![]() As the war went on, the Allies developed better strategies for disabling Tigers. When Horvath fires at the second Tiger, both shots are clearly placed on the joint between the body and the turret, the idea most likely being to hinder or incapacitate the turret's ability to swivel left or right. In the film, the first Tiger is disabled by taking out the tracks with "sticky bombs" followed by grenades thrown in the turret hatch. Tiger tanks could only be destroyed head-on or from the sides by land mines, or direct hits by heavy artillery shells, or bombs dropped from aircraft. Hitting the Tiger in the tracks, suspension, engine compartment, observation slits, and in the joint between the main body and turret were some of the common weak points. Anti-tank weapons of the era, such as the bazooka, were ineffective against most areas of the Tiger's armor, so specific weak points in the design were the focus. From the infantry perspective, techniques that were developed and employed in order to combat heavy Tiger tanks focused mainly on disabling the tank rather than destroying it. Allied forces familiar with the Panzer VI "Tiger", a 60-ton Main Battle Tank during the war knew that the armor is very tough and, even with support fire from a friendly tank, the odds of destroying a Tiger tank with a bazooka like Horvath's are pretty small. Sgt Horvath was probably trying to incapacitate, not destroy, the turret on the Tiger tank. ![]() Miller then puts an end to searching through the tags. The writers gave the responsibility to Wade of pointing this out to the others, at which point Miller seems to snap out of it and even shows some regret when looking at the paratroopers passing by. This may have been intentional by the filmmakers to show that even moral men like Miller can become desensitized and cold to the deaths of others during a war. What's interesting is that Captain Miller, obviously a fair and moral officer, didn't realize this himself and even laughed at some of the jokes that Rieben, Mellish and Jackson were making. Additionally, their chatter while doing so was also callous and was overheard by at least some of the passing paratroopers. They were too casually tossing them aside and, like Wade suggested, treating them as one would treat "poker chips" in a card game. Miller took a rather callous and disrespectful approach to sorting through the tags, both to the dead soldiers and the other Airborne soldiers marching by. Axis soldiers would think that they could safely emerge to shoot the US soldier, who was reloading, and then would be shot. And after firing a few shots would throw or 'twang' the empty clip. Due to the pinging sound many soldiers would carry a spare empty clip. Many GIs liked the rifle for its semi-automatic action, faster loading, and target accuracy but disliked this specific feature because it provided the enemy, by the noise and sight of the clip flying out, with the knowledge that an American soldier had emptied their rifle, meaning that the enemy could charge them. When Mellish or Caparzo had fired all eight shots, the clip would spring out instantly. With the M1, the rifle could be loaded and shot faster because the bolt cycled automatically. The M1 was designed to be faster to load and fire during combat in "semi-automatic" fashion, compared with older "bolt action" rifles that had to be cycled for every shot, like the Karabiner 98k that we see the German soldiers using. It featured a new type of loading system that consisted of a metal "clip" that held eight rounds. The rifle used by the American infantry during World War II was the Garand M1. It's the clip that held the cartridges popping out of the rifle's breech. From a production standpoint, it also gives the characters the actors play a little more distinction from each other. Jackson would benefit more than the others by using netting since he is a sniper and would be engaging the enemy from a position of concealment - therefore he would benefit from using netting to attach scrim in order to better conceal his position. Horvath, Caparzo and Wade would not wear nets and the others would as it was simply down to personal choice. Netting was not officially issued by the US Army - as a result, the majority of nets used by US troops were acquired from British or Canadian Army stocks or cut from larger camouflage nets. Many soldiers would also use nets for less essential purposes, such as storing packets of cigarettes underneath them. Another advantage was that the nets also reduced the shine of the helmet when it was wet. The Army would often utilize nets to used to attach scrim (camouflage) such as pieces of tree bark, leaves, or fabric.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |