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I really am an aficionado of the armored fighting vehicle or main battle tank.
Sure I like halftracks, armored self-propelled guns, and armored reconnaissance vehicles but if it's got tracks, a big gun meant to kill other tanks, and the turret to carry that gun, then it's a tank, and I like it, like it, yes, I do.¹
I reported on that movie Der Tiger the other day and Joe in Northern California reminded me of another tank movie. This one ...
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It's a very Russian film, of which the fellows in the old USSR have made a number of pretty good WWII films, and so has lots of very Russian stuff. If you know, you know. But overall, notwithstanding a number of technical errors, it's a very entertaining film. I give it 4.7 stars. It's available, as Joe said, on YouTube, search for "tankers Russian film."
The actual name of the movie is Invincible, I just don't understand this American need to rename foreign movies. I find it almost as annoying as dubbing films in a different language. Yes, I watched Invincible in Russian, with sub-titles.
Another good tank movie is The Beast ...
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Oh yes, Tiger tanks, they came in two flavors, the Tiger I (as seen in Fury which used the last running actual Tiger I) and the Tiger II, or King Tiger, as you can see below. (Excuse the photo, it's a picture of a picture.)
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Speaking of which, here's the story of how that King Tiger wound up in the town of La Gleize back in 1944.
Mark Felton's videos on YouTube are outstanding, I give him 5 stars, you should be watching him, you might learn something, I do, every time.
Ciao!
¹ Apologies to Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones, I stole that from their fine tune, It's Only Rock and Roll.
Then let me recommend the tank museum at Bovington.
ReplyDeletehttps://tankmuseum.org
I love that place. If I ever get back to the UK ...
DeleteIt's home to the Tiger used in Fury.
I agree, oldest son lives quite close to it and the exhibits are good and constantly changing. At one time the area provided a scenario for a good sci-fi film as there was an experimental nuclear reactor nearby and a monkey sanctuary next door. Fortunately the apes never got to the reactor. If you're that way inclined Clouds Hill, the home of T.E.Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia ) is close. The French armoured museum in Samur is good as well.
DeleteRetired
PS You'd never get me in a tank. I'm slightly claustrophobic and built like an Estonian discus thrower and you'd never ever get me in anything built by the old Eastern Bloc, one of the staff said the Russians designed their tanks for real as in under 5'6" tall and it looked it. In addition to my non military eye a lot of the Russian stuff looked a bit rubbish.
Should read for crew under 5'6"
DeleteRetired
I wanted to be a tanker but the Army wanted me to be a missile tech. So I went in the Air Force and became an aircraft tech.
DeleteThe Musée des Blindés at Saumur has a running King Tiger!
Deletehttps://www.americanheritagemuseum.org/ in
ReplyDeleteAmerican Heritage Museum
568 Main St, Hudson, MA 01749
Has tank driving and tank rides available.
Wright Museum of World War II
http://www.wrightmuseum.org
4.8/5 (351 reviews) · Museum in Wolfeboro, NH
77 Center St, Wolfeboro, NH 03894 · 29 mi
(603) 569-1212
Closed for the season but excellent.
I've been to the first one, that's their Panther. As to the second (pulls out a map) will get up there this summer maybe. And it's on Lake Winnipesaukee, bonus!
Deleteboy, do I have a treasure trove for ya!
ReplyDeletefew years ago on vacation in Kolobrzeg (ex-Kolberg) I have visited army museum there, and spent some time happily clicking the photo shutter on my phone, here are the results:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vit5pShAcjwU_xwzgBf4G4OqP82PaUT7?usp=sharing
plenty of tanks and vehicles, ranging from T-34s to heavy assault guns, and rarities like US half-track which via Red Army lend lease ended up in Polish army in the east, to Il-28 tactical jet bomber, to Vietnam era AA guns and missiles that made so much trouble to US jets...
Now that's an awesome museum! They even have an Enigma machine, which was first "cracked" by the Poles with some help from the French. Talk about an important contribution to victory in WWII. Thanks, Paweł!
DeleteSarge, tanks for the call out! Another of that era which you have likely seen is "T-34" it's on Youtube, and I think Amazon. Pure fiction, but a fun watch. Tanks are a great example of farming implements turned into weapons. Also, like aircraft, how fast technology changed.
ReplyDeletePawel - Ooooo....lots of nice pokie-hacky-slashies! And a Wheatcutter! And Winged Hussars! (A personal favorite) Thank you.
we Poles have our own cult classic tank series, "4 tankmen and a dog"
Deleteits communist era, but once you cut past obvious propaganda its nice wartime drama
IDK if its available anywhere with english subs, so not gonna push you to dig
Thanks again! On Youtube. With subtitles, and with, what I suspect is a bad translation into English.
DeleteJoe, I've seen T-34 and liked it. The Russkis have a bunch of solid WWII flicks.
DeleteYowsa! You hit it outa the park with this one Sarge, MBT to the left, MBT to the right......and......yes.....Mark Felton! Snow management gets delayed this AM.........:)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nylon12. Or should I say, "tanks." 🙄🤣
DeleteSarge - I, too, have always loved tanks. Thank you for the movie reviews.
ReplyDeleteMaybe my favorite non-tank "tank" movie is Kelly's Heroes.
Kelly's Heroes is one of my all-time favorites!
DeleteI'm almost certain that the Panther was from Jaques Littlefield's collection. Stood right next to it more than once. It was pulled from a river in Poland I think. A new turret was recast at a foundry in the Bay Area which was were Littlefield's collection was (Portola Valley).
ReplyDeleteI believe most of the Hudson museums vehicles came from Mr. Littlefield's collection. The Panther is indeed the one pulled from a river in Poland.
DeleteThe D-Day museum in New Orleans also has/had a tank or two. Good place to visit.
ReplyDeleteIf I ever get back to New Orleans!
DeleteThe Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles in Nebraska is interesting.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.heartlandmuseum.com/gallery
Cool.
DeleteI have nothing against tracked vehicles in general. Back in the day we Bridge Specialists had a grudge against their drivers. They thought it was amusing to lock a track just enough to bend the metal decking. We would spend hours with pry bars fixing the decking.
ReplyDeleteMuch praise to MST SGT Stepp for his tank driver briefings. "Just remember, we also supply the safety boats when you do river fordings".
Don't blame you for that. What sort of idiot messes up a bridge that he might depend on for his supply line?
DeleteNever mess with an engineer!
Engineers, cooks, and truck drivers!
DeleteYup, them too.
DeleteFar from just tanks, and also very far from anywhere, but well worth the effort to visit is the National Museum of Military Vehicles.
ReplyDeleteOne of the BEST of the many military museums I have visited, and on a par with the American Heritage Museum in Hudson, MA.
Dubois, Wyoming is about a half day travel from civilization, but good to combine with a visit to Cody (Buffalo Bill Center of the West with FIVE great wings to its museum complex, and then not far to Yellowstone. The owner (an individual, enormously rich from well run business) has this as his hobby, and we all owe him a debt of gratitude. Lots of tanks and other wheeled/tracked/floating vehicles and related military stuff. The exhibits are superbly done, on a par with Hudson. Some of my favorites is a fully equipped 40mm quad Bofors naval gun tub, and the entire breech mechanism of a 16" gun and.... and...
https://nmmv.org/ is their home page.
Check their hours which are limited in winter months (it is the remote mountain west, and it snows, and they shut down hundred of miles of highways for days at a time. I need to make a return visit... in the Spring.
JB