we gained valuable information and at the end came to the conclusion every unit had its own ways of doing things and as they say "That was That".
Our thanks goes to the members of 5 Airborne Brigade Group who repeatedly redressed us to an embarrassing degree and the Ex-members of the ‘Green Jackets’ who seemed to be part of every living history group and came bounding over to play with the weapons.*As of February 2007 we have decided to change our mandate from representing the Army to representing the Armed Forces as a whole as we have had requests to do various other units and seeing as we portray Naval Party 8901 and 40 Commando which are both Naval units we thought that the change would be appropriate.*
*As of June 2008 we have also decided to include 1989 to the years we represent to allow us to cover the fall off the wall.*
*Forces 80 is now on face book, come and say hello - Click here*
E
vents:
Film
Special We
attend various shows and events around the UK throughout the year, all are
listed along with selected Photo's.
F80 UP-COMING EVENT 18th/19th
Colchester Military Festival (Saturday
only) & Historic
Battles and Chariot spectacular (Sunday
only) Location:
Abbey Field, Colchester,
Essex
COME VISIT US
Events Planed for 2009:
16/17th February - Fire Power Museum, London 22nd February - South Cheshire
Model show, Crewe 18th/19th April - History
festival III, York 18th/19th July - Colchester
Military Festival 22nd to 26th July - War and
Peace, Beltring 29th/30th August - Doncaster
Aero adventure museum - SAMA event 3rd/4th October - Sherwood through the ages
- TBC TBC = To be Confirmed
Various - Members of Forces
80 and Cold War Provost regularly attend the UKMS2000 Militaria event held
monthly at Chatham docks, look out for them. Cold War Provost will be
attending the following events:
16th/17th May - The Bunker
Bash 22nd to 25th May - Overlord
2009 22nd/23rd August - Military
Mayhem 2009
A special thanks goes to Howard at Event
Plan for repeatedly asking us back to there events.
Archived Events:
Our original idea was not to badge up and to represent the army as a whole as we
could not decide to which regiment to represent. After
a discussion with a retired RTR Lieutenant-Colonel who suggested that we
portrayed "The Cheshire's" due to their up-coming amalgamation
in 2007 where they will in effect cease to exist. We decided to give this some
thought. After a while we agreed amongst our selves to badge as the Cheshire's
unless we were doing a Falklands display where we would badge up as needed but
in the main; Welsh Guards and 40 Commando were decided upon. It is of note
though that we now badge up as required and sometimes we are seen at events
representing various regiments.
*If
interested in joining you are not confined unless requested to by a event organizer
to represent these particular regiments* Our
Special thanks go to the Cheshire Regimental Museum
for their help in providing
much needed advice and information. We
also represent from time to time the following regiments and units: *September
2007: The Cheshire Regiment ceases to exist along with the Staffordshire
Regiment and Notts' & Derby Regiment which now come under the Mercian
Brigade.* Welsh Guards 40 Commando The
Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters (29th/45th Foot) Royal Military Police
The idea behind Forces 80 is to provide a rallying point for other smaller
groups and individuals that wish to portray the British Army in the 1980's and
to be able to provide mutual support until they feel they are ready to go it
alone. In
2007
we
adopted a Military police section which was called "80 Provost". In
late 2008 the decision was taken to change their name to "Cold war
provost" In 2007 we were also proud to present our first affiliated overseas group
based in the USA.
Dress
codes rule the British Army with a degree of leeway in combinations. We use
dress codes 8,13 and 14 where applicable and will in time use dress code 2. See
link below for information on Dress Codes and the various uniforms used. We strive to use the correct issue of clothing but are sometimes unable to find it
in the sizes needed so a later issue is purchased and later replaced once the
correct item is found. We are always mindful of our appearance and when the
wrong article of clothing is used we make no allusions that it is correct.
The
Infantry equipment of the Infantry in the 1980's was made up of various
designs dating from as far back as the 1940's Helmets designed for the
invasion of Europe., rifles first developed in 1947 and 1960's uniforms. To
say that it was varied is an understatement. The 1980's also saw the
introduction of new equipment and weapons which still served side by side with
the old well into the mid 1990's. The
equipment section started as a guide to the various pieces that you would see
on our display but this is now being expanded to encompass virtually all of
the kit issued. It is by no means complete and will be constantly added to but
there are going to be bits of equipment we are going to overlook or miss out.
We
are always on the look out for pieces of equipment to supplement and improve our
display so if you have any items you think that we might like please contact us,
please bear in mind that we are not as rich as most people and groups and rely
on donations and peoples charitable nature. So if you have any thing you like to
donate or sell to us please feel free to contact us. Please
mention Forces 80 when contacting this supplier.
TA 100 Deployments
:
Cyprus BAOR Belize Berlin Brigade UKLF Other Information: Each section above will eventually have there own section
when I finally get round to constructing the pages.
1978
Lebanon - UN Operation
(supporting Fijian troops) 1979
Iran - Evacuation of civilians 1979-84 Operation Agila
Rhodesia/Zimbabwe 1980
New Hebrides - Civil unrest 1982
Falklands War 1982
Sinai Peace Keeping operations 1983
Beirut 1983
Aden - Evacuation of British
Nationals (civil war) 1987-88 Gulf - Mine sweeping /
clearance
So
that we can get things right occasionally we have what amounts to Dry Runs in
full kit, this page shows us out and about playing (So to speak) soldiers, where
we practice drills etc. We
also have the occasional Airsoft event where we can all act as a squad and let
of steam.
On
this page you will find various reference photos from various sources. All are
copyright and where possible I have credited the relevant source:
On
the web site you will find various links to organizations, events and regiments
where they are relevant to that part of the site but I have decided to collate
them on a separate page for you to browse. Joining: We
have currently suspended our recruitment of members. Please feel free to still
contact us on this matter. Joining
Information Pack UPDATE:
Due to a few Walter Mittys who have approached the group, any member or prospected
member who claims to be Ex or current forces may be required to provide proof . BE
WARNED:
If a member is found to be impersonating an Officer of the armed forces, all relevant
information will be provided to the Police, MOD Police and RMP. We
do not take the above matter lightly and will in all cases take the appropriate
action the group feels is required and in some case even name and shame.
Event
Organizers: PLEASE GET IN TOUCH
We
are always looking for new events and invitations to various shows by organizers
are welcome. Our display can be tailored to suit the organizers needs. So please
feel free to contact us.
Feel
free to email me: Click Here: CONTACT
ME Please put
Forces 80 in the Subject bar.
Thank
you for checking us out and please look out for us at the shows
Jonathan Smith
Forces 80 Film début.
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Event Plan - Living History Events
©Forces80


© MOD

©Forces80 2008

www.ew-trading.co.uk
Suppliers
of Equipment and Uniforms to Forces 80.

1908 - 2008
100 years of the Territorial Army
Exercises and Training:

"OH SHUT UP JONES 46 - THINK WHAT A VALUABLE EXPERIENCE
IT ALL IS !"
Known Operations:

" IF HE WALKS PAST ONCE MORE WITH HIS 'JOLLY GOOD - ISN'T
THIS GREAT - WELL DONE CHAPS!' I
SWEAR I'LL KILL HIM... "
PDF Format
If you have enjoyed this web site and like what we do, then help
us by making a small donation. This would allow us to attend more events and go
towards helping to purchase the bits of equipment we need.
Forces 80 CO