John Kettler Posted October 8, 2001 Share Posted October 8, 2001 The U.S. version of the History Channel tonight presented a useful but flawed program in its series Battle Stations on Tiger tanks. The SPR Tiger was prominently featured. I won't comment here directly on wrong footage and such, but I will note that I saw Tiger crew members interviewed on camera whom I'd never seen interviewed before, including Otto Carius, author of TIGERS IN THE MUD, if memory serves. The interviewer managed to dance right up to the grog questions so many of us want answered, but never asked them. We learn that crews trained to rigid time standards, but we aren't told what the tasks or the standards were. I don't know when those interviews were done, but I think the professional historians and weapon specialists here should hammer out an agreed approach to the History Channel, ask the "are these guys still alive?" questions, and if yes, seek the relevant contact information so that a coordinated list of questions could be submitted, interviews arranged, etc. The information in these Tiger veterans' heads is highly perishable, if indeed these men still live. There were also a T-34 commander and a British TC who survived an exploding tank by being blown bodily out the open hatch of his tank. A questionnaire could be developed and then either used to direct the blind interviews or submitted to the individuals directly. Restated, ask the questions first separately, then think about some sort of group discussion in person, by phone or video hookup. The latter should serve as a memory jogger and a cross check on the memory of any one individual, aided of course by all relevant documentation. Given that anything Tiger is a surefire seller in the marketplace, indeed almost the only commercially mass marketable tank topic, it ought to be possible to line up some producer or video house to support this effort, say, Lou Reda, who does lots of History Channel documentaries already, or whoever put out the Tiger technical CD. We may have a golden opportunity here to get real answers to some knotty technical and tactical questions. As they say on the infomercials, though: "Act now! Supplies are limited!" Regards, John Kettler [ 10-08-2001: Message edited by: John Kettler ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mulga Bill Posted October 8, 2001 Share Posted October 8, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by John Kettler: The U.S. version of the History Channel tonight presented a useful but flawed program in its series Battle Stations on Tiger tanks. The SPR Tiger was prominently featured. I won't comment here directly on wrong footage and such, but I will note that I saw Tiger crew members interviewed on camera whom I'd never seen interviewed before, including Otto Carius, author of TIGERS IN THE MUD, if memory serves. The interviewer managed to dance right up to the grog questions so many of us want answered, but never asked them. We learn that crews trained to rigid time standards, but we aren't told what the tasks or the standards were. I don't know when those interviews were done, but I think the professional historians and weapon specialists here should hammer out an agreed approach to the History Channel, ask the "are these guys still alive?" questions, and if yes, seek the relevant contact information so that a coordinated list of questions could be submitted, interviews arranged, etc. The information in these Tiger veterans' heads is highly perishable, if indeed these men still live. There were also a T-34 commander and a British TC who survived an exploding tank by being blown bodily out the open hatch of his tank. A questionnaire could be developed and then either used to direct the blind interviews or submitted to the individuals directly. Restated, ask the questions first separately, then think about some sort of group discussion in person, by phone or video hookup. The latter should serve as a memory jogger and a cross check on the memory of any one individual, aided of course by all relevant documentation. Given that anything Tiger is a surefire seller in the marketplace, indeed almost the only commercially mass marketable tank topic, it ought to be possible to line up some producer or video house to support this effort, say, Lou Reda, who does lots of History Channel documentaries already, or whoever put out the Tiger technical CD. We may have a golden opportunity here to get real answers to some knotty technical and tactical questions. As they say on the infomercials, though: "Act now! Supplies are limited!" Regards, John Kettler [ 10-08-2001: Message edited by: John Kettler ]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> An excellent idea. Of course, according to some around here, such experiences are less important than the archival information which is available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted October 9, 2001 Author Share Posted October 9, 2001 Bumping this one for rexford, Jeff Duquette, Michael Dorosh, JasonC, etc. Regards, John Kettler [ 10-08-2001: Message edited by: John Kettler ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripps Posted October 9, 2001 Share Posted October 9, 2001 bump Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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