Here's what it takes to put on the country's biggest WWII reenactment

At Conneaut Township Park in the very northeastern corner of Ohio, hundreds of men and women emerge from tents in 1940s garb, grab literal rations for breakfast, march to the central flag pole, and then salute the daily flag raising at 0900 hours.

Among them is Betsy Bashore, wearing a women’s naval auxiliary uniform.

She also happens to be the person who runs this whole event.

“We create one pivotal day in history, and that is the Normandy invasion,” she says.

The weekend attracts 1,200 reenactors and around 60,000 viewers. Hotels sell out for miles around. But it only costs $130,000 dollars to put on. It’s surprisingly cheap, considering the week-long rental of a 60-acre park, the porta-potties, the security and the shuttle service to parking lots.

It’s cheap because the reenactors are volunteers, and they own everything they’ve brought.

“I equate it to fishing,” Bashore said while sitting in the driver’s seat of a 1940s Jeep that she bought and restored herself. “You start out with a little rod and reel, and then you're mortgaging your house for a bass boat. It's the same kind of thing.”

The canvas tents the reenactors are sleeping in, their uniforms, their weapons, their blank ammunition — everything they have they bought. For the most dedicated and wealthy, equipment may include an 80-year-old boat, or a real military tank.

“The uniform itself can be anywhere from $750 to $2,500,” said Kyle Dorethy, who is sleeping in the German camp in Occupied France.

Bashore says veterans like Dorethy frequently like to be on the German side.

“Somebody has to play the bad guy,” Dorethy says.

He made the 11-hour drive from his home in North Carolina to be here. He travels all over the eastern U.S. to these events ever since he was discharged after his tour in Iraq.

“Once you get out of the military, you kind of miss the camaraderie and the brotherhood,” he said.

Attendance at this event is really strong. That’s true of other World War II reenactments and Civil War events. But the revolution? Not so much.

“I know of some historic sites that have struggled to get their events going again, get their attendance up,” said Jim McGaughey, who leads the British Brigade in Revolutionary War reenactments.

McGaughey said the hobby hasn’t been the same since COVID. He started doing this in 1973, just before the bicentennial. Back then, there was a huge surge in interest. Not so during the country’s 250th anniversary.

“Very different mood in the country, very different,” he said. “I don't have to tell you that.”

But the spectators in Conneaut don’t seem to lack patriotic fervor as they gather for the main event: the D-Day landing.

Uniformed men dart between trenches and tank traps, firing, screaming, dying. The crowd is somber — until the Germans surrender, and the sound of gunfire is replaced with cheers and applause.

The reenactors wave to thank the audience. It’s really the only time they break character, releasing the crowd to return to their cars and drive back into 2026.