Fury - a fine film
 

For a good idea of life in a Sherman in 1944/5 it's a cracking film.

No air in it at all, which may not be accurate (there's one short shot of a very high large bomber force), but it's an eye-opener.

Oh there was air in the background, but no direct support. How would they have communicated?

I thought it was a great film. People have asked me if I enjoyed, and I can't say I enjoyed because it's just too gritty to be enjoyed, but I did think it was a really good film. I found it quite tense at times and found myself thinking "c'mon! c'mon! faster! faster!"

I did wonder if f**kstick had been invented back then tho....

It 's remarkably similar to what I found when operating in tanks: there's never any air around when you need it:E (Message to the head of the Royal Flying Corps, Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Massingberd-Massingberd, reads "Where are you, you bastard?!")

Plinking and hosing down other tanks, obviously! :ok:

I cannot think of a bigger deathtrap than a tank when the enemy has a high-tech air force. Reactive armour will never defeat a DH from even something as small as PWIV or GBU-12 dropped from 20,000ft. The words "sitting" and "duck" come to mind...:sad:

LJ

It's true but when you're up against the current threat, have a Boiling Vessel for brews and scoff, and the odd cigarette; life's not all that bad. Oh, and a great mess life etc...

And current threats does not include A10s.

Sorry but I thought it was rubbish. Decent acting and all that but just another stupid film where the bad guys just stand still while being shot at. I had more tactical nous after 1 hour in the Army cadets at the age of 12, than a crack battalion of seasoned SS appeared to have.

Honestly, if you have 500 men with probably 100 panzerfausts, going against a knocked out tank, my tip is 'don't all charge against the machine gun in the front' and if you do surround it with 5 men armed with panzerfaust at a range of 20 feet, try not to miss the stationary target with your single shot.

For those who have yet to see it, a typical scene is:

Good guys tank enters village. Bad guys shoot at tank from a bedroom window with a rifle. Tank fires a shelll at bedroom window. 15 dead Germans suddenly fall out of the whole that was the bedroom window.

Really!!

I suppose it does give some idea of life in a tank though.

Yeah, the major battle stretches the believable, totally agree, but, I thought there were a lot more aspects to this film that cancelled that out.

To be fair, a Chally 2 had a similar experience on Telic.

Painful Hollywood at its worst :(

Fury - a fine film
 

Have to agree with Party Animal, the German tactics appeared laughable as did the tank crew. Why wait till your surrounded when panzerfausts will work, why not use the range of the main gun and 50 cal? When I discussed it with my son he just said "it's a film"!

Tinman - I think I remember reading something low key in the news at the time. Basra? Is there a write-up anywhere online? Genuinely interested to hear more.

Look on the bright side, it has got to be better than 'The beast'

I was nervous about watching that film as I'd been assured it was an accurate reproduction of the Soviet time in Afghanistan, but the weekly display at the Bovington tank museum is more hard hitting.

With movies about Sherman crews there always have to be negative waves.

I was reading a fascinating article on Bovington, they have just taken delivery of a T72 which is a runner from Poland and have sent over a Chieftain. Apparently there were doubters when it was introduced over items like gun travel, but it was designed to move quickly in large numbers and not to sit and defend hull down as the western tanks were expected to do in a European conflict.


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Thought it OK, certainly well made and the Clerk did have a massive regain after his colleagues behaviour in Saving Private Ryan. The SS tactics sucked but as was said earlier, it's a film. I enjoyed more '71, there will be those on this forum who know the story or its outline from the time.

The worst element of the 'Hollywoodness' was that all around the main characters people are receiving relatively realistic injuries with bits flying off everywhere - yet Brad gets shot 3 times by a sniper and takes 2 stick grenades in a confined tank turret but is miraculously all in one piece for the 'emotional' farewell from Norman.

A good story though that highlights the horrors of war and what it does to 'civilised' people and a another lesson on why to work hard at school to avoid being infantry or tankies:)

I couldn't quite swallow the Saving Private Ryan style final shoot out with a Waffen SS Battalion.

Given that for the German the target was a disabled Sherman, albeit with turret and guns in tact, would the Germans not, after the initial surprise, have scurried into the ample tree line? Also, would they not have brought their anti-tank weaponry (which they must have had with them) immediately to bear and blown the Sherman to Kingdom come? Rather than run around in the open being mowed down like Space Invaders in the old 1970s video arcade game?:confused:

FB:)

The shots of the SS column marching showed many of the troops with the Panzerfausts on their shoulders yet only one or two were actually launched against the Sherman.

We come back to the fact that it was just a film and managed to entertain sufficiently to justify the entry fee:ok:

A Brit who had served in a British armoured unit on Shermans was employed to advise during the filming. He said he had to admit to Brad Pitt that he had never heard of him before, but Brad just laughed. The old guy was on the radio and he said the main thing wrong in the film was that all the actors were too old. In his tank crew the oldest man was 25 and that apparently was the norm.