World War 2 Talk - View Single Post - The most historically incorrect movies/books.

spidge · 23-07-2006, 09:41 AM

Battle of the Bulge.

Not as inaccurate as you'd think,
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Okay, it has M24 Chaffees as the US tanks. The M24 was introduced into US service during the Battle of the Bulge. However, in the movie the Germans call them Shermans.

The German tanks are called Tigers, not Royal or King Tigers, and in WWII, Americans called ALL German tanks Tigers, whether they were or not. In this case they are Spanish Army M47 Patton tanks (little irony there, in that Patton's contribution to the Battle of the Bulge is left out of the movie)

The German tanks for once are accurately marked with turret numbers, and the German tankers are all wearing the appropriate Panzer uniforms, with the Panzer Grenadier troops wearing the gray version of this uniform. Someone did their homework on the uniforms.

The first battle with the US troops getting overrun by the Panzers is accurate as far as most accounts of the US green divisions in the face of Peiper's panzers in the real battle.

In the last battle, (the one in the desert) something similar happened when a US corps commander threw his armor at the Germans to keep them away from the Meuse. And the dialogue and fire commands are correct for WW2 era tank battles, they even mention hypershot, the special US armor piercing round that could kill a Tiger at close range.

They tried and got close, no cigar, but not as bad as you'd think.

23-07-2006, 09:41 AM	#16 (permalink)
spidge Legendary Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 8,056	Re: The most historically incorrect movies/books. Battle of the Bulge. Not as inaccurate as you'd think, <small></small> Okay, it has M24 Chaffees as the US tanks. The M24 was introduced into US service during the Battle of the Bulge. However, in the movie the Germans call them Shermans. The German tanks are called Tigers, not Royal or King Tigers, and in WWII, Americans called ALL German tanks Tigers, whether they were or not. In this case they are Spanish Army M47 Patton tanks (little irony there, in that Patton's contribution to the Battle of the Bulge is left out of the movie) The German tanks for once are accurately marked with turret numbers, and the German tankers are all wearing the appropriate Panzer uniforms, with the Panzer Grenadier troops wearing the gray version of this uniform. Someone did their homework on the uniforms. The first battle with the US troops getting overrun by the Panzers is accurate as far as most accounts of the US green divisions in the face of Peiper's panzers in the real battle. In the last battle, (the one in the desert) something similar happened when a US corps commander threw his armor at the Germans to keep them away from the Meuse. And the dialogue and fire commands are correct for WW2 era tank battles, they even mention hypershot, the special US armor piercing round that could kill a Tiger at close range. They tried and got close, no cigar, but not as bad as you'd think. __________________ Spidge, ------------------------------------------------------- My Avatar is the memorial to the 22 Commonwealth Coastwatchers at the Temakin Cemetery on Betio (Tarawa Atoll) who were beheaded by the Japanese on 15th October 1942. http://www.dva.gov.au/media/publicat...mem_beito.html "You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war." (Winston Churchill made this prophetic pronouncement in a House of Commons speech in 1938, just after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement with Hitler. Chamberlain returned from Germany with the signed agreement in hand, proclaiming that "peace in our time" had been achieved. Churchill attacked Chamberlain's "politics of appeasement" in this and many other speeches.) What did the Australians do in ww2 and other conflicts? Check out this site: http://www.diggerhistory.info/00-pag...ster-index.htm