What tanks are the Tiger I's in the Movies?

[panzerboy39]

m-48's for tigers!?!?!

I have to agee with Panzerboy on this one. A friend of mine ownes a company that provides weapons and other equipment for the movie business. We spoke of SPR and he stated it was a T-34 chassis. I thought the tiger looked pretty good. Better than the M-48's used in Battle of the Bulge and Patton to name a few.

Fletch

Hey Fletch,

Ya, I knew the T-34 tracks the very first time I saw SPR. I've built enough 1:35 scale T-34's to identify its distinctive track anywhere! As for the SPR Tiger, on the whole, one of the best Tiger mock-ups I have ever seen. very nice job indeed! I always cringed when i saw the 'Bulge' and 'Patton' M-48's! It just seemed wrong to be using US tanks without even the slightest effort to make them look German. I guess they figured the average viewer (probably rightly so) would not notice nor care. Too them a tank is a tank. It is a real nice change to see movie makers putting some realism back into the pics. Now all we need is some movie companies to make some war movies about some of the 'other' allies memorable achievements, as I'm getting rather tired of seeing only the US side of the war. One of the real low-points of SPR is the fact that you would'nt even know that the Limeys or Canucks were landing beside the yanks by the tens of thousands. I guess Americans don't pay to see other countries heroic boys in action huh? I would love to see 'El-Alamein', or 'Vimy Ridge' put into pictures. Some more movies from the German perspective would be awesome!

panzers forward!

panzerboy39

[Jules]

"Kevin Wheatcroft" collection

Hallo Gentlemen.

This is very very interesting. As far as I know, there are only 6 Tigers remaining today.
-Bovington
-Vimoutiers
-Snegiri
-Saumur
-kubinka
-Aberdeen

Bovington is the restored 131, Vimoutiers and Snegiri are wrecks. Saumur is on loan in Munster and is in bad shape, Kubinka is as far as I know not in running order and Aberdeen is somewhere in Germany and is cut oen in the right side.

Does anyone know more about the Tiger in the "Kevin Wheatcroft" collection????

Regards Jules

[Rich G]

H Rich, they do have a running King Tiger.

http://www.musee-des-blindes.asso.fr...s/jcollect.htm

Jack Melvin posted some pics a year or two ago of it running around the arena.

Cheers, Ade.

Ade, thanks for the link

I happened to be passing the Saumur museum about 10 years ago and of course had to go there. I had never seen a real tank of any description up until that point so I was pretty gob-smacked when I saw the size of the Tiger II.

The museum was really quiet with only a few visitors so, while no-one was looking I squeezed though the escape hatch of the Pz III ( and I do mean squeezed! How on earth were you supposed to get out of that in a hurry!?) and climbed into the gunners seat.

There was such a lack of space, it must have been horrendous with all the crew's gear as well and a full compliment of shells! Boy I had a ball! The turret could be rotated quite easily using the manual cog-wheels though I didn't want to move it too much in case I got rumbled.

I have some pics somewhere that I'll try to post if anyone is interested. I think the museum is now much larger then when I was there as very few vehicles were on display.

I'd love to go the the Munster museum though!

Rich

[nellyp51]

Awsome I will be there when I am back in the UK next year.

[Lloyd I.]

I agree Panzerboy that it is nice to see an attempt at representing German accuracy in vehicles, uniforms and equipment. "Cross of Iron", "Kelly's Heroes" , 'Von Ryans Express' and 'The Great Escape' did it well. 'A Bridge too Far' did a decent job until it came to German armor and vehicles.

Sadly, the German film perspective is laced with moral issues. From 'Das Boot' to 'Stalingrad' you have to suffer the pathos of Germans struck with guilt, hopeless but doing their duty. There is always the political officer or die hard Nazi who the main characters are in disgust with, the conflicted officer and the men who are just as tormented. Those films are very stereotyped in order to pacify the media and industry from uproar. They are plagued with National Guilt.

That said, 'A Bridge too Far' and 'The Longest Day' are the best for showing the overall effort of the countries involved with winning the war. What about Hill 112 or Caen? To me 'Caen' needs to be made. Not only can they show how ferocious the battle was they can show the US daylight raid that killed mostly civilians and fortified the city with rubble so that 12th SS had a better foothold. I had begun writing a script for this two years ago but gave up on it. One sequence featured an armor ambush by 12th SS panthers titled 'Wie lämmer zum schlachten'- Like lambs to the slaughter

T34 in SPR.

[Scott H]

I agree

I agree with you. I also wished that Speilberg wouldn't have put his "slant" on the movie. What I'm talking about is the Germans with "crew cut's". Also when Tom Hanks fired his Thompson through the vision slit of the driver position on the "Tiger". Would never happened in the real world! Germans figured that that might happen and put thick bullet resestiant glass there.

Hey Fletch,

Ya, I knew the T-34 tracks the very first time I saw SPR. I've built enough 1:35 scale T-34's to identify its distinctive track anywhere! As for the SPR Tiger, on the whole, one of the best Tiger mock-ups I have ever seen. very nice job indeed! I always cringed when i saw the 'Bulge' and 'Patton' M-48's! It just seemed wrong to be using US tanks without even the slightest effort to make them look German. I guess they figured the average viewer (probably rightly so) would not notice nor care. Too them a tank is a tank. It is a real nice change to see movie makers putting some realism back into the pics. Now all we need is some movie companies to make some war movies about some of the 'other' allies memorable achievements, as I'm getting rather tired of seeing only the US side of the war. One of the real low-points of SPR is the fact that you would'nt even know that the Limeys or Canucks were landing beside the yanks by the tens of thousands. I guess Americans don't pay to see other countries heroic boys in action huh? I would love to see 'El-Alamein', or 'Vimy Ridge' put into pictures. Some more movies from the German perspective would be awesome!

panzers forward!

panzerboy39

[timekiller]

Sadly, the German film perspective is laced with moral issues. From 'Das Boot' to 'Stalingrad' you have to suffer the pathos of Germans struck with guilt, hopeless but doing their duty. There is always the political officer or die hard Nazi who the main characters are in disgust with, the conflicted officer and the men who are just as tormented. Those films are very stereotyped in order to pacify the media and industry from uproar. They are plagued with National Guilt.

True!

Film indusrty, most of all the American, is propaganda. I also include "negative propaganda" (like you mentioned it) to propaganda!

[Jon Wilkinson]

Hello im new here but ive been looking through the posts for a while<O></O>

The Russians used a T44 as a tiger 1 in an Old Russian film (it looks good)<O></O>

The Tigers in films Private Ryan and Band of Brothers were T34s, the Jagdpanther in Band of Brothers was based on a T55, the working Tiger in the Shuttleworth collection is infact a Panther Ausf A early <O></O>

If you get a chance to see a mag called AFV Modeler there’s some photos of it <O

[AlexW]

"The Tigers in films Private Ryan and Band of Brothers were T34s"

Look at the picture on page 1 of this thread, specifically the spacing of the roadwheels.

That's a T54/55 chassis not a T34.

[Lloyd I.]

What in tarnation wuz that thing?

Alex, the image you are directing us to is in fact a T54/55 BUT NOT FOR SPR. Here is a link that will put this one to bed once and for all.
http://www.sproe.com/t/tiger-tank.html

"The two Tiger tanks featured in Saving Private Ryan are reproductions built on the chassis of Russian T-34 tanks. Operational Tiger I's are extremely rare, and could not have been used for rigorous film production, let alone a movie in which the plot requires one of them to be destroyed. The T-34 was chosen because of its overall size and barrel height. The reproductions were based on measurements taken of a Tiger I at the Tank Museum in Bovington, England, and were constructed by Plus Film Services. The upper hull and turret were sized to proportionally match the chassis of the T-34. Band of Brothers, the HBO mini-series produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, used a similar construction process to recreate Tiger I tanks out of readily available T-34s"

This will take you to the site of the company that built it.
http://www.4rfv.co.uk/outside.asp?id...lm.com&cat=227

[Bob Lembke]

Running Tiger I in &quot;ex-Jugoslavija&quot;

Hi Guys;


Just blundered into this forum (strayed out of Imperial Militaria); really interesting discussion.

There was a movie made say 20-25 years ago, American, about some dogy Yank troops that hooked up with a Tiger I crew to rob a bank and blow their way into the bank vault. The movie was made in Jugoslavija, as many where, partially due to low costs and the possibility to rent lots of Jugoslav troops to play whoever you want. (I have been there many times, going in September for my 18th visit.)

The movie featured, as one of its stars, a running Tiger I, as far as I could tell. Used to be a Panzer nut when I was 12 and considered a career in the US Armor branch, so I have a fair eye. I don't think that they would have spent a fortune making a Tiger from scratch for a fairly low-budget film back then, when few people were very fussy about authenticity, especially with non-US hardware.

There are (or were) lots of interesting hardware in "ex-Jugoslavija", including possibly the only remaining Austrian 30.5 cm mortar in the Kalamagden Fortress (already several hundred years old when the Romans occupied it) in Belgrade, Serbia. (My grand-father was involved with same, and the 42 cm howitzers, at the siege of Antwerp, and in Russia. Was the "Id" of the III. Reserve Armeekorps.)

Bob Lembke

[Jack T]

Bob,
I think the movie you referred to was "Kelly's Heros".

I believe those were modified T-34's.

Jack T

[panzerboy39]

Definately Kelly's heroes, definately NOT Tiger I's

Hi Guys;


Just blundered into this forum (strayed out of Imperial Militaria); really interesting discussion.

There was a movie made say 20-25 years ago, American, about some dogy Yank troops that hooked up with a Tiger I crew to rob a bank and blow their way into the bank vault. The movie was made in Jugoslavija, as many where, partially due to low costs and the possibility to rent lots of Jugoslav troops to play whoever you want. (I have been there many times, going in September for my 18th visit.)

The movie featured, as one of its stars, a running Tiger I, as far as I could tell. Used to be a Panzer nut when I was 12 and considered a career in the US Armor branch, so I have a fair eye. I don't think that they would have spent a fortune making a Tiger from scratch for a fairly low-budget film back then, when few people were very fussy about authenticity, especially with non-US hardware.

There are (or were) lots of interesting hardware in "ex-Jugoslavija", including possibly the only remaining Austrian 30.5 cm mortar in the Kalamagden Fortress (already several hundred years old when the Romans occupied it) in Belgrade, Serbia. (My grand-father was involved with same, and the 42 cm howitzers, at the siege of Antwerp, and in Russia. Was the "Id" of the III. Reserve Armeekorps.)

Bob Lembke

Hi,

Just to quickly answer your post, The movie you're talking about was definatly Kelly's Heroes, and the tiger in question was definatly NOT a real running Tiger I. if you have a chance to see it again, look at the running wheels and track, a dead giveaway EVERYTIME to see if its an authentic Tiger. It's been so long since I've seen the movie but being a panzer-nut myself (strangely enough, also from the age of 12!?) and the Tiger I being my absolute most fav tank in the whole wide world, I knew right away that it was a fake.

panzers forward!

panzerboy39

[DonC]

My t hought is that for the special effects folks to do what they do to make a realistic looking Tiger or Jagdpanzer out of T34's, T55's, what have you, is a damned sight better than the lame-assed Pattons used in "Patton" and "BOTB". Hats off to them!

I have always been impressed that Kelly's Heros, which never meant to be taken as a documentary, would put so much detail into their Tigers at a time when most other films didn't bother to "camoflage" American or Russian tanks to look remotely like the tanks they were to portray.

Don

[Skarek]

Are there no common tank that has parts of the character of the Tiger I tracks that can be used? So we Tiger nerds don't have to suffer because the tracks looks like ****

I guess it is much easier to change the tower and modify it to look like another tank. While the suspension and the tracks is a critical part of the construction of the tank so it is almost impossible to change this.

What happened to all Tigers after WW2. 1350 where produced. Not all can been totally knocked out. Why has only 6 survived to today? Atleast 100 must have survived the war in more or less working condition.