----- Original Message -----
From: "chance wolf" <timberwolf@wheeldog.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 7:18 AM
Subject: Re: [MV] MVs in the movies
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard Notton" <Richard@fv623.demon.co.uk>
> To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 11:37 PM
> Subject: Re: [MV] MVs in the movies
>
>
> > Hypothetically I'd wholly agree, however. . . . . . .
> >
> > So who's hiding all the 8Rads, 6Rads, Sd.Kfz 222s, 223s, 231s, 221s,
250s,
> > 251s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s, 11s, Typ 82s, Pz 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, Panthers,
> > Tigers, Elefants and StuGs plus some correct support vehicles like
Steyrs,
> > Opel, Borgward, Mercedes, Auto-Union, Wanderer, Adler, Krupp, Horch ?
> >
> > Hands up all the list people with a bit of genuine Wehrmacht kit that
they
> > will allow film people to play with, Andreas and Phil need not apply.
>
> That's the crux of it right there - who's willing to let the movies play
> with their restorations? Some sets are a horror show - particularly when
> the owner isn't present - and they've told you that your vehicle will be
> babied and/or "won't be doing anything out of the ordinary."
>
Exactly the point, and we need to remember the pool of standard Wehrmacht
types rarely makes more numbers than the fingers of one hand, the prices and
restoration effort/costs are thus exceedingly high, even fewer
armoured/fighting vehicles exist as these had no civilian application that
may have initially "saved" them and those few intact samples were
"evaluated" by the allies usually to destruction on the gunnery ranges, the
one or two remaining examples were donated to "govt" institutions - APG and
Bovington for example, thankfully the Patton Museum is now taking more care
of the virtually unique artefacts than APG ever did.
Some are not actually genuine WWII vehicles, the British Army completed some
5 or 6 Panthers still on the production line, having
tested/destroyed/cannibalised most, the remaining complete one was sent to
Bovington. Hetzers were produced post war as an economic boost as there
were ready customers and parts for 700 in process, Kettenkrads were
continued as farm tractors and logging tugs, some Panzer 4's were made for
the middle east.
In the broader picture we need to keep sight of the fact that German
production was relatively small anyway, much horse drawn transport was used
throughout and the Wehrmacht fought to a standstill, the vehicle losses in
Russia were huge and Falaise followed, at this point anyone else would have
thrown in the towel, however, Mr Schickelgruber (his real name) decided to
continue with what was an entirely hopeless cause, Wehrmacht units were then
destroying equipment probably as fast as we were until the German army was
contained in the centre of Berlin. The Russians of course captured large
numbers of surrendered and operational kit which has been placed virtually
out of reach in Kublinka Museum, not a museum as we know it but a formal
military only reference, at least it is actually well cared for in a
controlled environment.
>So, the uni-coloured,
> correct East German fleet called for in the script gets accountant-ed down
> to a motley handful of mis-matched vehicles from a host of nations in
> several delightfully anachronistic colour schemes. This is by no means
> confined to this production alone, as unless you're a Steven Spielberg
with
> a Spielbergian budget doing a feature, you're *always* fighting the same
> fight, and making do with what you have.
>
Even the big budget stuff has to face the fact that some things are simply
extinct and the accountants/timescale will win in the end. Having made due
allowance that only some .001% or less of the viewing audience will spot the
enforced errors, it is disappointing that pre-release official hype of total
accuracy is then taken up by elements of the apparently informed MV people
but the product then makes a huge error within a few minutes of the opening
scenes.
>This is why reading certain
> letters written to certain collector's publications tends to make my blood
> boil when they suggest an indifference on the part of the vehicle
suppliers,
> as we're sort of stuck at the bottom of the proverbial two-storey outhouse
> with no recourse save to duck appropriately and soldier on as best we can
> with whatever dignity we're allowed.
>
A valid and largely overlooked fact of life.
Maybe we have nearly arrived at the point where digitisation will present
wholly accurate and indistinguishable-from-the-real-thing images at a lower
cost, perhaps we may see in time a dramatisation (if any was needed) of the
titanic struggle at Kursk.
Richard
Southampton - England
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Aug 07 2001 - 09:34:12 PDT