You are joking, right? German tanks had a MAJOR edge on US tanks at that time. The US won strictly because of the NUMBERS of tanks we had, our tanks sucked compared to theirs. DD
If they were brutally honest, they could show a soldier sitting in/digging a trench for 24 straight hours..... What I detest is loud obnoxious explosion noises and shots where a soldier looks like a deer in headlights as he sees all the horrors of war. It's trite and uninteresting. I would prefer to come out of a movie thinking 'soldiers are kick-ass heroes deserving of my respect' instead of thinking 'soldiers are victims deserving of my pity' . Old movies emphasize the former more.
I don't see any reason why you can't come out of a movie thinking both. My main reason for seeing war movies is to visualize the experience these young men endured. I've been fortunate enough that it's hard for me to fathom.
Not joking. The myth of German tanks having a kill ratio of 5:1 or 6:1 are greatly exaggerated. It was much closer to 1.5 to 1 in tank vs. tank conflicts. The US strategy did sacrifice quality for numbers as the US knew US tanks won nearly every battle that was 2:1 in their favor. However, it wasn't like German tanks won every battle that was 1:1. German tanks had superior armor and range. US tanks won when things got close. In hectic battles, things tend to get close.
The tank in this movie was a tiger tank the Sherman's shells bounced off it's armor....unless it got shot in the arse... The only good tanks in the war, were the German tanks and the T-34 russian tank which introduced sloped frontal armor - which could deflect some shells. The Sherman only did well because we produced an OVERWHELMING number of them - and in close their guns were still no match for the Germans guns, but because we were willing to sacrifice tank crews we overwhelmed them. DD
Old movies were very much for propaganda purposes. My own opinion is that knowing actually how awful and difficult, and at times mindnumbingly dull, warfare is actually what makes soldiers more heroic. If war was always that the good guy wins with ease, little struggle or even moral doubt it would be meaningless there is nothing heroic about that.
You're right during most of the war. The allies had tank maneuvers where they were expected to lose at least 3 Shermans per tiger. Testimonials of Sherman tank crews stated they were horrified at the amount of destroyed Shermans vs tigers... to the point where they were twitchy against anything that moved in the distant bushes. There's no way it was a 1:1 lost for most of the war. Then the allies fitted larger guns towards the end to the "firefly" Sherman and even then they weren't an even match. When asked, every one of the British Sherman tank crews preferred the tiger. Ill try to find the British doc on youtube... I love that kinda stuff Edit: I also want to note these were Shermans against Tigers, not Panthers... which were more evenly match. The Tigers were also more prone to allied air superiority and mechanically breakdowns (the tanks were often scuttled).
The "Easy 8" with its 76mm gun could penetrate a Tiger's side armor as easily as its rear armor at the range portrayed...especially if it used HVAP rounds. The scene was well done but obviously was made to be as dramatic as possible with the "rear" kill shot. You are correct in stating our Tanks simply overwhelmed the German tanks. The more overlooked and even more devastating reason German tanks were destroyed was the amount of artillery and air attacks the thin top skinned German tank took from the Allied P-47s, Mustangs, Self Propelled Artillery and static 105mm towed artillery.
A real problem with German tanks during WW2 was the poor ability to cross country due to taking up so much gas compared to U.S. tanks. The lack of mobility was one of the real issues for the Germans during the war.
Combine this with their late war lack of fuel (due to allied bombing of oil fields and refineries and Soviet overruning of same), and their notoriously unreliable tanks and inexperienced crews at the end of the war meant many AFV's were simply abandoned instead of destroyed.
Watched the movie and enjoyed it a lot. A co-worker who saw it ended up breaking down in the middle. Too close to home I guess.
