The more I hear about #Fury the less I want to see it. I shall await the Netflix release and watch it alone. Not sure I want to deal with the Hollywood schlock and buckets of blood replacing any semblance of story. That said I’ll watch as much as I can. I think as long as we look at this as an entertainment versus the ‘historical movie’ some were hoping for we are in good shape.
Panzer 3 -featuring Wittman v the British….
If we don’t count last scene with 300 SS infantrymen trying to kill one tank, all other situations aren’t improbable at all. Don’t want to spoiler, but only tiger featured in the movie kills a lot of shermans. Historical consultants were quite good at this one and there are literally no focus on heroism or patriotism in it, so I would say it’s significantly different from typical hollywood war-themed movie.
we will ignore the side armor shots on the Sherman glancing away. 😉 The Tiger advancing versus staying hidden or reversing to maintain distance and range advantage… the ‘seasoned’ warriors getting hammered the nite b4…its all good. it is just a movie.
Where did germans get “seasoned” tank crews in April 1945? Most probably at this point inside the scary tank there were kids that did not finish their learning. So tactic errors were more than expected. From my point of view it’s not an unusual situation when platoon of b4s with experienced crews suffer heavy losses when destroys one unsupported tiger (with a bit of luck – only side armor shot I have seen there was mitigated by logs, so probably germans fired cumulative by mistake).
Wittmann’s “tally” is truly impressive on the face of it, but it was spun by the German propaganda machine, intent on building his “star” status.
The figures for the British losses are correct but the fact is that Wittmann’s Tiger was not the only Panzer to ambush the British column outside Villers Bocage that summer’s day. At least another two Tigers participated in the attack, knocking out British tanks and vehicles too. Then other German tanks joined in to attack British tanks and vehicles in the town itself, suffering their own losses (which somehow often go overlooked) including Wittmann’s tank, disabled by a British 6lb anti-tank gun.
Well I dont think that anyone bought that line of a solo Tank running amok. It is well know that his platoon attack with a total of 4 tanks and supporting infantry.
Regardless a massive technological mismatch caused this event to occur more so than some genius tactical action. It is a credit to the bravery of the Firefly tankers and AT gunner to engage these guys and find the flank/rear!