Thread: Every German Tank is a Tiger

Aye thats Hollywood for you , and other film makers , they tend to rewrite history , if a person has a good knowledge of war facts it tends to turn them off watching with mutterings of , b/s , crap/ and the missis saying , shut up FFS (ozzy ones) and watch it ,,yea , but but but , ah bollox , click , im off to bed

Not to give them too much of a pass but....

In the West we tended to have whatever was in the National Guard repainted and marked up to be the Germans with the recon tanks play the Americans (see Battle of the Bulge for M47s as Tigers and M24s as Shermans). In "Patton" is was M48s as German tanks, M47s as American (newsreels showed actual M4s).

In "A Bridge Too Far" you may recall they did have some Shermans but the German tanks were all Leos.

I think what you see in most of those films are old T-34s which were more easily into looking like a Tiger.

I don't know of many succesful attempts to portray other German armor until the 1990s when we saw the converted FV-432s used as German armor.

Its kind of using what is available.

http://the.shadock.free.fr/Repros.pdf

This website shows a lot of vismods which have occured.

I think he is less refering to the quality of the stand-in for the Tigers but to habit that whenever a German tank shows up in WWII movies it seems to be a Tiger and never any of the other AFV Germany used, regardless of the timing and setting of the movie, leading to the false impression that Germany used non other tanks. Similar to how the RAF seems to be using only Spitfires in a less extreme example...but I might be wrong.

the movies in the seventies did not have the budgets of today, they used whatever they had.
for instance in the movie the IRON CROSS they used Corsairs and t-34/85 to depict the soviets , but the gear did not matter as much as story did.
and the story was about people.

on my local est. mil.board couple of times a year somebody pops up with a story how his grandfather/uncle/neighbor knows exactly that in this little lake here/there is a Tiger, which the germans lost when they tried to cross the frozen lake/swamp etc. details vary, but the stories are plenty. it´s always a Tiger, never anything less. Even had a co-worker 3 years ago, whos dad´s best friend saw a Tiger being drowned in a lake 1944. when i asked, how did he knew it was a Tiger - did he identify it by suspension or by 88mm. gun, there was sullen silence . Although Tigers fought in these areas, Otto Carius´s unit

BUT sometimes there is something in these lakes. Soviet tank raised from being underwater for 56 years - still runs!

and there was a rather good-looking IS-2 IIRC pulled out of swamp in Russia 1-2 years ago. A grain elevator in my hometown was restored after war and they used IS-2 as part of foundation. they even found Bf-109 in Gulf of Riga that probably belonged to Walter Nowotny


EDITED TO ADD - just saw on tanknet this http://www.dump.com/2011/10/09/russi...the-mud-video/

Originally Posted by Tarek Morgen

I think he is less refering to the quality of the stand-in for the Tigers but to habit that whenever a German tank shows up in WWII movies it seems to be a Tiger and never any of the other AFV Germany used, regardless of the timing and setting of the movie, leading to the false impression that Germany used non other tanks. Similar to how the RAF seems to be using only Spitfires in a less extreme example...but I might be wrong.

Yup, the warsaw pack's propaganda dept, of all people, should know their anti-fascist history better.

at the same mil.-board many guys have written their memories from Soviet Army. the balts were known as fascists, of course - but that was sometimes not meant as badly as it sounds - in the movies the stereotypes of nazi officers klicking heels and impeccably correct (while burning somebody of course) seemed to leave an impression. and it was always the balts who played these characters in the movies. there was even a documentary about this, lots of good theatre actors here moonlightning in soviet movies



of course the thick accent, which is comparable to soviets in rambo-movies

Originally Posted by Tarek Morgen

that whenever a German tank shows up in WWII movies it seems to be a Tiger and never any of the other AFV Germany used

Watch some 1950s German WWII movies. Nazis get M47 Pattons in those as tanks and M8 Greyhounds as armored cars.