GDR Tank Attack from 1983 East German film Offiziere

[John Kettler]

One of my tabletop wargaming colleagues posted this video based on stunning high res clips from above film, whose title translates as Officer. It's a kind of music video and has no sound other than that or subtitles either. These said, compared to all the period training videos we've seen, in terms of image quality, this thing is incredible. The main stars are T-55s and T-72s, but you'll like the other goodies, too. 
 

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited December 16, 2021 by John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Here is the complete Offiziere. That's the good news. Unfortunately, the bad news is that the only subtitles are in German! Also, the resolution is nowhere nearly as good as in the video.
 

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited December 16, 2021 by John Kettler

[Marwek77 aka Red Reporter]

Sehr Gut! I have not seen this one, but I liked it. No problem with German for me.

[John Kettler]

Have watched several Russian films with no English subtitles and understood them far better than I did this one, but likely part of the problem is that am no longer used to hearing much German. The other problem is that a great deal of the movie involved conversations with very little action tied to them, makin it very difficult to determine what was being said. Mercifully, image quality was far better than I first thought, greatly enhancing the viewing experience.

From an intelligence analyst perspective, there was much to see and learn in this, even for the T-55s. A small fuzzy still is no substitute for seeing a full-on tank trainer in action, in color and up close during live fire machine gun training, and the ground motion simulator was something I knew precisely zero about after 11+ years as a Soviet Threat Analyst. Overhead imagery, unless low oblique, simply can't see into the tank sheds, even if their doors are open. Don't recall ever seeing any kind of SU/WP scissor bridge, either. The river crossing by snorkel was fascinating to watch and nerve-wracking when that tank got into trouble. When it happened for real, the transition from the T-55 to the T-72 must've been quite the shock to the crews, even with specialist training provided, for there was no interim T-62 (with elements of both tanks, in terms of tech) to ease the transition. GSFG had T-64s, but to my knowledge, the DDR never did. It was a real treat to see the T-55s operating, in some ways even more than the T-72s, which I've seen lots of video of. Never thought of tank driving as an act of faith, but it's clear that, especially for the T-72 driver, the world is narrow indeed and that the driver is blind when coming up over a rise. In turn, this makes things like the tank colliding with the BMP far easier to understand. Seeing a modern tank attack was really something, and I believe it will give a lot of CMCW players valuable insights, including how tightly spaced the tanks are even when in combat line. The separation distances on the march appear to be considerably larger than with the tanks on combat line charging in, guns blazing.

Didn't see overt propaganda in the film, but definitely noticed how nice pretty much everything and everyone looked, decidedly at odds with what I saw and read for years. Particularly noticeable was how well people ate, drank and how well stocked that market was--more like an American super market than anything I've ever read about or seen when it comes to what's in the stores (unless we talk special stores for the elite) in the SU & WP, though I've read the DDR citizens were far better off than the Russians. Something I found outright shocking was how alarmingly the officer uniforms, at the formation and elsewhere, resembled the WW II German ones, right down to the riding pants. How did such flagrant copying of the hated foe ever happen, much less be allowed to continue? 

Regards,

John Kettler

[sawomi]

2 hours ago, John Kettler said:

Didn't see overt propaganda in the film, but definitely noticed how nice pretty much everything and everyone looked, decidedly at odds with what I saw and read for years. Particularly noticeable was how well people ate, drank and how well stocked that market was--more like an American super market than anything I've ever read about or seen when it comes to what's in the stores (unless we talk special stores for the elite) in the SU & WP, though I've read the DDR citizens were far better off than the Russians. 

Until the 1960s, there were no major differences between the FRG and the GDR in terms of living conditions. It started to grow in the 1970s and accelerated in the 1980s.

There were no real food shortages, but you had to wait 10 (ten!) years for a car. There were shortages of luxury goods such as nylon stockings, which were produced mainly for West Germany to get foreign currency. One had no choice between umpteen different washing powders, but only, say, two or three, etc. The coffee was more bland, chocolate not so sweet. I find Coca-Cola and Pepsi undrinkable, I might as well put 20 sugar cubes in a glass of water. DDR-Cola is better, it's still around today.

There were also "Intershops" where you could buy all Western products if you had received Deutsche Marks from relatives in the FRG. And also "Exquisit"- and "Delikat"-shops, where you could buy better GDR stuff for GDR-Mark.

-> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intershop

GDR even tried to catch up in IC technology in the 80's.

-> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombinat_Mikroelektronik_Erfurt

Edited December 19, 2021 by sawomi

[sawomi]

5 hours ago, John Kettler said:

Something I found outright shocking was how alarmingly the officer uniforms, at the formation and elsewhere, resembled the WW II German ones, right down to the riding pants. 

...and above all do not forget the helmets:

Minute 5:48: https://archive.org/details/DieDeutscheWochenschauNr.733

Also:

Quote

During its first year, about 27 percent of the NVA's officer corps had formerly served in the Wehrmacht. Of the 82 highest command positions, ex-Wehrmacht officers held 61; however, very few of them had served in high ranks. The military knowledge and combat experience of these veterans were indispensable in the NVA's early years, although by the 1960s most of these World War II veterans had retired.

Former Wehrmacht officers as NVA generals
The following list includes the NVA generals who were awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War.
Generalmajor Wilhelm Adam (17 December 1942 as Oberst)
Generalmajor Otto Korfes (22 January 1943 as Generalmajor)
Generalleutnant Vincenz Müller (7 April 1944 as Generalleutnant)

The following list includes the NVA generals who were awarded the German Cross in the Wehrmacht during the Second World War.

Generalmajor Rudolf Bamler (12 March 1942 as Oberst)
Generalmajor Bernhard Bechler (28 January 1943 as Major)
Generalmajor Otto Korfes (11 January 1942 as Oberst)
Generalmajor Arno von Lenski (21 January 1943 as Generalmajor)
Generalleutnant Vincenz Müller (26 January 1942 as Oberst i.G.)
Generalmajor Hans Wulz (25 January 1943 as Generalmajor)

-> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_People's_Army

Edited December 19, 2021 by sawomi

[Combatintman]

7 hours ago, John Kettler said:

Overhead imagery, unless low oblique, simply can't see into the tank sheds, even if their doors are open. 

You don't need to see in the shed to know what's in there - if the target is on the collection deck it will get covered often enough to tell you what's going on.  Baying and shedding is what it's called in the imagery analysis game.

[John Kettler]

11 hours ago, Combatintman said:

You don't need to see in the shed to know what's in there - if the target is on the collection deck it will get covered often enough to tell you what's going on.  Baying and shedding is what it's called in the imagery analysis game.

Combatintman,

We didn't get daily, weekly. or what have you coverage of a target--unless somebody was actively working in support of current ops (such as Hughes Aircraft doing SAM evasion routing for the U-2s flying over the Soviet Union), what we got was basically snapshots (closer to thumbnails)  of this and that from overhead or closeups of vehicles, weaponry and other gear. Most of what we got was either in the individual weapon system books, supplemented rarely by by such things as DIA INTSUMs when I was allowed to bring them back from the Air Force's intel vault. Hadn't encountered baying and sheeding, though sounds like a dog! Do know about crateology a bit, though. 

sawomi,

I'm stunned! Had no idea the DDR army was running around in. German designed helmets. Always though those helments were specifically designed not to look German. Hugely appreciate the info on life in East Germany.

Regards,

John Kettler

[sawomi]

2 hours ago, John Kettler said:

I'm stunned! Had no idea the DDR army was running around in. German designed helmets. Always though those helments were specifically designed not to look German. 

Story goes this way:

Quote

The NVA steel helmet has an eventful history, the beginnings go back to the Third Reich. There the steel helmet used later in the NVA was invented and also patented under the Reich patent no. 706467. It was tried here to manufacture a helmet easier to produce, which has better protection against splinters and bullets by the beveled edges. The straight surfaces at the front of the Model M42 were often penetrated by bullets and splinters. The end of the war did not allow a large series production, the helmet has not come out beyond a pre-series in 1945.

Based on a memorandum from the Army Medical Inspectorate, which pointed to the increasing number of head injuries and other shortcomings of the previous German helmet models M35 and M40, the development of a new steel helmet was approved by the Army Weapons Office in 1942 - bypassing the Ministry of Armaments and Adolf Hitler's ban on new helmet designs.

The work was carried out at the Chemisch-Technische Reichsanstalt by the Institut für Wehrtechnische Werkstoffkunde Berlin (Director: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Fry and Dr. Hänsel). Four models were shortlisted for testing: "A" = a slightly modified helmet 35, "B", "B/II" and "C". The experienced manufacturer of steel helmets, the Eisen- und Hüttenwerke AG Thale/Harz, which had been commissioned with the production of the test samples, also submitted the "Thale proposal", which had been developed as a modification of the model "B" under the direction of the chief engineer Erich Kisan. During firing and troop tests, the two "B" models proved to be the best. The prototype was registered as a patent on December 7, 1943 under the number 706467. The further results were summarized in a memorandum and presented to the Führer's headquarters in the fall of 1944. Despite the positive assessment of the helmets as well as the great savings in material and working time, it refused to introduce a new helmet model - apparently for logistical reasons and for reasons of tradition. Only a few hundred helmets were issued for troop testing. Series production did not take place.

The NVA later took up this design again and produced this helmet from 1956 in series, in the course of time this was revised several times. The later versions had clipped chinstraps which loosened with load. Due to the far protruding sides, soldiers were often stuck on edges of vehicles or trenches, which led to injuries to the spine. Ballistically and in the hearing the NVA steel helmet is until today one of the best, if not even the best! The protective effect has only been surpassed since the introduction of Kevlar helmets.

with pictures:

-> http://www.ddr-uniformen.com/?page_id=416