The Military Channel

[HKurban]

What, you didn't see the Battlefield 360 where they had Shermans representing German Panzers? It's a 3D MODEL!!! You don't have to settle for a representation because getting a Panzer is too expensive, you just freaking make it!!!

Got that off my chest finally...

[sdkfzfanatic]

hilarious.... we have to take thier indescretions with a grain of salt otherwise... what would we watch? I love that thing in your signature about the "sniper"..... I want to slap people when they say that.

[dougeagle]

WTH??? Panzer Divisions and Tiger Divisions in the Battle of the Bulge? What's a Tiger Division? Makes me wanna go slap somebody in their advertising department....

This wouldn't have been a show called 'Greatest Tanks Battles' now was it?

[ACWBill]

The show on El Alamein seemed to get many of the basic facts pretty straight. There are alot of details that were erroneous. However, they correctly identified the Pzkfw III Special, the Pzkfw IV Ausf F2, the Crusader, Grant and Sherman and the weaponry on all. I did not get to see the Battle of the Bulge episode as I can't seem to keep my eyes open past 10:00PM any more. I saw the commercials and the "Tiger Division", which sounded like a reference to "You Only Live Twice" to me. Oh well, its still TV guys.

[fullmetaljacket]

Going along with this theme how about the movie Battle of the Bulge, where german tanks are Patton tanks, and the biggest battle scene in the movie is in an open plains area some where in south dakota by the looks of it. Last i saw the Ardennes was heavily heavily wooded region!

With the CGI and everything else now avaible these days, like stated above just make it. I would love to see a battle of the Bulge or even Kursk done with the computing power they have these days.

But thats what we have to live with to enjoy our passion and hobby. I will tell you i was inpressed with a movie called Yamato i bought its all in sub titles but well worth the reading. Did some research on the movie and they actually built a 1:1 scale of the ship from the bridge forward for the movie. Of course it was wood and plastics no steel in the construction.

Also attack and retreat older but rather good war movie, fire and Ice the finnish russian war is real good also, very authetic weapons and tanks of the time period T-26's.

fullmetaljacket

[Panzerleader71]

What show is this anyway? I've never heard mention of a "Tiger Division" on "Greatest Tank Battles." As far as I can tell this series is fairly accurate.

[dougeagle]

What show is this anyway? I've never heard mention of a "Tiger Division" on "Greatest Tank Battles." As far as I can tell this series is fairly accurate.

I'm still interested in know what the show is called as well. I watch Greatest Tank Battles on the History Channel and the Bulge battle was cool, but nothing about a Tiger Division.
The latest episode was about the few tank engagements in the Korean war and how the Chafee's rounds just bounced off the T-34 armour. Then the Pershings and Sherman's arrived and it all changed from there. One comment that a Pershing (??) tanker had mentioned was that if it was the Soviets operating the T-34's, there would have been trouble for the UN forces, but because they were operated by North Koreans, the UN forces had the edge in armour combat.

[sdkfzfanatic]

Ive been watching greatest tank battles too.... they have been fairly accurate so far. I also saw the ad spot he's talking about and they indeed used the term "tiger division" but I cant remember which show the spot was for. It reminded me of another show I watched that I cant recalll the name. In it they used the term "tiger divisions" I think meaning "those divisions which had tigers" in normandy. Bad choice of words still.

[Panzerleader71]

I think the show in questions may have been the HBO movie "The Tuskegee(?) Airmen" At least when it was on the Canadian History channel the other day there was mention of "Tiger" Divisions giving the allies problems in Europe.

[IRISH]

The Military Channel also did a Pearl Harbor program and the computerized ships in Pearl were stunningly WRONG Fletcher class DDs and the cruisers and BBs were BISMARKS ughhhh The Midway ep also used SHINANO for the Kaga, Akagi, Hiryu and Soryu. With CGI you'ld think they could get it right. So much for the short cuts they take.

Sometimes we grunts would be better historians than the pros.

[Maple-leaf-Warrior]

But we Grunts wouldnt be able to get the damn computers to work, eh?

[groundlber]

People - Please remember historians (professional or amateur) are not the target audience of these shows. Unless the production team has the interest and the clout to "get things right" the show will have features like repeated uses of the same stock footage for different situations or 'the Germans sank the Luisitania and the United States responded by declaring war". Most of these projects are not labors of love, they are just another gig for the production team. Besides, time is money.
John Q Public is doing well if they notice the difference between a prop plane from a jet.. It's not just an American phenomenon, either. A friend of mine told me about an Italian World War Two movie he saw while he was stationed there. North Africa, with Mii3's as 251's and M-48's (?) as both sides tanks.
I'm willing to accept some fudging in a drama , but It does bug me when documentaries get things wrong when it wouldn't cost any more to get it right.
Quick update: I saw part of a Korean War Movie called 'Tank Battalion' today. Some of the stock footage included shots of an early model Panzer 3 or Panzer 4 (one piece turret side hatches) mixed in with M-26's, Shermans, Chafees(?) and our hero, a M41Bulldog with a 90mm gun.
Groundlber