I'm a Tank Kind of Guy

OAFS Photo

Even though I was in the Air Force ...

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 sounded familiar and when I started watching it, I realized that I had seen it before. As it is really a tank movie (not an M. Night Shyamalan tank movie, if you get my drift), I watched it again.

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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This one is outstanding, it follows a single Soviet tank crew lost in Afghanistan. It's not a Soviet film so there are no sub-titles to deal with. It's also available on YouTube, search for "the beast movie 1988." (I offer search phrases, as opposed to links, as there are multiple instances of the two films, choose the one you like best.)

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.)

OAFS Photo

That photo was taken in La Gleize, Belgium, sometime in the early '90s, back when we were all so young. You can see just how big this beast is! (I wrote a post about it a while back.) In comparison, here's Your Humble Scribe standing next to a Panther tank ...

OAFS Photo

She's a big beast but not as big as the King Tiger.

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.