TTT was based upon Gordon Prange’s difinitive work and was pretty much based upon witness/participant testimony. If only Hollywood could combine such a respect for actual history with CGI capabilities today.
From Google: “Prange was a popular lecturer at the University of Maryland. The Terrapin, the university’s yearbook, said of his World War I and World War II history classes: “Students flock to his class and sit enraptured as he animates the pages of twentieth century European history through his goosesteps, ‘Sieg Heils’, ‘Achtungs’, machine gun retorts and frantic gestures.”
He would probably be run off the campus today. He would hurt the feelings of too many students. I would have loved to have taken his classes. Students at the University of Maryland were lucky to have taken his courses.