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| German Panzerdivision on the move, circa 1940 |
A lot?
While stumbling around the web, in my never ending quest to find interesting material, I found a couple of videos which caught my eye. Think World War II, think tanks, think Eastern front!
The title of this post is the Russian phrase for "armored assault" (Bronirovannyy Shturmovoy) - so Google says and a cross check to languages I actually understand indicates this is a fairly accurate translation. Any Russian speakers out there can correct me, if they wish. Хорошо товарищ?
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| World War II Soviet T-34/85 - The Star of Both Videos (Bovington Tank Museum) |
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| World War II German Tiger I - The "Bad Guy" in Both Videos (Bovington Tank Museum) |
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| World War II German PzKpfw IV - commonly called a Panzer IV Makes a cameo appearance in the first video. (Late model with armored "skirts" - known as schürzen - around the turret and hull.) |
Also, the heroes of the story, a 3-man Soviet tank crew (should be five) has the commander sitting in the driver's seat. No, I mean that literally. He is actually driving the tank rather than sitting in the commander's spot. I suppose it could have happened. Casualties cost you two of your crew, one of whom was the driver. So I suppose the commander would have to take over if the other two guys didn't know how to drive the beast.
Let's just say, I suspended my sometimes hypercritical eye for historical accuracy in the interests of watching an otherwise exciting video. I do this for you, My Loyal Readers.
The videos are from a movie filmed (I would guess) in Russia as the dialog is all in Russian. But they both have Korean subtitles. (I got the video from a Korean YouTube guy. He seems to have some good tank stuff.) But really, who cares what they're saying? It's all about the tanks.
I'll warn you right now, the second video is very graphic. Shows what happens to tank crewmen when their vehicle "brews up" as the Tommies used to say. So if you have a weak stomach (or bad memories) don't watch the second video. The first is okay as far as the squeamish-factor is concerned. Just three tanks fighting in a small Russian village. Rather suspenseful I thought.
UPDATE: Okay, I should have checked first. Can't watch the videos here, but you can chase the link to YouTube. Sigh... Mosfilm doesn't like us I guess. (And Mosfilm doesn't sound Korean at all!) Oh well, they're still good videos.
WARNING - This next video is NOT for the faint of heart.
I like tanks too! Especially under my pipper! It's a genetic thing, I make no apologies.
ReplyDeleteHeh.
DeleteNo apologies needed.
Like the pics also. I like talks also, since I am an Army guy. I did notice on your first picture several kinds of tanks from the Panzer Mark III I think and a few tanks compliments of Czechoslovakia( although they were not thrilled) The funny thing was that if Hitler hadn't annexed the Sudatenland and the rest of Czechoslovakia the modern Czech arms industry had equipped the Czech forces pretty well, a lot better than the Germans had suspected. The Vaunted German Blitzkreig would have been much smaller.
ReplyDeleteThe Germans used a lot of Czech equipment, like those Panzer 38(t)s in the lead photo. The Czech armaments industry was a big factor in wanting the Sudetenland, more than the ethnic "Germans" living there (most of whom were probably Austrian from the old empire).
DeleteWithout the Skoda Works (and others) it's possible that there would have been no blitzkrieg.