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Finally saw Fury this afternoon. WOW!!!

Glad I decided to not take the 12y daughter. I was warned it might be a bit much and read why it got its "R" rating. I think, emotionally, it would have been too much for her to process at this time.

The wife thought it was based on a true story. I don't think it is based on one single event or crew, but an amalgamation of many different tank crews' experiences. She now thinks she's ready to see Saving Private Ryan.

"Heck on Wheels", good grief!

I will wait until it comes out where I can watch it on line. I was in Armor for half of my career in the old M48s and M60 series, (never became a CDAT, only a DAT), so this movie will be the first one for me that shows a Tank Crew in combat. It usually is always the Infantry being shown as well as some Elite/Airborne type. I have only seen the Trailer so far, but it does show these guys dirty, wet and cold, which mimics my experiences. Those old beasts, until the M1, took a lot of crew level maintenance. If you wanted to be warm, you had to understand and fix your heater, you purged your own fuel filters and kept the Gun and all associated firearms clean. Fuel and Hydrolic leaks were common, you never lost your track or it never broke unless it was cold and wet outside, the inside of the vehicle mimic'd the outside, dripping when wet, which was always in Europe. I became a Combat Engineer right before Desert Storm, so I didn't experience Combat in the Desert within a Tank, so unknown what it was like within the Tank during Combat. I do know that in the old beasts an RPG was very worrisome, while in the M1, my friends stated that it was not a concern of theirs. They also bragged quite a bit about the M1 and the upgrade in their lifestyle it provided. Those old Dinosaurs, though were just that, you really spent your time/effort and skin on those old beasts. I am sure, the Sherman's were much like the beasts I was acquainted with, as I did spend time with those old WW2 Tankers and hung on to their stories, especially how they had to use their speed against German Armor, as even one Tiger showing up caused great consternation within even a Company's worth of Shermans.

There is one awesome battle with a single Tiger, it is awesome and terrifying.

philip964 wrote:There is one awesome battle with a single Tiger, it is awesome and terrifying.

As a bonus, that was the last operational Tiger in existence. Not a fake, and not computer graphics (I'm sure some were used, but the underlying tank itself). The Shermans as well were real operational tanks out of various military museums. I think Fury was the one out of Bovington.

I thought the battle scenes were great, but let's be honest. The likelihood of them staying in a broken Sherman tank and facing an oncoming battalion of SS is about as likely as a small group of men - ordered to grab a soldier who lost his brothers and bring him home - deciding to engage an MG 42 crew that has every tactical advantage. It would never happen.

I still enjoyed the movie and want to see it again.

The movie is based on real events, just not all to one crew. There are also many accounts of small forces being ordered to hold a position or deciding to hold a position against vastly larger forces to slow an advance and save others' lives. I don't know if this one event in this movie is based on reality or not, but I wouldn't discount it from our greatest generation. I've known many men that served in all theaters in WWII and have nothing but the utmost respect for all of them that came home and the ones that didn't.

I thought it was a great movie. It was definitely more entertaining with the lady a few seats over who dove into her husbands arm every time something gory happened.

Want to see it again.

Rrash wrote:I thought the battle scenes were great, but let's be honest. The likelihood of them staying in a broken Sherman tank and facing an oncoming battalion of SS is about as likely as a small group of men - ordered to grab a soldier who lost his brothers and bring him home - deciding to engage an MG 42 crew that has every tactical advantage. It would never happen.

I still enjoyed the movie and want to see it again.

Well, I'm sure it happened on the allies side-especially during the German attack in the Bulge, but I know there were multiple instances where small units on the Soviet side did the same. There was one story in 42 where a single T34 held off a brigade sized unit for more than a day at a chokepoint near a river. The Germans blew its track with charges but couldn't kill it.

Regardless of that, the other scenes in the movie were quite good and expressed a range of different situations.

Wouldn't mind seeing a modern movie about Sgt York.

bigity wrote:Wouldn't mind seeing a modern movie about Sgt York.

Now we're talking.

Rrash wrote:

bigity wrote:Wouldn't mind seeing a modern movie about Sgt York.

Now we're talking.

What's wrong with the original?

C-dub wrote:

Rrash wrote:

bigity wrote:Wouldn't mind seeing a modern movie about Sgt York.

Now we're talking.

What's wrong with the original?

Very little actually. I believe it was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, Cooper won for Best Actor.
The problem for me is the Hollywood perception and portrayal of rural Tennessee in particular and the South in general.
Fools, Blowhards, and long suffering, uneducated women seem to be the sole characters portrayed in TN.

Video on the last operational Tiger tank referenced above. According to the video 3rd Armor lost 90% of its tanks.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn5EboXc1fw[/video]

Language warning.


Another video about the making of the movie.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HTJmJMIeNw#t=36[/video]

VMI77 wrote:Video on the last operational Tiger tank referenced above. According to the video 3rd Armor lost 90% of its tanks.

It was worse, much worse.
From "Death Traps" by Belton Cooper, a study of armored warfare in WW2:

Belton Cooper wrote:The 3rd Armored Division entered combat in Normandy with 232 M4 Sherman tanks. During the European Campaign, the Division had some 648 Sherman tanks completely destroyed in combat and had another 700 knocked out, repaired and put back into operation. This was a loss rate of 580 percent. The 3rd spent 231 days in combat and suffered the following casualties: 2,540 killed, 7,331 wounded, 95 missing, and 139 captured. Total battle and non-battle casualties came to 16,122.