Tanks

[John McGillivray]

If you think that the documentaries made by the CBC are bad, the ones made for History Channel in the States are much much worst.

The series “Tank” has being around for some time. It was already shown on History Television here in Canada one or two years ago.

The so called experts just repeat the same worn out, inaccurate clichés. Germans good, Allies bad.

One show deals with the great superman Michael Wittmann and his super tank Tiger. The show gives an inaccurate account of the battle at Villers-Bocage. It builds Wittmann up as some kind of super hero and over looks the true cause of the debacle. The veteran 7th Armoured Division , the “Desert Rats” had lined up their vehicles nose to tail along the side of a road and were completely unprepared for action, even though they were the tip of the spear. One 6pdr gun or one Firefly in a defensive posture and Wittmann would have been toast. The show also ignores the German act of stupidity when they sent their tanks into the town of Villers-Bocage without any infantry support. They lost six Tigers and a Panzer IV. Also there is little mention of how Wittmann died, when he led his Armour straight into an ambush on Aug. 8th, and got almost his entire command wiped out.

The show about Normandy is the worst of the lot. It makes the CBC look like geniuses.

On the positive side, there is a lot of good film footages, just don’t laugh too loudly at the commentaries.