Re-enactment of the D Day landing

We will fight them on the beaches, between the sunbeds

Giles Brown, marbellas.com’s battle hardened war correspondent, reports from the the sea front, or rather, the front line...

As one of Marbella’s foremost lifestyle journalists, I don’t often put myself in the line of fire. While fellow reporters are dodging bullets in Basra, the only way I’m going to be wounded is choking on a cocktail olive or chatting up some gangsta’s moll in Nueva Andalucia. So when San Pedro Alcantara decided to mark the 200th anniversary of its founding with a bizarre 
re-enactment of the D Day landings on the town’s beach (San P not being known for its militaristic history and Spain having finished its own war by 1939) I donned my flack jacket and headed down there. 

Billed as an authentic recreation of the events of 4 June, 1944, hundreds of residents gathered to watch the Allied soldiers storm the German defences. Unfortunately, with its palm trees in the background and bright sunshine, the beach didn’t quite capture the spirit of the Normandy landings and any aspiring WWII historians would come away with the impression that the invasion was carried out from two small dingies by a bunch of bearded, chubby soldiers. Afterwards the victorious Allies marched to their camp, which they had spent the previous day digging trenches and putting up sunbeds, singing the famous tune “Iz a long wheey to Tiperarie…” The participants were all members of Spanish WWII re enactment-societies (which seem to be made up of the kind of people you wouldn’t want to share a foxhole with) and the Town Hall had encouraged the public to get into the spirit of the event by coming in costume. 

Keep watching marbellas.com events calendar for details of less extreme events marking the 200th anniversary of San Pedro de Alcantara.