Posted on 01/12/2012 3:47:20 PM PST by dynachrome
Shooting the Life And Fate movie took place at a tank range Alabino. Welcome to the movie set with a lot of tanks, snow and other interesting things.
(Excerpt) Read more at englishrussia.com ...
Oh, come on. They should do a REALLY good tank battle - KURSK!
A lot of tanks from both sides were lost and abandoned in winter conditions. When spring came, what do you know but the ice beneath them melted and suddenly the vehicle is at the bottom of a lake, river or bog.
There are lot's of YouTube videos of tanks and other armored vehicles being recovered in eastern Europe. Many of these are subsequently restored to operating condition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYuzqSfaSRU
I loved that movie and it was amazing how it turned into not just a battle between two men, but between two nations.
A good ficitonal book about Kursk is the “Last Citadel” by David Robbins:
“The battle for the Soviet city of Kursk in July 1943 during World War II involved two million soldiers. Code-named Citadel, it was Hitler’s frenzied—and final—attempt to defeat Russia on the eastern front and was the largest buildup of German armed power of the war. Robbins re-creates the battle in this rousing novel: its characters being Hitler; his generals and advisers; Russian, German, and Spanish foot soldiers and tank drivers; fighter pilots (both men and women); partisans; and even elderly men and women digging trenches. Robbins, author of War of the Rats (1999) and Scorched Earth (2002), has done extensive research into the weapons and planes used in the battle, bringing to life the horrors of war”
“This battle lasted from August 1942 to January 1943 and destroyed the German Army’s reserve, that portion of ability that is needed to win campaigns.
Germany never had the population that could absorb the sheer manpower losses inflicted at Stalingrad while the Soviet Union did. While we in the West can bemoan the fact that it was these two tyrannies fighting for last person standing, the war and the world would have been a completely different place without this battle. “
It says something that being sent to the Russian front was considered the worst possible thing that could happen ot any Nazi, bureaucrat or soldier or concentration camp butcher. I am so thankful that the Russians never played by any rules and just went ahead and killed as many as possible. If we had done the same the war would have cost a lot less.
You already forgot about that GREAT synthesized tank battle in THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE? ;-)
I believe Kursk is still the biggest tank battle ever. (I could be wrong. Tank battles aren’t my strong point)
Good discussion here:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66394
The novel “War of the Rats” was also about Zaitsev; the final sniper duel in the novel is infinitely better than the “Enemy at the Gates” movie.
I once was the hand receipt owner of a T54 Russian Tank including all of it’s basic equipment (Including a bottle of radiation medicine which looked a lot like aspirin.) I even was licensed to drive it.
Well, it IS the Russians filming.
Hey!
Stop now.
Bolo? Most all of them.
Love those stories
from Wikipedia
The two acting main characters in Stalingrad are the Panzer-Oberst Vilshofen and Gnotke, NCO of a Punishment Company. Both men come from different backgrounds and experience the war differently. The Colonel is a convinced soldier who obeys orders and cares for his men. He fights with a sense of duty, but loses confidence in the German military leadership as he senses that he and his men are being sacrificed to a lost cause. NCO Gnotke's work is to collect the dead, or their dismembered parts, from the battlefield. He loses his humanity as he works under constant fire and is exposed to unrelenting horror month after month during the war. The reader learns how he warms up his body on freshly fallen soldiers. These chapters resemble true horror-stories.
Plivier's book Stalingrad has been regarded as the most important work of literature to emerge from the eastern front during World War II. Its pitiless descriptions of battle and the failures of the German military leadership indicts Hitler's megalomania and illustrates the senselessness of war. He died in 1955 and is today a largely forgotten author, at least in the English-speaking world.
If it’s half as good as “Brest Fortress” it would be pretty darn good.
What book is that?
I believe it was published in 1948 and was the first book to be written about this battle. Even 40 years after reading it I still get chills thinking about this book.
Ah, OK. I see it on Amazon, used, for $9. My old Company Commander had us lieutenants each read a different book for discussion after work. I drew “The Forgotten Soldier” by Guy Sajer. He was a French national who enlisted in the German Army and was sent to the Eastern Front. What he talks about in that book is just incredible. I honestly felt (and still kind of do) that he had to have been making some of it up since it just seemed impossible that ANYONE could survive what he said he survived.
I’ve been looking for a good book about Stalingrad, but the ones I’ve come across are pretty dry and not that terribly gripping.
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