World

WWII Sea Battle Reenacted

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 14, 2000 / 3:37 PM EDT / CBS

Guns blazed and torpedoes tore through the water. Bombers swooped down from the sky. The casualties: two ships sunk, one submarine destroyed. This week, the naval battle on England's northeast coast was as fierce as fighting gets.

Fortunately for the combatants, it's all jolly good fun.

Every summer, Peasholm Park in Northern England hosts reenactments of the Battle of the River Plate. The battle was an early turning point in World War II, when Britain fought off a superior German force.

Reenacting naval warfare has been a tradition on the pond at Peasholm Park since 1927. After the WWII, considered by the English to be their nation's finest hour, they've been reliving annually one the Royal Navy's most memorable moments.

In the Battle of the River Plate, which took place off Uruguay, three small British ships faced off against a much more powerful German warship. As the history books tell it, the British outmaneuvered the stronger Nazi ship and triumphed.

But in this era of European partnership, the combatants are no longer British and German boats.

The participants call the Peasholm fleet the world’s smallest manned navy, and if there's an admiral of this tiny armada, it's Richard Thompson. Three times each week, he sets the gun powder for the bomb blasts. “When it explodes there's a plume of water that comes up and it makes it look like a near miss,” says Thompson, plunging into the water to demonstrate an explosion.

If it seems like all this is a time capsule of a simpler era of family entertainment, before video games and Disney World, that's no accident. ”It's quaint," says Kevin Barrand, parks coordinator. ”I prefer to call it traditional. It's not tacky.”

Peasholm fleet veteran Richard Ward, 22, first came to the park with his father. “He would just bring me around as a kid. I always wanted to do it,” Ward says. “I'm living a childhood dream.

The battle ends in a blaze of fireworks. Not quite the Battle of the River Plate, but quite a show. The Brits – the good guys – triumph. And once again there's peace in our time, and in Peasholm Park.