Hello, I wonder why documentaries often have a tendency to overhype the tiger I and where it comes from. The documentary being sensationalist?
Thanks for your answers!
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Yes or just lazy, TIGER has the most footage from NAZI propaganda.
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The Tiger 1 was heavily hyped as when it came out no other tank at that time could match it for survivability and firepower and the Germans knew it and became a great propaganda tool for the Germans and its allies. For the allies it was definitely a worrisome development as they knew they had nothing that could match it in firepower, armour and survivability.
For the Germans it was a huge morale boost that they played to the nines and played into their vision of invulnerability and superiority and heavily used it in propaganda to great effect.
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In the immediate aftermath of World War 2, the defeated German army’s propaganda films became available to western film-makers. The Nazi regime’s propaganda emphasis right from the beginning was to portray the Reich and the Wehrmacht as being future-oriented, technologically sophisticated, and innovative. This was, you would have to admit, a very successful propaganda campaign both within Germany and in the wider outside world. You’ll only occasionally encounter horse-drawn guns or wagons in these idealized fantasies, even though the reality was that without horses, the Heer could not get food, fuel, and ammunition supplies very far past the railhead.
Western use of German expertise in many technological areas after the war inadvertently boosted the non-German perceptions about the Nazi regime’s technological prowess, and the memories of returning soldiers would tend to emphasize the difficulties of fighting against the Germans, especially infantry veterans who’d faced German tanks during the war.
Between the effective propaganda (“the Germans had the best weapons”) and the lived experience of green troops fighting against hardened veterans, the Germans were credited with being better than they actually were … to the point that every German tank was thought to be one of the scary Tigers instead of the statistically far more likely Panzer IV or various assault guns. After the battle, win or lose, the word-of-mouth on the allied side seemed to always credit the Tiger, even when no Tigers were present, because if you won the skirmish, you’d beaten the “best tank in the world” but if you lost it was because the Germans had the “best tank in the world”.
By the 1950s, these general trends had pretty much taken over the imaginations of western film-goers and readers. (The unfortunate tendency of later American army officers to idolize the Wehrmacht in many areas added to this … the French, British, and Russian armies didn’t seem to have this same admiration to anything like the same extent.)
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Very good points, it is amazing how the German stuff was so overhyped. Neitzel argues that by making the Germans stronger the Allies/American movies notably hyped the achievements of their troops even more. While I don’t want to downplay anything I can see the logic.
The other thing is that in my view Combined Arms Warfare is VERY complex as I found out during my education. I still am not qualified to judge which tank is best. The logic that hey an 88 mm gun trumps a 76 makes sense when playing a board game but bears no relation to real combat at a single point in time.
Same of Ukraine war, all this systems are wildly complex and both sides putting on new weapons on the table or improved weapons.
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things like nazi megastructure don’t help too
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I worked at Toronto’s biggest gaming store for a while and as a wargamer myself, I ended up working in the wargame section more often than not. I generally got on well with the customers, although we had some regulars we all assumed had displays of Napoleonic regalia in their living rooms, complete with Eagles, regimental flags, and a little shrine to Napoleon himself. They were pretty easy to deal with … unlike the pale, sweaty fans of the Nazi war machine (we didn’t have that useful epithet “Wehraboo” in the early 80s). Those folks were uncomfortable to be around, especially if they tried to persuade you that “Hitler was just misunderstood”. They also tended to be the most dedicated fans of the technical nitty-gritty on armour thickness/armour slope/ballistic penetration/etc. I still get a bit twitchy when conversation goes too deep into those areas.
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If you’re making a documentary it’s a product you are selling, so it’s natural make it as attractive as possible to the audience; and there is a mythos around the Tiger.
Even during the war there was a mythos around the Tiger, and the 88. You read allied commentaries and every tank they encounter seems to be a Tiger and every shell was fired by an 88. The number of accounts of infantry coming under indirect fire and describing being fired on by 88s; or facing Tigers in areas where no heavy tank battalions were deployed, but there were Panzer IVs.
Tigers attract bigger audiences than PzIVs.
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Very recognizable, back in the 80s we indeed didn’t have this label but we knew the types here. A lot of them were (and maybe still are) found in World War 1 pro German group. The logic was that their outfits were not illegal and often the supported the view that World War 2 National Socialism was an inescapable consequence from Allied action.
Most of them were unsavory characters and I chased them away a few times or asked them how Stalingrad went. Not sure it got them thanking. Some of these people were actually German and unfortunately they gave my real “Good German friends a bad name”.
Not nice to say but to one of these “Hitler was good” and the Holocaust was a fairy tale invented by the Jews I literally yelled " I am not impressed and the ONLY thing you need to know is that the Jews have nukes so forget about gloriously freezing to death for Hitler und Holocaust, Just a nuclear blast? Do you want that.
I got him to shut up, these are just a pathetic losers trolling the forums/X/whatever trying to spread hate/gespielte aufregung while sometimes avoiding a ban.
En personal annoyance, but my main problem is still that this trash gives the good people who don’t see themselves as Hitlers heirs a bad name.
These weraboos also tend to idiolize Nazi prototypes and other stuff which was often useless. (and totally forget about the murder of Jewish babies etc)
I don’t think the myth will go away and that why WAH/TG is something I support.
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American Officers idolized the Wehrmacht. That’s a big YES and many - many American citizens had roots to Germany. I guess if it wasn’t for Hitler declaring war on the USA, things would have been much different. Don’t forget that American German Party held thousands in their ranks. Movies while growing up (I’m 71) was the Tigar Tank was unbeatable. Not true but hey, I was a kid watching Hogans Heros.
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