Band of Brothers - Tank Scenes Explained
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- Опубликовано: 17 авг 2021
- #ww2 Band of Brothers (2001)
An overview of the tanks used in Band of Brothers both real and mock-up.
Aircraft breakdown in Band of Brothers:
• Band of Brothers Aircr...
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My father (who was a European Theater combat veteran) said they could hear the German tanks coming for miles with their engines and squeaking and squealing...and they would get more and more scared as they got louder (closer) as if was not common to have a Bazooka man with the squad. He said Saving Private Ryan was the closest to real as he ever saw, except for two things. He said ANY time they stopped, they dug in and ate something. He also said the EVERY town was on fire and the air full of dust and you seldom had a decent long view of anything. (He realized that it wouldn't make a good movie if it showed people doing that, or showed smoke and dust all the time) Dad said everyone called EVERY German tank a Tiger...just like they called all German artillery "88's" no matter what the caliber.
Was the German really that loud?
Yes
Friking panzer 2 Rolling by and they would Call it a Tiger?
Thank your dad for his service
@@blugaledoh2669 The Germans had a shortage of ball bearings later in the war. And also a shortage of rubber.
I always loved the Jagdpanther in Band of Brothers because it looked more convincing than the tiger. I knew it was built off a soviet T-54, but it still looked VERY good as german armor. the only thing giving it away are the vision ports, lower glacis plate, and road wheels. I thought this was a real Jagdpanther when I was younger.
Absolutely. Great mock up.
Tha Jagdpanther looks like a sports car.
Fooled me . I hang my head in shame when visit bovington now
Me too. I think especially from that front angle it doesn’t give away the wheels too much. They probably filmed it that way on purpose to help with the illusion.
Agreed. Quite realistic looking Zimmerit, as well, on the Jagd. Great touch.
The JagdPanther is incredible, and the stugs are really well done for what they were given
stugs are so cool
ja ein bischen, aber man kann sich auch mal Mühe geben !
I think the special effects team did well with their mockup's in the action scenes. A whole hell of a lot better than the movies produced in the 1960s and 1970s like "Patton" and the "Battle of the Bulge" were they just used more modern American tanks as period panzers and the viewer was just supposed to accept that, or use their imagination.
The average viewer probably didn't have a slightest so
As a kid into tank models, I didn’t care. It was awesome when Patton or Battle of the Bulge came on TV and you got to see ANY tanks.
@@TheSaturnV I hear ya. I thought the German tanks were cool so I built the Tamiya models of Tigers, Panthers, and Stugs. It was the early seventies so some people didn't like it.
Shock horror
Use your imagination
Wow who’d have thought that 🙄
Back in the '60's and '70's there was no CGI. Miniature work was expensive and often still did not look great. There were few running Axis tanks in existence (most have been restored since then). So in fairness to cinema creators of the time, they did the best they could with what they had available.
It's insane to think that the run Speirs did in Foy *actually* happened and he somehow was not shot running both ways. And also that Shifty sniper kill was even longer in real life.
Speir actually running between covers not openly like in the show.
And in many parallel universes, he was hit and is remembered as a lunatic who thought he could outrun bullets.
@@Odd_Krieger ether way still gutsy
I enjoy the jokes about how Speirs could run that fast while dragging his 100 lb. cast iron balls along.
@@DomWeasel he would not be remembered. he would have only been remembered vaguely by the guys in E company as a nutty officer who got himself killed.
I read in a German D-Day book that the StuG-III crews rather worryingly liked the Sherman tank as the white star was the perfect place to aim their gun
An M4's frontal turret armour was 76mm, but on the sides it was only 50mm, like the front hull. If the Sherman was hull down, the bright white star was a wonderfully convenient aiming mark.
The red star or white number painted on the side of a T-34 turret had the same effect, though the sloped armour of the T-34 made it less vulnerable.
Everyone knew they wouldn’t hold up to German target practice, there were just too many of them to deal with at times. I was on Abrams in the early 90s and was amazed at how simplistic, yet difficult the Sherman is. I can’t imagine trying to operate in one of those.
US crews learned pretty fast to paint the stars in black.
@@TheSaturnV There many tens of thousands of photographs showing Allied armour with white stars - can you point to a single one, with a black star?
The Allies had air superiority at this time - if it didn't have a white star, expect to be bombed/rocketed by Allied air.
The Germans had the same experience when they invaded Poland in 1939. the Germans had white crosses on their tanks as their national insignia. Polish anti-tank gunners used the white crosses to train their sights on and took a heavy toll on German armor. The Germans quickly used yellow ochre paint or black paint to help reduce the appearance of the white crosses. After the Polish campaign, that is when the Germans did all those variations of their national insignia.
For a "not a tank expert", you have done very well. Thank you.
That part where a German accidentally gets run over by one of his own tanks scared the hell out of me as a kid.
Yes, i was watching this as a kid. Of course, I had to cover my eyes during the explicitly gory parts and my dad repeated "dont repeat that language" every single time they swore.
And nobody in your family have understood war and violence is gross not swearing bad words..
@@badbotchdown9845 What are you trying to say?
When I was a kid it was terrifying to see an American soldier get run over by a Sherman on the television show " Combat" circa 1966
This is probably way off topic but, and not that you actually saw it but the scene in Indiana Jones where the guy gets ran over by that tank scared me too when I was a kid. Totally understand where your coming from.
@@chefjono That's the one with Jack Palance, right? Depictions of people being crushed to death by tanks remain terrifying, even though I'm not a kid anymore!
The ww2 reenacting unit I'm in actually owns the stug 3 G that gets bazooka'd at boody gulch. They actually chopped 2 fv432s in half then welded them together again so the finished stugs would have the correct 6 roadwheels per side. The movie stugs were also unmodified as far as the driver still being on the right and the superstructure is actually fairly thin sheetmetal. Ours from the movie still has the hole the special effects guys cut in the lower front plate for the movie
Excellent! Thank you for adding this insight :) Next time they want to film using it insist on being in the production.
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq ours hasn't been asked to be filmed again lol. One guy from our unit recently went down to north Carolina I think it was to be in the shooting of a new movie that will be coming out. They had lots of replica German vehicles but I'm not sure what they had for allied ones if any
I do Soviet reenacting, we have a lend-lease truck and that's the best we got 🤣. Another unit in our area had a pair of Ba-64 armored cars though. Hope to fight your unit one day! Soviet greetings from the 70th Guards Rifle Division!
I’m surprised they even cut a hole instead of just using some temporary decals or post-production effects
It seems they really went all out for authenticity for the show. Being that they splice to FV432s to get the correct number of roadwheels versus the normal method of using just one hull and only having 5 wheels like you see on pretty much every other stug 3/pz3 replica
Awesome video!
For those who don't know, Grizzlys (Canadian Shermans) have all metal tracks, no rubber insert. That's how you can easily differentiate them.
Dry pin track
A re-edit with some additional information added.
I see 👀
Ah. That explains why my comments alert came up with nothing.... 😄
The StuG III in the series was based on the British Fv432, as you pointed out. Usually, conversions like that keep the five roadwheel configuration, but in this case, they cut up two FV432s and added a "slice" with an extra axle in order to get the StuG's six roadwheels.
We all understand the jewish impulse to be vehemently anti-nazi ... Russians both killed 4/5 nazis, and did more dying at the hands of nazis than any other group (far more than jews). But perhaps 40-million Russians killed at the hands nazis can help us understand why they're a bit touchy about _modern Ukrainian nazis,_ who happily waste ammo they can't spare just to kill Russian-Ukrainian civilians in the Donbas for the "crime" of not applauding a coup like those idiots in the Canadian parliament did a nazi ... for the last 9 years now. A nation run by people willing to go to war [not] to implement minsk: I'm not suggesting it's incumbent upon anyone to know even a fraction of what this video-maker does, but let's just take a moment to recognize that not a SINGLE lawmaker in the Canadian parliament even knew _which side_ the Russians were [on] in WWII, such that they all apishly applauded and honored a nazi. Literally every member stood up & applauded a guy who fought the Russians in WWII.
I spotted a few replicas, but they were so good it didn’t spoil the accuracy of the whole film. Hats off to the film company for not using poorly disguised late model vehicles.
Why would it spoil the accuracy of the film . The movie wasn't about the tanks . It was call the " Band OF BROTHERS" not the
" BAND OF TANKS " !!!!
@@todd3285 I understand your point, but for some viewers, especially those interested in military history, the use of incorrect or poorly disguised replicas can break immersion. For example, using M47 or M48 tanks with a 'Balkenkreuz' to represent German tanks like Panzer IVs or Tigers can be an eyesore and affect the film's authenticity. When filmmakers pay attention to such details, it usually indicates a commitment to historical accuracy,and thus films that take the extra step to source accurate replicas often deliver a more realistic experience.
Earlier films, however, like 'A Bridge Too Far' had to work with what was available. They used Leopard 1s, AMX 105s, and M47s as stand-ins, but they still managed to create an engaging and relatively accurate depiction of the battle, even if some changes were made for cinematic purposes. That said they still had plenty of real shermans and C-47s that were a beautiful sight (especially the C47s)
I see that it has already been said below, but kudos to recent films and TV series such as Band of Brothers, Saving Private Ryan, and Fury for using as close to authentic, historical armored vehicles as they could. This is a far cry better than Battle of the Bulge and Patton, which used U.S. surplus Vietnam vintage tanks with German crosses painted on them. Also, kudos to A Bridge Too Far, filmed on location in the 1970s where OPERATION MARKET GARDEN actually took place. They did pretty well with authentic vehicles.
a bridge too far is a hell of a movie, don't get me wrong, but the panther leopard mock up cracks me up every time I see it
check out kelly's heroes, they have a column of about 30 shermans, scout cars, halft tracks & other vehicles from the spanish army. great scenes from shermans in action.
How about all those B-25s in Catch-22? Must've blown a bunch of the budget on those shots.
The tanks in Battle of the Bulge and Patton were post war design but most were out of US service prior to Viet Nam. The M 47 is one of the most recognizable designs in these movies and was often cast as a German tank. The movie Patton did use some M 48 tanks which was the primary tank in VN; however in the 1969 production in Spain, there were no "surplus" VN tanks, as nearly al came from the Spanish Army.
There is a wiki entry on the fleet gathered for this movie:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-25_Mitchell_aircraft_in_Catch-22
There are 15 of the 17 B-25s used in that movie still preserved.
Interestingly for the mini-series Catch-22 on Hulu, they used only 2 actual flyable B-25s and used CGI for multiple shots.
Honestly I’ve seen this mini series over 20 time and I still learned some. “Day of Days” is my favorite episode. wby?
For me it's either "bastogne" or "why we fight"
How the well you watched a series 20 times 🤣🤣?
@@panzerivausfg4062 i mean it's a good ass show
@@ankkojenkohtalo I know, I loved it when I watched it, but I personally would become tired watching the same scenes all over again more than 3 times.
Of course, this guy may have watched the series when they came out, that's why he watched it so many times. I wasn't even born back then.
I watched the series in December 2020
@@panzerivausfg4062 I wasn’t. I was born about 5 years after the series first came out. I watched it first in 2015 and from there about 3-4 times a year lol
I know this is a tank program. Despite that every time I see the run of Captain Speirs in Foix it brings tears to my eyes. A lot of guys did a lot of brave things during that war but Speirs efforts made it into the movies, and he deserves it.
in episode 4 the Shermans would not have been there. The Tank Unit that was there was A Sqn the 15th/19th The Kings Royal Hussars, they were the Armoured Recce Regt of the British 11th Armoured Division, they were at the time equipped with Cromwells and Challengers. I had the great pleasure of serving with the 15/19 Hussars from 1974-86.
Fantastic! Thank you for adding this. Love having some experienced people checking out the video.
Thank you for your service!
Surely you don't mean challengers.
@@AdamMann3D yes the A30 Challenger
@@AdamMann3D He did and don't call him Shirley. 😂😁👍
I am old and have been digging tanks since I was in second grade . Way back then one of the 3 networks put the Battle of the Bulge on TV . I was so excited,my first tank movie. My dad was a pilot in WW2. We were all set for some WW2 action. Movie gets rolling and all my ass remembers thinking is: "those aren't Shermans". My dad then explained the logistics required for making a movie. I was still kind of sad. Loved Band of Brothers. Enjoyed this video alot.😎
The road wheels are also a dead giveaway on the dressed up T-34. The Tiger had distinctive interleaved wheels.
So did the panther. Ironically those interleaved wheels provide additional armor and make it tougher to hit the actual hull of the tank. The only downside was the thick mud on the eastern front could clog them up and for maintenance crews it was tough to unclog them
It was also quite a complicated job if one of the inner wheels had to be changed.
@@clearsailing7993 yeah torsion bars are very unforgiving
@@clearsailing7993 Right you had to remove two outer wheels to get to one inner wheel.
@@matthewcaughey8898 The part about mud freezing and blocking the wheels is just a myth, there are no sources to confirm that. No surviving Tiger crew member ever reported that thing happening. They did mention ice layers forming inside the tank from their breath condensing on the cold steel, and stuff like that, but the mud blocking the wheels is not real.
Captain Ronald Spiers a real hero, Maj Winters leadership at it's finest and all the rest. The greatest generation. RIP. I just lost my father in law who was a ball turret gunner in a B-24 flying out of Italy with the 15th AF, 751 bomb group. Kudos to Hanks and Spielberg for making this series (and The Pacific) when many of these men were still with us.
Ronald Spiers remained in the Army and eventually became the superintendent of Spandau Prison. Albert Speer remembered him as a stickler for rules and "the most annoying officer I ever met". The man did have gifts.😆
Ok?
@@MausHausOKW just make sure u dont blow up my friend
That Marder 3 seemed real, with a correct 38t tank chassis.
According to IMCDB it is a real 38t ... built in Sweden by Scania Vabis as the Stormartillerivagn m/43
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormartillerivagn_m/43
Yes the Marder 3 was real,I worked on the vehicles throughout Band of Brothers.
@@idonthavealoginname Which proves once more that with a little research it is possible to find acceptable vehicles for WW2 movies and you don't have to end up with M48 Pattons as "Tigers".
@@idonthavealoginname I recognize the sound of the engine. Same powerplant in our Jagdpanzer 38t Hetzer we used for reenactments.
Only thing I'd change is the German Sd.Kfz 251 was never referred to as a Hanomag. If you called it that in front of an average German soldier they would think you were referring to a truck the Hanomag company built. The half tracks were built by more companies than just Hanomag including Adlerwerke, Horch, škoda and Borgward. Enjoyed the video.
Thanks for adding this! I'm here to make videos as an amateur but also enjoy hearing from everyone too.
Hanomag’s tended to be the big heavy duty open top half track that the Germans used to pull the bigger guns around with. They were usually assigned to transport companies or attached to field arty units for the stated purpose above. In some cases the Hanomag was armed with a mounted 88mm gun to improve its mobility or they were mounted with a quad mount flak 20mm. The “ Hanomag” in its true form was actually featured at the end of the dirty dozen. But yes despite being built by many companies the big arty tractors were called Hanomags. ( there’s also an armored version using a deck mounted 88mm in the rear that operated like the. US M-3 half track with a mounted 75mm AT gun )
@@matthewcaughey8898 I think you are talking about the sd.kfz.11 and sd.kfz 11/1 some of which were produced by Hanomag, just like the 251. The Sd.kfz 7 and the the Sd.kfz 7/1 with flakvierling looked similar but none of which were produced by Hanomag. There was also the 8 and 9 versions.
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq for a more specific and accutate term, Germans referred to the as Schützenpanzerwagen, or shortened, it was called SPW ("S"chützen"P"anzer"W"agen)
From here, Im just assuming, but I assume Schützen is originating from the term Schütze which is what the Grenadiers were called before they were called grenadier. Schützen basically mean rifleman so the the vehicle is more or less literally translated to "Riflemen armored vehicle"
From what I know Germans during the war often nickname german vehicles by animals, terms/actions, or shortened abbreviated names.
Tiger, Panther, Puma, Luchs, being examples of animal nicknames.
Schwalbe (Me262), Hetzer, being an example of terms/actions. Hetzer being difficult to describe in English bit being something like a pursuing hunter, agitator, etc. Schwalbe translating into swallow.
StuKa, StuG, StuH, StuPa 43, StuPa, being an example of shortened abbreviated names as StuKa = Sturzkampfflugzeug = Dive battle plane = Dive bomber
StuG = Sturmgeschütz = Assault gun
StuH = Sturmhaubitze = Assault Howitzer
StuPa = Sturmpanzer = Assault tank
StuPa 43 being incorrectly called Brummbär since Germans never used that term.
StuKa ze Fuss be something of a mixture as it translates to Dive bomber on foot (in was a sdkfz 252 with rockets strapped on side)
Names of the brand/designer were not common and were avoided, the Ferdinand was of course change to Elefant.
Nickname for MP40 being Schmiesser was never used by Germans
Because he don't know what skfz would mean
Sonder kraft fahrzeug or special utility vehicle
They only had 1 Marder 3 for Saving Private Ryan but the production crew required multiple so they bought a pair of Sav M/43 Assault Guns and dressed them up with a Pak40 and German colors. The Sav looks extremely similar to the Marder since they are both built off of the 38(t) chassis. These Sav M/43s were also used on Band of Brothers as well.
I have to admit, the JagdPanther had me fooled! The rest, not so much.
I thin the Tiger mockup looks alright, even from the side. Think it would be easier to make a Tiger mockup with a Pz IV but idk how many of those are still operational.
well thing with the Jagdpanther is that it weighed over 50 tons; when the mock up halted itself, the suspension made it bounce back and forth, so I knew right away there was something MUCH lighter being used. Truth be told I didn't know a T54 was used=I always assumed that one of those 'made up' APCs played the part of the Jagdpanther.
The road wheels are always a big giveaway when it comes to converted T34's as the Tiger had interleaved wheels and the T34 had a single line of road wheels which is easily noticeable unless covered by camera angles or brush etc but in both BoB and Saving Private Ryan they did an excellent job in concealing these to make them acceptable to the untrained and obsessive Armour fans out there,( me being one) but I was still impressed with the amount of historical detail.
That stubborn British tank commander got rekt , the scene when a German gets his skull crushed by a StuG is brutal...
Brutal but I couldn't resist having it in the video.
@Evan Langston No, and there are a number of examples of Tigers clashing with British and Canadian armour. Several were involved in the battle of Villers-Bocage, following the destruction of a British armour column by one Tiger: in that engagement, 6 Tigers were reported as knocked out (immobilised - some may have been recovered by the Germans). The Tigers engaged in Normandy were clustered east of Caens, to block British and Canadian advance to the east and south. Most were abandoned due to breakdown or air attacks.
@@Feargal011 I think what Saturn meant was that ‘US forces encountered the Tiger…’
During Normandy, as you stated, all the German heavy tank battalions (Tigers) were amassed against the British/Commonwealth forces. The US army rarely encountered Tigers. And ‘Saving Private Ryan’ is pure fiction. On 6/15/44, as the movie states on the tombstone, those Tigers would have been engaged near Caen (or Villers Bocage).
@Saturn actually you mean the Americans. Commonwealth troops had plenty of encounters with tigers.
@Saturn
American troops had a tendency to refer to all German tanks as Tigers. The Band of Brothers book is actually the best example, as Winters refers to all Panzers as Tigers and all German units as 'crack' troops. There was also confusion, for both Americans and Commonwealth troops, about the distinction between the German words Panzer (Pronounced Pan-Zah/Panz-ah in German) and Panther (Pronounced Pant-tah in German) meaning many Panzer IVs were reported as Panthers. The difference between the European and North American pronunciation of Z was also a factor.
Same way civilians refer to all armoured vehicles whether they're IFVs, APCs, SPAs or SPAAs as tanks.
The Jagdpanther mockup was indeed pretty good. According to military historian Steve Zaloga, few Jagdpanthers were employed in the West. Most of those encountered during the Normandy landings, and in the subsequent Allied breakout, were committed by the Germans to the British sector. Truthfully, most American Military personnel probably did not come up against the Jagdpanther before the German Ardennes offensive in late 1944.
Only about 400 Jagdpanthers were built, so they were pretty rare anywhere
@@g24thinf I am aware of that. Thank you though :)
I recall that the collection of rag tag units that formed the Kampfgruppen that fought the 101st and British armour in the Veghel - Son etc. area had a handful or so of Jagdpanthers, so it being depicted in that episode isn't out of place.
@@RLRSwanson There is a well known photo of a Jagdpanther and an M36 both knocked out on the battlefield traveling towards one another. It has never been clear if they knocked each other out, or one of them got the kill and was destroyed by something else. But it is interesting in that it shows that there was at least one engagement where the American and German Armies best TD's did oppose each other in the same action.
@@garyhill2740 Yes, that picture is from the Ruhr pocket area, correct? I've also seen a couple of pictures that are claimed to be from Market Garden featuring Jagdpanthers, one of them has the burning wreck of a C47 or some other twin engined airplane, a Jagdpanther and infantry. I should read up again on Market Garden, but there's one battle in particular between the Germans and elements of the 506th and 502nd with British armor thatI think is what they try to depict in the show, where the Germans managed to cut the highway to Nijmegen for a period with a scraped together force of fallschirmjagers and whatnot and 3 or 4 Jagdpanthers as well as captured Shermans.
For any tank nuts or enthusiasts I strongly recommend visiting the tank museum in Bovington, they have a huge collection and not only do they have the only running Tiger I they also have the only running Mark V tank !
However due to scarcity of spare parts it's rare for them to run the original Mark V they actually use another one of Spielberg's creations a replica created for 2014's War Horse.
If you can’t make it to Bovington, come out to Canada’s tank museum. The Ontario Regiment Museum in Oshawa Ontario just east of Toronto now has the largest collection of fully operational military vehicles in North America. Their collection includes two easy 8 Shermans, a Panzer III replica you can’t tell from an original, T34-85, German Hetzer, two M60’s and a Russian T 72 plus many others. Once a month starting in May they put on shows during “Tank Saturday”. Worth a visit.
I’m ok with good mock-ups in war films. I always give the producers credit for making an effort, rather than slapping crosses on a Patton.
Funny you say Fury either enrages or delights tank fans. I fall into the enraged camp, not so much for how it treats tank warfare (that has good and bad moments) but because it’s just a bad war film, IMO.
Lol fair enough. I'm going to review that movie one day and still haven't decided what my view is on it haha
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq check out the deleted scenes, they bring some character development but yea, film was conflictive lol.
@Jay Jay Haha no. The Germans did not penalise rape and murder at all. It was the norm across the eastern front in which there was no punishment, and there was little to no punishment for similar crimes in the west.
Hell, when you say destruction of property was forbidded you can go to Ourador-sur-Glane which was fucking destroyed by the Germans as a reprisal. The French left it as a memorial and a reminder.
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Although the Vehicles are nice a big problem I noticed atleast with the tank scene is that Fury has a 76W Cannon that can frontally penetrate a Tiger 1. Yet they proceed to use the 75 Sherman handbook's guide to defeating a Tiger. Where 75's have to flank Tiger 1's and hit them in the engine block to take one out. 76W's are trained to get in range and shoot Tiger's from the front to take out one. So that's a huge inaccuracy that's just made for drama in that scene in Fury.
The one thing I liked about Fury was how they used Tiger 131 in that scene.
I wish I discovered your channel earlier, I really like these videos, well-made, not too long and easy to watch. Also, the narrator is great ! Keep up the good work, man.
Thanks for the kind words. Will try to keep the videos coming!
Very well done! Thank you for posting this!
That battle in Nuenen with the British tanks is quite frustrating to me.
1: the battle never happened this way.
2: it paints the Brits as incompetent for some reason (101st had great things to say serving alongside the ‘Swell Bison’)
3: Erroneous German tanks as usual
Depends on the Brits if you look at the battle of Market Garden as a whole well for instance when American soldiers tried to reach there allies they asked a Brit tank commander to move and help there trapped allies but refused saying unless told so they won’t move, when that American got to the Brits they suffered heavy casualties and lets just say the conversation between the captain and tank commander was not pretty. Granted even if they move to help it won’t changed the outcome but we wouldn’t know. If you research Market Garden well the leading commander didn’t received conquest.
@@Zeroknight34 In Market Garden Gavin and the 82nd failed to capture Nijmegen on day 1. Which slowed the British ground advance by more than 24hrs.
@@gleggett3817 Market Garden show poor leadership on everyone part but what's done is done. To me WW2 leadership was half and half some wanted to ended the war while the other half just wanted metals for a job well done.
@@Zeroknight34 That is a famous story - and has been looked into. No US airborne troops were found to substantiate it, and the British tanks were equally frustrated. They were ordered to await infantry, stuck fighting in Nijmegen. The vulnerability of armour on the raised raised road was obvious to all. It is now believed to be a "story". 82nd could have captured the bridge on the day they landed, as it was virtually undefended. They did not try until the evening, and found it then heavily reinforced by SS panzer troops. US like to say XXX Corps was late - but by the morning of the 3rd day they were at Nijmegen, about ten miles from Arnhem - the delay was Nijmegen.
Thanks for the kind comment Mike, from the grandson of a 'swell bison' firefly commander. I've never heard them called that before.
The modified wading M4 Shermans dropped their "trunks" on the beaches. Shouldn't have had them on that far inland but still cool to show.
So I guess those actual pictures were never taken
There are a number of photos of M4’s with their swimsuits on well after D-Day +
Nice video for a walk down memory lane for me as I was one of the tank Commanders throughout the series. Nicely done.
Sounds like a great job!
As someone who's done a bit of acting it occurred to me its gotta be really strange to be an onscreen tank crew. You're having to keep up with all the stage directions and blocking, making sure all your movements are on time and in the right place, and doing all the body language, expressions, and lines when you're actually on camera, but you're also simultaneously having to do the very real technical tasks of operating the tank. Steering changes so you end up in the right place at the right facing, traversing the gun to just the right angle, and all that since I assume for most cases thats entirely real and not, say, remote control or something. Presumably repeating several times in a row for most shots.
Really great video, thanks for making and posting it!
I would like to see a movie where shermans are actually fighting pz 4’s, since that was way more common. The thing that it’s always Tigers can be annoying because they make it look like the sherman was a bad tank, but it did well against stug’s and pz 4.
The crazy thing is that tank on tank was only about 10% of the typical tank's role during WWII. The great majority of tank kills were by anti-tank artillery and (if you believe it) air attacks. The M4 was a great muiti-role tank, commonly used against infantry and support/artillery positions. The British Cromwell 'crocodile' was a brilliant bunker-buster.
German tanks were good, but...the 'heavies' were not well designed for multi-role action and were terrible for field maintenance and repair as well as having incredible fuel consumption.
In the Market Garden episode, I’m guessing it would also make sense for the Jagdpanther to shoot the Cromwell first since some Cromwells were armed the the 6-pounder anti-tank gun (although not this one) and as such would represent (slightly) more of a threat to it than the 75mm-armed Sherman.
Fury gets a lot of negative reactions not because the vehicles weren't genuine, but because the tactics used were completely different than doctrine indicated. Especially when it comes to "Fury' itself. One memorable scene is the duel between Fury and a Mk 6 panzer (Tiger 1). Trying to maneuver for a rear shot on the Tiger might have been prudent for a normal Sherman, but for an "easy eight" like Fury, the 76mm main gun had no difficulty penetrating the frontal armor of a Tiger 1.
And it would have been first tank taken out by that Tiger. Its longer barrel would have stood out totally from side.
Plus the horribly stupid Hollywood script showing 300 troops unable to take out one broken down sherman tank, that was insanely stupid.
And why would the Pz6 charge through the field since he had range advantage ? He should have angled slightly to bounce the 76mm and just blast Fury with a center mass shot.
Fury's just dumb because it's a movie version of Death Traps and repeats the same boring myths that got debunked for a decade before the movie was released. It's too bad, because the production value was so high and the action is great.
@@robtankbuster5215 Not so stupid when it was based on a real event in January 1945: Audie Murphy gained a Medal of Honor fighting off two companies of German infantry behind then on top of a knocked out M10 tank destroyer.
'The Germans scored a direct hit on an M10 tank destroyer, setting it alight, forcing the crew to abandon it. Murphy ordered his men to retreat to positions in the woods, remaining alone at his post, shooting his M1 carbine and directing artillery fire via his field radio while the Germans aimed fire directly at his position. Murphy mounted the abandoned, burning tank destroyer and began firing its .50 caliber machine gun at the advancing Germans, killing a squad crawling through a ditch towards him. For an hour, Murphy stood on the flaming tank destroyer returning German fire from foot soldiers and advancing tanks, killing or wounding 50 Germans. He sustained a leg wound during his stand, and stopped only after he ran out of ammunition. Murphy rejoined his men, disregarding his own injury, and led them back to repel the Germans. He insisted on remaining with his men while his wounds were treated.
For his actions that day, he was awarded the Medal of Honor. The 3rd Infantry Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its actions at the Colmar Pocket, giving Murphy a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster for the emblem.'
While I don't knock fury as it was a Hollywood movie made purely for entertainment and not accuracy - the one big issue I do have (and it's the only one) is that it reinforces the myth that you could only destroy a Tiger if you shot it in the arse (Kelly's Heroes also reinforces that ridiculous myth). Many Tigers were knocked out by 75mm Shermans that ambushed them from the side as the side armour of the Tiger is only 80mm thick. The tank that Brad Pitt uses in Fury is an M4A3E8. The best Sherman of WW2 and with its high velocity 76mm would have easily been able to penetrate even the front armour of the Tiger from the range that we see in the movie. I hate how these myths that portray the Tiger as invincible and the Sherman as rubbish have been so heavily perpetuated over the decades when neither is true.
The third Sherman also had a 76mm, but with the muzzle brake removed.
Yes, I agree. That scene is unrealistic in both ways. Unrealistic because it shows the Tiger crew acting quite incompetent, missing many shots, not taking out the leading tank of the column first. And unrealistic because, just like you said, it shows the Tiger in actual battle as way stronger than it actually was.
Thought the same thing. At less than 100 yds. apart the 76mm could have penetrated the frontal armor of the Tiger. Question' Does anyone know if the 76mm in the Sherman was really 76mm? I read it was actually a Larger case 75mm and was referred to as a 76mm so as not to be confused with the shorter standard 75mm. It also stated the real 76mm was a lager bottle neck anti-aircraft round and could not fit into a Sherman tank????
Well one thing is the "historical truth" and the other is the "historical perspective". Whether it was objectively the best tank by the end of the war or not, the Tiger historically did have a mighty reputation, likely due to the fact that when they were first deployed they often faced significantly weaker/older armor and crushed them. The Western Allied forces didn't really field heavy tanks until 1945 ... most of the war was done by then and the Tiger's reputation was already cemented.
I just appreciate a ww2 tank movie at all. Nitpicking details is kinda lame tbh
I believe the Tiger 1 used in this series and Saving Private Ryan was also used in Kelly’s Hero’s, which is another film that has a lot of good WW2 armoured vehicles and pretty accurate for a Hollywood movie!
Ive seen Tiger 131 at bovington as well as the King Tiger they have and both are amazing machines. They also have a genuine sdkfz 251 variant, although when we were there it had no insides. Bovington is absolutely the lave to visit if your a tank fan.
Love to go sometime!
Great video, but you made a mistake on the Cromwell: it was _not_ armed with the same gun as the Sherman, it was armed with a british ROQF 75 mm, which was the 6-pounder bored out to fire the same 75mm ammo used by the Sherman.
Thank you sir! I was specific in saying it was armed with the same "ordinance" not gun for this reason. You are of course correct so I do appreciate you adding this info :)
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq glad to help!
Just came across this. Positively excellent video, sir. Well done & please continue
Dude I just found your channel and I love it man. Props
Welcome aboard!
The Russian film "White Tiger" has a damned good mock up of a Porsche Tiger built onto a IS-2 tank. The film is on U-Tube, currently.
It wasn't supposed to be a tiger p. It's just the tank chassis that is not right that why it appears long. Like the one in saving private Ryan.
good mock up? nah, its terrible
I have read a lot of comments on the Fury Tiger scene, the most telling is the fact the tank commander is shown with various ribbons and medals indicating he has seen lots of action, more than the attacking Shermans. Why would he leave his perfect ambush cover to get shot at? So we can see the only running Tiger in the world, that's why! But one comment I love the most: the scene should have been, Tiger in cover kills all Shermans, then overheats when trying to reverse, or suffers failure and radios for a tow. If it doesn't, they ditch the tank and walk back after setting scuttling charges. if you read Tiger Battalion 507, most of the entries involve downtime for repairs, interspersed with brief, if decisive, action. If they could have kept the things running and used them in the proper role, as a heavy break-through unit in small packets, it might have helped the weapons mix, but one thing I did get from that book is that things never went as planned, and armor was always in short supply and heavy demand. Armor enthusiast, unite!
Thanks for adding this! You make some good observations. I plan to do a Fury review one day. You are right though. So we can see it is exactly the point of the scene haha
All the inaccuracies are forgiven because that was a REALTiger!
Great Video! I always thought the Hollywood Tiger 1's (T-34 85) were easily identified by the singular road (T-34 Christie Suspension) wheels as opposed to the interwoven road wheels of the REAL Tiger 1. I believe Kelly's Hero's was the first movie which used the Hollywood Tiger to depict the Real McCoy!
Kelly's Hero's is my favourite, so those 3 Tigers in the square were no genuine Tigers?
One more thing to differentiate the Tiger in BoB being a T34 as a mockup, is the road wheels. Those road wheels look nothing like the Tiger 1's that looks like disks or plates. An understandable compromise, considering that they rely most on short bursts of filming it to keep the illusion alive.
The one Marder III ( the one that got hit in the front by the bazooka team) was out at the Reading Airshow for a while. I haven't gone in a few years but as of 2016 she was out in the German camp by the French Village.
Really enjoyed that, great level of research 👏
Unbelievable men! Americans, British,. Canadians,. French and Red Army fought with every heart ❤️ and soul!
Some of the small details in the movies mentioned here I appreciate. When Cpt. Miller fires his Thompson at the crew getting out of the half track, his misses are registered with ground hits in the distance. Not too many movies go into that amount of detail. One screw up in the WWII real world, the ground infantry with BC611 walkie talkies operated on AM. Tank radios used FM. The solution was that telephone handset installed at the bank of the tank so fire instruction could be given to the crews. Incredibly this was not totally resolved until almost the end of the war. Germans on the other hand, their tank crews had full communications with ground troops, and air crews such that they could call in air assistance directly, while American tankers had to FM back to the rear, who would have to use landline, International Morse on an HF path, or AM to contact air ops who would then call up and direct aircraft, and if talking to Brits, had to use FM gear. But, we won anyway, so that is all moot.
My Dad was in the 20th Armored Div. in WWII. I still have his 20 Armored Division book that details all they did in WW II. He would talk about how the Germans had FM radios and that he was mostly in a halftrack. He told me how much better their radios were and that you could hear them fart on those German FM radios. They came late and did not see much action.
That's how my father got shot. Outside Tripoli in 1943, returning from a recce he ran across the open to warn a troop of tanks about a/tk guns covering their line of advance but forgot about the phone at the back- or it wasn't working- there were two versions- and while he was trying to make himself understood to the troop commander he got caught by a burst of MG fire which ended his war.
I love your work my friend, great action stuff
Thanks for the feedback Nigel. I'll try and keep you entertained lol
If indeed they used "the same Marders" as in 'Saving Private Ryan,' then they used the wrong maneuver in the latter movie, because as an anti-tank platform it could not elevate it's gun to take out the high bell tower. Maybe another self-propelled artillery piece (e.g. Wespe) could have.
Turns out the 'panzer' that shot up the bell tower with Jackson in it was not a World War II tank at all or a reproduction of one.
Though it was referred to as a "Marder", in actuality it was a real 1950s anti-tank gun called The SAV m/43 from Sweden.
It had a short gun because of the close swedish forest and had an elevation of 20°max.
So yes, they showed the special effects of that tank firing it's gun, supposedly only half-block from the church. That gun would not have been able to shoot up at a bell tower so close.
@@rayw3332 (Swedish armour geek here) the m/43 is the year of commissioning the type, so the Sav (Stormartillerivagn = assault gun) was in service during WWII as well. It had a short 7.5 cm gun until 1946, when it was remounted with a 10.5 cm howitzer. The chassis of the Sav was license-built, from the Czech tank that became the PzKpfw 38(t), which is what that Marder model would have used. The Sav used in SPR must have been a 10.5cm model, since beneath the ersatz PaK 40 there is the Swedish 10.5cm travel lock.
Thank you Jhonny. Loved this work.
In a bridge too far many of the lined up Sherman tanks were mock ups on VW chassis. Brilliantly done at the distance shots used.
One of the finest tank scenes of whole time war movies
Minutiae Trivia: In the Market Garden Scenes (5:09 & 7:32) a Street sign shows Eeineind 4 Geldorp 8. This would put the scene just north of the Wilhelmina Canal (Bridge #1, which was blown up) where the 101st actually engaged the Germans.
Hey, awesome you spotted this. Just a couple of comments, the commune is called Eeneind (roughly translates as “pretty far”). This is 4km away from Geldrop and about 7,5km away from the closest point of the canal. It is an area where there are a lot of symbols to remembering operation ‘Market Garden’. Thank you for making me aware of this reference!
I was working in Hatfield, Herts at the time that both SPR and BoB were filmed, both of which extensively used one corner of the old De Havilland aerodrome adjacent to where our offices were. Was pretty weird to have gunfire punctuating meetings, or the one time the entire place came to a stop when that "Jagdpanzer" was spotted trundling across the field.
I often wonder why no one had the idea of preserving more vehicles and aircraft used by all sides as historical peices to teach future generations. Very cool video and informative, thanks!
I think we fall into the same trap. Stuff is often discarded or recycled now. Nobody ever realizes future significance.
I would guess there is also the fact that we stumbled from ww2 into the cold war. Many vehicles where in continuous use from one conflict to the next, and the parties involved had more pressing issues to worry about.
i also think lots of equipment and materiel were scrapped to get resources required for rebuilding after the war.
That's exactly it. Cold War required remaining WWII vehicles to see service. Example: France got ahold of 10 Panzer IV tanks and they gave them to Syria when that nation got their independence. The Syrian Army turned around and used them against Israel and all ten tanks were destroyed. Another interesting issue is Turkey. Turkey was given a lot of tanks and aircraft from Germany when it looked like Turkey might join the Axis. When Turkey became friendlier to the Allies, the US asked them to put away their tanks and aircraft and got resupplied from the US. The Allies were afraid of friendly fire due to Turkey using Axis equipment. Rumor has it Turkey is still sitting and preserving these vehicles to this day.
They were probably over it by a considerable margin , given the war had been going 6 years and 75million people were dead.
Thank you Johnny. This was certainly a good and informative video. I appreciate the work that went into this show. The German armor was impressive. I really thought they used a real Jagdpanther in Band of Brothers. The scene at Carentan/Bloody Gulch was one of the best and most intense battle scenes I've watched on screen. Holland Replacements scene as well. Awesome !
Thanks Mike! Remains my favorite WW2 production to date.
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq your welcome
The Jagdpanther mock up was so good
@7:00 Some tigers actually appeared in WW2 to have turrets forward mounted on the hull, developed by Porsche. Henschel tigers beat out the manufacturing competition against Porsche and became more recognized.
Well done. I appreciate your presentation.
Thx again for a grate video, keep up the good work Sir:)
Why thank you kindly
good stuff here, one thing, though, there were no Tigers in the American sector of Normandy, the Tigers of 102nd SS Abt. were faced off against the British in the Caen area
Good point. By the time Panzer Lehr Div was moved from the British sector to reinforce defences at St Lo facing the Americans, it had lost all its Tigers, with only Pzkw IV, Panthers and Jagdpanthers and Stug III left. The armoured clashes on the eastern and southern eastern sectors bled German armour. The American M10 tank destroyers smashed into these units during Operation Cobra.
@@Feargal011 ONLY seriously.
@@franklinhadick2866 Panzer Lehr Division had lost nearly 3/4 of its tank strength and well over 1/2 its infantry by the time the US 2nd Army advanced towards St Lo. My point is the Canadians and British had bled German Panzer Divisions white before any were transferred to stop the 2nd and 3rd Army advance south towards St Lo and Avranches.
Really well done. Enjoyed that thank you.
The reaction of the British Sherman commander in the Market Garden episode always stunned me. Maybe he's just arrogant but I don't believe for one second that an experienced tank commander's judgement of the situation would be that negligent when a scout reports of the proximity of a 'German tank'.
The only issue with Band of Brothers is the Market Garden episode it paints a fake image of the British tank forces. In reality they did not just roll up road to get blown up. The scene was based off the bridge to far book which while well written for the time is today full of misinformation and the Author had a biased and desire to slander the British. And made up or discredited the British a lot for no reason.
I'd take these hybrids over CGI any day, its obvious some of these are German tank parts glued to foreign chassis or even completely different vehicles dressed up to look German, but they are perfectly acceptable
My friend from history club in college actually works with one of the StuGs that was featured in band of brothers. From what he said one of them was 80% the real deal with the APC being added to the stug and not the other way around. And her nickname is Lily
it's very rare to see real tank in film ! I remember a french movie of the 90's , "la neige et le feu" ,where you can see in action a TIGER II (the only roadworthy in Saumur muséum) in action during battle in Alsace in winter 1944 . the anecdotal scenes of this movie come from real testimonies and are sometime quite funny
Hi My name is Steve Lamonby, I run an independent Action vehicle company called Plusfilm Ltd. I worked with the veteran war film Art Director Alan Tomkins, on 'Ryan' as well as B,o B's Our idea was to create the best visual show of tanks that we could get. Shermans were easy, OK they are Canadian built but on the move, they look the same. The Cromwell was a lot harder, not many of them left in private hands, this one was a wreck, we had to completely re build it, new Meteor engine etc. OK now we come to the German Armour-- this is always a total nightmare, as hardly any genuine WWII tanks survive in running order. I had to design and my team built everything as a replica except the Marder IIIM which we bought as a shot up wreck in Hungary. I am proud of the Jagdpanther which in action takes everyone by surprise when they first see it.
As the commentary says the two Stugs are built on British FV 432 carriers, But and its a big But, we lengthened the hulls to fit the extra axles to give them the correct six wheels. There are now plenty of copies of our Stugs seen at shows etc, But they all have five wheels..
I hope that you enjoyed my work, best Steve.
Well I salute you! You and your team did a fantastic job and I hope this video I made gave some just praise for the work. No one expects perfection but this is about as good as it gets for mock-ups and stand ins. Excellent work I truly envy you!
The mockups are very good.
Especially compared to the "tiger" in the TV series "hogans heros".
I mean there they took a m7 priest artillery vehicle, painted it blue and slapped a swastika on the side.
Not even adding a turret, welding up something or doing literally anything except buying a bucket of blue paint and job done.
Oh yeah, that was godawful. Really made all the repainted Patton tanks and US halftracks in older WWII movies/shows look far better by comparison.
@@andrewp8284 yeah that tank makes the tiger scene from fury look realistic
Compared to the many "historical" movies over the decades I think the SFX crews did britllianlty considering the rarity of the real deal vehicles if they even still exist. Would be greaat if they ever make some of the Panthers that still exist available but I realise that that beast could be fragile even in frontline service
Good video and very informative and interesting.
I can't believe I never noticed how tiny the chassis on the Tigers in BoB were. Now that you mention it, I can totally see a t34 underneath that thing lol
Band of Brothers is one of the best mini series out there. Also, may I suggest the movie Hyena Road for a future video? It's a Canadian war film set during the War in Afghanistan.
I'll be working that into a future review forsure as a Canadian myself.
Yes, and yes. Also a shout out for Pacific, Thin Red Line, and, one of my favs, Generation Kill.
The Crew of Tiger 131 in the scene with Fury would, (IRL) have been successful in previous battles and highly trained in Tiger tactics. The Crew would've stayed in cover and probably taken the whole platoon out without moving. Fury, with it's 76W gun advertising it was a 'Sherman Firefly' would've had it's block knocked off first. However, returning to the storyline, we wouldn't have had the final battle at the crossroads if Brad wasn't present.
Hello, ! 🌟Thanks for watching::You have been shortlisted for the ongoing secret giveaway contact address above on telegram, ❤️💯🏆, Thank you!
Loved the effort Band of Brothers made in showing vehicles we had never seen in film. I about lost it when the Jagdpanther was used. Getting a bit tired of Tigers showing up in every WW2 movie. The reality was that Tigers were pretty rare on the battlefield and you were far more likely to encounter just about any other Germsn tank. I would LOVE to see a Panther, which were fairly common and if they are going to show rare vehicles,a run in with a Jagd tiger or a King Tiger would be fun
...check out the 1966 comedy 'What Did You Do During the War Daddy?"...
...it features a mock-up of a Panther...
...I think they used an American M113 with a Panther turret built up on top...
...not really a bad job that they did, just convincing enough to give a respectable impression of a Pzkw.V Panther...
@@miklosernoehazy8678 I will check that out, thanks!
@@jamesbutler8821 ... it's a very funny movie...
... enjoy!...
"Stug's strong frontal armor", apparently war thunder would like to debate that because I swear every single shell hits right in the vertical front plate and knocks out the whole crew lmao. Anyway great video!
Everyone here talks about lately made films, two of the best ever made were "Pork Chop Hill" with Gregory Peck and "12 O-clock High" also with Gregory Peck. The one that REALLY gets to me though is "Paths of Glory" with Kirk Douglas. Try these and give your opinion if you ever have the time, lol.
I'll see what I can do 🙂
Excellent films. Pork Chop Hill is very close to Marshall's book.
No matter how much Tigers and Panzers lack in realism lately, those T-34 mockups are so much better than the re-painted Shermans and Pattons we had to cringefully accept in earlier films.
Nice the Sd.Kfz 251-22 in the panzer parade in 'BoB, ' fitted with a 75mm PaK 40 antitank gun.
Great video and some very interesting points on how the illusion is created.
In the Tiger v Fury scene, I know what they were trying to show, but in the back of my mind I kept wondering why the German tank commander didn't have the driver maneuver the tank so as to help with the turret rotation.
or why he order the tank move forward....
I read somewhere that the Bovington museum did not allow that, as they did not want to risk damaging the tracks. But it would have been cool to see it in action.
Apparently the scene was filmed on a concrete surface, with dirt and grass added on top of it, to make sure they don't damage the tank.
@@scratchy996 That makes sense.
But, as JR mentioned, the director was clueless enough to make the Tiger move in the only wrong direction that there was, so I imagine even if they could rotate the Tiger in place, the director'd have them rotate in the wrong direction.
Tigers are nice, but I really could use some more groups of Panzer 4s. Those are also really impressive, and actually much more practical.
I really do like how real they keep to the real historical battle in the movies and tv show series
Great vid very interesting
I remember my Pop telling me how phony the tanks were in the film "Battle of the Bulge" and then I rewatched it a few years ago and was horrified that they didn't even use mockups on the cold war US tanks - just a Maltese Cross. I noticed even in Kelly Heroes at least they did a rudimentary Tiger mockup - and that was a comedy! Spielberg treats history with a bit of honor - it is important.
Those M60s really made their rounds in the classic tank movies.
Yes they did a mock-up but they used Wood! You could easily see it in the Closeups!
... another comedy, roughly contemporary with "Battle of the Bulge" and "Kelly's Heroes", is "What Did You Do In the War Daddy?" (it's from1966) it features a mock-up of a Panther, which I believe is an American APC with a turret built up on the top...
...not a bad job, just convincing enough to give a respectable impression of a Pzkw.V Panther, and to pique your curiosity as to what they used for the tank...
excellent review, thanks!
Excellent video thank you for sharing.
Great video :P
I pretty much understood 95% of the things u explained.
@ 7.38 "I am not a tank expert" ! Lol , JJ, if you're not an expert then I obviously need a lot more education ! Superb commentary and forensic analysis . Can't wait for your commentary on the late war armour deployed by the Soviets (the JS series ? )
Thanks man! I'll try to keep 'em coming.
7:38
I saw this tanks at bovington museum! Amazing video
I was impressed that they had actual M-4's and not the improved types that were later developed. Looking at the tracks, they do seem different than the tracks that were mated with the early M-4's...
They're by and large the Montreal Locomotive produced _M4A1 "Grizzlies"_
My biggest complaint of Fury was the fact that the main cast had the 76mm, which could easy pen the front of the Tiger. But hey, got to reinforce the old myth about Tiger Is being only killable in the rear lol.
a Tiger could easily be disabeld by aTom Hanks and a Thompson sub machine gun !!!
I’d love to see some bfV gameplay. Like the basic facts of the zero or something like that👍
Oh man I used to be good at Battlefield but I'm sucking these days lol
@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Same here but i just like to play😂
I saw a video of some people who drove around in a tank storage facility. If you watch the video carefully, when they drive down one row of tanks, you can see vintage WW2 German armour. They are easily identifiable.
The narrator's excitement is contagious! :)
I liked tanks so much, I joined the Company! 'Fury' was crap with crap sauce, but I loved some of the tank scenes, like when they fire all guns. Band of Brothers did it well, because they tried to do it well, and went for history and the story. Why couldn't "A Bridge too Far' get a good mock up, instead of a Leopard 1 faked up with a bad kit?