Tankies-Tank heroes of ww2

Hi Ron,

Sounds about normal for film. It could always make sense I guess for them (potentially) to donate any un-used/used footage to the IWM - or for the IWM to ask for veterans to continue to send in their accounts on audio etc. or be interviewed. But I'm not sure how that would all play out. Especially re. funding it. It's the sort of thing families can keep which is where there is a tendency for those interested to keep asking around, in case new info "miraculously" might come to light...

On:
http://www.griffonmerlin.com/2014/05/08/an-englishman-at-war-the-wartime-diaries-of-stanley-christopherson/

...there a great quote that "He’d been to Normandy with his father, but only once and some years before and he’d not asked Stanley enough questions. Stanley had passed away fourteen years earlier, in 1990, and during his lifetime had not talked to his son much about his war. Now, as we walked the old battleground, it was too late to ask Stanley about his memories and about what he’d experienced all those years before."

Whereas:
"Together, the diaries amount to more than three-hundred thousand words of one of the most astonishing war records I have ever read by a British soldier in the Second World War."

He had this great resource to re-read and...

"Few regiments can have provided as many wartime memoirs as the Sherwood Rangers. Hermione Ranfurly wrote about her husband, Dan, a member of the regiment, in To War with Whitaker. Miles Hildyard, another Ranger, published his letters home, It’s Bliss Here, while Stuart Hills wrote an account of his time from D-Day to the war’s end in By Tank to Normandy. Several others from the regiment self-published memoirs. Another member of the Sherwood Rangers was Keith Douglas, perhaps the finest British poet of the war. Douglas also published a brilliant memoir of the regiment’s time in North Africa, From Alamein to Zem Zem.
None of these, however, can rival Stanley Christopherson’s diaries for the completeness of the story or the immediacy and lack of self-consciousness. As such, they provide a remarkable record of one man’s, and one’s regiment’s, passage through almost the entire war."

But there are still plenty of questions that get asked (!!!)

All the best,

Rm.

 

I found it well above average quality for a bbc war documentary.
Even so, I was disturbed to spot some things that seemed wrong. The programme said or strongly implied these things:

1 The Desert Rats arrived in Normandy on D+1.
2 They were meant to arrive much earlier, ie on D-day, but they were delayed by bad weather.
3 They expected to take part in the initial assault and were surprised that the beachhead was already established when they arrived.

Ad 1: Fair enough, they arrived off the beaches late on D-day and took much of D+1 to get unloaded.
Ad 2: As far as I know this is untrue. They were not delayed by bad weather and they arrived at the time planned.
Ad 3: It was never intended that the Desert Rats would be in the initial assault. It may be that one or more ordinary soldiers who had been told nothing of the plans made the assumption that they would be in the initial assault. So it is possible that to some extent statement 3 can be said to have some truth. But it is irresponsible history-telling to leave it at that, without adding that any such beliefs were nothing but unfounded assumptions.
In fact statement 3 seems a neat example of a historical statement that is true but grossly misleading.

Or am I being too harsh on the programme?
Bart

 

Hello Bart.

Not harsh. A fair assessment.

A documentary should be that. Full of facts. If we want half truths and the like we can always watch a war film.

 

Thanks again "m kenny"

"Most of the footage was from EPSOM and they used the scene where an ammo truck blows up several times as well as playing a bit in reverse (Shermans advance across a field just outside RAURAY with turrets turned to the side) Only a few scenes came from GOODWOOD. Some Bulge German footage was also used. If you want specific SRY scenes there are 2 reels that show SRY crewmen driving a Tiger during EPSOM with Christopherson sitting with his arm resting on the gun and one of Dring's crew (Tpr Hodkin) in the bow MG hatch. as well as a still B6047"

I thought I was seeing quite a bit of familiar "stock" there. Not really entirely related to what was being talked about but understandable (given what's available?) I guess.

I remember Gd. remarking on the camera crews he saw there abouts and feeling at the time like he was on the set of some film - rather than actually at war. I even thought some of the stock had an eerie similarity to the re-created footage in "Saving Private Ryan" so I'd suppose that their cinematographers understandably probably took some good leads from the archives there.

It's odd too that a "series" these days can be just two films. Perhaps a reference to these deflationary times. It's not like there can't be an audience, else why all the repeats of the world at war ( ) It would surely benefit by being augmented further by other episodes and some more detailed maps of the theater's in question might have helped as it was pretty hard to get a sense in just these episodes as to which other units were there. Again, I hark back to the title as it wasn't really about an overview of all the "Tankies - Tank heroes of ww2" - it was far more specific than that - it's just a pity that the "title" seemed a bit "dumbed down" there.

 

This is on again tonight and tomorrow night at 7pm on BBC2, I've not seen it before so really looking forward to it. Then should be on catch up for a while.