Mistakes and clichés in the depiction of tanks in World War II, which every now and then allow in the cinema

  • Mar 22, 2022
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Mistakes and clichés in the depiction of tanks in World War II, which every now and then allow in the cinema

As you know, in cinema, the semantic and dramatic component is primarily important. When they are at their best, it’s already somehow awkward to find fault with the button-rivet part of the work. In any case, if the material part of the film does not touch a person for the living due to the “professional deformation” of the latter. And yet, not without the help of cinema, but largely thanks to it, numerous clichés and frank myths take root in the public mind.

1. time travel tanks

In Soviet cinema, tanks that were modern at the time of filming were often played. | Photo: ya.ru.
In Soviet cinema, tanks that were modern at the time of filming were often played. | Photo: ya.ru.
In Soviet cinema, tanks that were modern at the time of filming were often played. | Photo: ya.ru.

Often in cinema, including in the Soviet one, one has to see on the battlefields either non-existent equipment or equipment that does not fit the specified period of time chronologically. Very often, machines that appeared much later fall into the role of equipment of a certain year. This happens in most cases due to the banal impossibility or excessive high cost of the corresponding props. Although, of course, in the era of computer graphics it has become much easier. And that means less forgivable towards the creators.

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2. Lack of escort

A tank without infantry is like a soldier without trousers. |Photo: Twitter.
A tank without infantry is like a soldier without trousers. |Photo: Twitter.

From time to time one has to see in the movies how tanks carry out an offensive without any support from artillery, aviation, and even infantry. In fact, armored vehicles were almost always accompanied in one form or another by infantry or motorized infantry. After all, it is she who is the second armor of any equipment, providing cover from enemy field artillery and infantry. Any battle is a dance of interaction between various units and branches of the armed forces. You won't get far without it.

3. Shooting on the go

Shooting on the move is not much practiced even today. |Photo: welingelichtekringen.nl.
Shooting on the move is not much practiced even today. |Photo: welingelichtekringen.nl.

Even modern tanks with modern stabilizers and sights prefer to fire from a static position. During the Second World War, things were even worse with shooting on the go. Although they constantly tried to introduce shooting from the move. For example, on September 19, 1942, order No. 0728 “On the introduction of firing from a tank on the move into combat practice of tank troops” was even issued. Of course, the effectiveness of such fire, especially at long distances, was not too high.

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4. Stopping a tank with grenades and bottles

Stopping a tank with a grenade is extremely difficult. |Photo: livejournal.com.
Stopping a tank with a grenade is extremely difficult. |Photo: livejournal.com.

Stopping an enemy tank with an anti-tank grenade, a bunch of grenades or a Molotov cocktail is, although quite achievable, but frankly, the task is not trivial. Firstly, even the cumulative grenades of the middle of the Second World War had a rather low efficiency in real combat use. Secondly, stopping a tank with a grenade or a bottle is an extremely dangerous task. Most often, infantry stopped armored vehicles with the help of field artillery, anti-tank rifles, mines and all kinds of ersatz anti-tank guns like converted large-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

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5. Quick and easy stopping of tanks with anti-tank guns

They tried to hit the tank from several calculations. ¦Photo: timeout.ru.
They tried to hit the tank from several calculations. ¦Photo: timeout.ru.

Anti-tank rifles in the first half of the war were indeed quite effective and efficient means of combating armored vehicles. However, the task was almost as difficult as stopping a tank with a fire bottle. Very often in the cinema you have to see how one tank is stopped by a single shooter. In reality, two or more “armor-piercing” crews were hitting the tanks.

If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about
How is an anti-tank grenade from WWII, and why there is not enough sense from it.
A source:
https://novate.ru/blogs/081221/61500/