John Kettler Posted January 1, 2015 Share Posted January 1, 2015 (edited) This is well worth watching, though it may a) drive you mad and/or inspire homicidal impulses regarding the (insert nasty noun) who decided the combination of heavily blurring the actual footage plus extreme overexposure looked cool. Improved only by accursed sepia! More like burning eyes! Doc follows the combat careers of six tankers of 5 RTR, starting with France. Some remarkable footage, plus various weapon gaffes, a problem much worse later in the Western Desert. Host is former tanker Mark Urban, and there are lots of actual period tanks in the doc, some of which he climbs into to show various design and ergonomic details. By splendid irony, considering his former job, he says "shell" describing German AP ammo, then goes on to describe the terminal effects of shot. Interviews with survivors are fascinating and even horrifying. You can see the men choke up as they discuss the grim realities of armored warfare, a situation somewhat alleviated by leave in Alexandria. This two-hour-long doc is on YT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONYlWeRKAhY&spfreload=10 Regards, John Kettler Edited January 1, 2015 by John Kettler 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted January 2, 2015 Author Share Posted January 2, 2015 Have now finished "Tank Heroes" and found it both very good and moving. I doubt anyone who watches it will ever view armored warfare in quite the same way again, because this is global war as expressed on the spear point (5 RTR led the way throughout the war) among men who fought it for five years and knew each other intimately. The descriptions of the terrible sights they saw among their closest mates and friends are veritably soul-searing. The military-technical stuff is, on balance, mostly well handled, and the worse than scathing observations on Cromwell tank vulnerability and awful design despite all the feedback from the tankers are like being clubbed. So much so that one tanker was very nearly court martialed because he wouldn't shut up about it. In watching this doc, you cease to think in terms of the great sweep of things and see matters more from the standpoint of men, in a tank broiling in the Normandy sun, who dare not get out, lest they be sniped. Mark Urban, himself a former tanker, then chimes in about what happens in such situations. He himself went 20 hours buttoned up during an exercise. He was a TC of some sort and found the inability to stand up, stretch out and such to be agony after doing it for hours. One of the more interesting insights is the massive mental adjustment it took for 5 RTR to transition from the vast flatness of the Western Desert to the claustrophobic environment of Normandy, where the enemy might be, frequently was, mere feet away. Watching this was a most useful and informative use of my time. Being able to see the ground there, including Villers Bocage, now rebuilt after being pulverized by bombing, really helped provide context, for he shows us where 5 RTR was and what it could see when the Tigers went wild in VB. The rest I'll leave to you. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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