What We Do
"Strive to Suffer"
Members of the 151e participate in both public and non-public living-history events, mainly throughout the Mid-Atlantic states. Public events present us with a rare opportunity to teach a general audience about the war and the men who fought it. Educating others is essential to preserving the memory of the combatants. Typical activities at these events for the unit focus on discussions and demonstrations on the French soldier's equipment, weaponry and daily life. 
These also offer a chance for unit members to display the full range of their kits, including many smaller, unique items that are unsuitable for any other occasion. Our primary events, however, are held at a permanent battlefield site outside Newville, Pennsylvania. The land is owned by the GWA and is replete with trenches, bunkers, barbed-wire and shell-holes.
Of the three events held there annually, only the summer event is open to the public. The spring and fall events are non-public wherein the aim is total immersion for the participants involved in order to achieve a more genuine feel of trench warfare. Together with the other Allied and Central Powers units, we attempt to recreate an average sector on the Western Front in 1917-18. These are 24-hour events which last continually from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. The official motto of our unit is "efforcez pour la tristesse" ("strive to suffer"), which reflects our passion for authenticity on all levels. We are not simply content to wear the most correct uniforms and equipment. Rather, we wish to truly live the life of a front-line soldier as closely (and as safely) as possible. This means embracing all of the hardships and suffering that come along with living in an rough, inhospitable environment. It also means performing activities that might prove grueling to some.
At Newville, we eat only what they ate and sleep as they did: either in our bunker or the trenches themselves. In the front lines, we dig and wire in fatigue parties, construct trench revetments and obstacles and patrol and raid the enemy lines at night. 
In the rear, we drill and practice combat exercises, perform manual chores, cook meals for the unit, and take in a little R & R in the bunker. And we don't call it quits when its cold or begins to rain. Though we try to encompass all the various activities performed by a front-line infantry regiment, we also allot the proper proportions of time and energy to each. The average day in the trenches for the infantryman was spent laboring, resting and performing small chores, alternately.
The night was mostly made up of standing on guard or laboring both in and out of the trenches. Small groups of patrols would often be sent out on reconnaissance. Large scale attacks were in fact not all that common. Occasionally, a nighttime or early morning raid might be scheduled with specific objectives, such as capturing enemy combatants for interrogation or destroying certain points of the enemy's defenses. As such, we try to limit our daytime combat operations. Much more common were the arduous "relief" marches between the rear and the front -- where soldiers had to carry an immense amount of gear with them over long distances -- and which we incorporate on a smaller, less intensive level.
As a general rule, we try to focus more on replicating those things that are more realistic and feasible at a reenactment. For instance, a large-scale attack is much more difficult to portray accurately than, say, sending out a small raiding party at night, stringing up barbed-wire in no-man's-land, or marching (moderate) distances with a full kit. For a better idea for what we do at events, please see the Recreation Photos page under our Images page.
