I'm curious, I know M-47 Patton tanks have stood in for panzers and Shermans have pulled their time as well in the movies, but does anyone know if a West German Leopard 1 has ever stood in as a WW2 German Tiger or Panther?

I wonder what the vehicle would look like in panzer gray or ambush pattern with the WW2 style cross? How about a DAK Tiger/Leopard?

If am not mistaken, you can see some Leopards in "A Bridge Too Far" being used for the German vehicles.

Yup, I read somewhere that they used Dutch Leopards and AMX's.

Yes - Leopard I's were used in "A Bridge Too Far". I thought that they made a much better "impression" of German Tigers and Panthers (not really sure what they were supposed to be) than an M47 tank ever did (see "Battle of the Bulge" or "Patton").

The reason I really liked the movie "A Bridge Too Far" was because it used real Shermans for the British Armour and the Leopards for the Germans vehicles - I saw it as an attempt to give some sense of realism to the WWII armor conflicts. Not as good an attempt as in "Saving Pvt Ryan" or "Band of Brothers" but an attempt none the less.

Always thought that the book "A Bridge Too Far" was an awesome book as well.

cn

Have you seen this movie that has been on here for the last couple weeks on all the different channels.
The English Patient, I can't tell you much about it cause if you miss a little bit your lost, or at least I was, but they showed a lot of German AFV's Marders to what shocked me, plus they showed the English convoys, of trucks the dodge ambulance, shermans.

Like I said I never watched the whole show, the only thing that kept drawing me back to that channel was to see if they had any armored vehicles showing.

It might of been interesing if you could of started from the beginning, and not miss any of it, cause they keep going back and forth through out the whole war, and if you don't know who, is who, then your lost.

The English patient is all burnt up from when he wrecked his airplane, and his face is even burnt beyond recognition, and he tells the story of how things went.

Kerry

Thanks, I'll search the cable box for a Bridge Too Far. I want to see what a Leopard would look like dressed as a WW2 panzer.

Somehow I ran across two Tamiya Leopard 1 kits in my stash. Didn't know I had one, let alone two. I thought of building them as movie tanks, if I could find reference for one.

Rob,

There sure aren't any refences on the web. I have "A Bridge Too Far" on DVD. If I can figure out how to get a screen capture I'll be happy to email you some pics.

Shaun

Maj. Rob-
Found these low res. captures. IMHO, they look nothing like the Leopards they are, or like the Panthers/ Tigers they're supposed to represent...
Is that a Scimitar dressed up as a Luchs/Marder/SdKfz Thingie?

Then again, I could be wrong. I did a GIS and looked through 22 pages...

Shaun

http://www.mgm.com/title_clip.do?title_star=BRIDGETO

reb

I remember watching this old show with my grandpa.
The Tanks are coming...
something like that..i think its a leaopard

The "Tanks are Coming" is a film made in the 1950's at Fort Knox, Kentucky. The film uses several Easy Eights to portray vehicles in the 4th Armored Division. The big deal is that Private "Ike" sees the CG of the division and tells him they are getting slaughtered by the German 88mm' s. So, the nice General tells Ike that he will send him one of the new 90 mm (M26s) when they arrive. He does and we go onto win the war. As I recall, the German tanks are either M-36s or Shermans with some additional metal on the top. Anyone have a better recollection of the vehicles? As I recall, the "M-26" has the bumper marking of a Kentucky National Guard Unit so it is probably an M-46(?)
DJ

The German armour in 'A Bridge to Far' is rather patchy. Some of the tanks look quite good, and some don't. The location still with all the camera and lighting equipment looks to be for the scenes where Urqehart was held up in the loft of a house at the 'Zwarteweg 14', one of the crucial moments of the battle. From what I remember the tank looked like a reasonable Panther from ground level, but when the shot turns to the loft, and they look outside, you can see the (metal? cardboard? ) sheets around the Leopard turret which were used to make it look like the Panther. Also the famous raid on the bridge on the first day by Grabner, some of the halftracks look good, but some are obviously not German. I think they used American halftracks. The most annoying one I remember is in the last stages of the battle around the bridge, where the tanks are crashing through the rubble. There is a tank comming down the road, over a rubble 'barricade', it's a Leopard without any attempt to disguise it. Still, overall it's a very good movie, and everytime I watch it my hart goes cold.

By the way, I read a book some time ago, called ' Guns Have Eyes' written by a artillery spotter who's name has slipped my memory, it's Peter something. In it he tells the story of his part in Market Garden. i can't remember the unit details, but they came in at Normandy during D-Day. The Bren Carrier they used, with all theiir radio's, was sent over land, behind enemy lines with help of the Belgian and Dutch resistance to a spot just north of Arnhem, where they had to wait for XXX Corps to arrive from Nijmegen, so that they could direct the artillery to the main approach roads from the north. their mission was secret and unbeknown to the Airbornes..
It was envisaged by the brass that that's from where the Germans would try to re-inforce the Arnhem Bridgehead. In the event XXX Corps never arrived and they had to retread as they came in. I'll check in the library tommorow for the details.

Henk

In the movie 'Kelly's Heroes' they featured a Tiger tank. It is to my understanding the took a T-34 hull and built a turret structure on top. It looked pretty convincing. I believe they also used real Shermans in the picture. On the other hand, 'Battle of the Bulge' featured Persings painted grey for ti ger tanks and Chaffees for Shermans. It looked pretty hokey.

How about those tanks from saving private ryan. I thin those look anthentic.

They look authentic alright, they did a good job when they converted the donor vehicle. I think they used a russian tank as a base for the jagdpanther.
However in the episode in the French village where they are attacked by a Tiger tank, the Tiger rummbles into the street, looking good, shape, zimmerit, etc all check. But then there is a close up off the running gear and suddenly the tiger has the Idle wheel at the front . To difficult/expensive to change the running gear of a modern tank around I suppose. Still that's only a small detail that joe bloggs wouldn't notice.

Cheers
Henk

The Tigers in Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers were done using Russian T-34's.

Only when i did my WARRIOR ACV, i learn this new term IDLE WHEEL....its the one that doesn't pull...
Anyway, the tanks in BAND OF BROTHERS are good too. REmember the part when they were in the forest facing a knoll, and a germen tank unit rumbles in. But the Shermans were they to save them.

Tanks used in Saving Private Ryan and Band of brothers:

Tiger: Modified T34 (good job, although nitpicky fools like myself will notice that they made an early Tiger, rather than a mid or late, which would be more accurate for the period).
Jagdpanther: based on T54 chassis.
Stug III: FV432 with elongated hull in order to fit the 6th roadwheel.
Strangely enough, the tank that would have been easiest to come by, the Sherman, is not a Sherman. It is the Canadian built Grizzly, as can be easily noticed from the single pin tracks, whereas the Sherman has double pin tracks...
Still, great effort.

Kelly's heroes uses a Tiger that is also based on the T34 (but despite popular belief, SPR did NOT borrow these, they built their own). And the Shermans in this movie are shermans with the 75mm turret, retrofitted with the 76mm gun.

Many of the smaller armored vehicles in Bridge too far, such as the one that's supposed to be a Wespe, are based on one of the French AMX chassis.

AMX chasis, we have an AMX series in our army. We used the old AMX-13. Its our MBT. But its on steroids now, its called SM-1. Super Upgrade..I still prefer our home made IFV the BIONIX, it looks much more cooler.

Actually, I was just asking about the Leopard 1 in movies. I have the Tamiya Leopard 1 and Leopard 1 A4. To me, neither kit is worth putting the effort into building it accurately (Italeri/Revell is better).

I was looking for something fun and different to do to the Leopards. I thought building an ersatz WW2 Tiger or Panther using the Leopards would be fun.

Maybe I'll just make up my own movie panzer using the Leopard.

I don't think the Bridge Too Far Leopards look too good as Tigers/Panthers. If I were you Sabot, I'd do ABTF scene with the Leopards. A few false panels on the turret and you're good to go for ABTF Tiger/Panther

The movie "The Tanks Are Coming" was filmed using the KY National Guard Armored Division. One interesting point was that you see both M4A1 and M4A3 Shermans in the same unit. This did not happen in Europe for logistical reasons. The German tanks were modified M36s.

If you can find a copy, an interesting movie to see is "Theirs Is the Glory" or "Men of Arnhem." It was, essentially, a reenactment of the British part of the Operation Market/Garden using several of the actual participants. Most interesting to note is that the attacking Germans are riding Panthers and Tigers. These actually belonged to a French Armored Division. I nearly fell out of my chair the first time I saw it. I got a copy a few years ago from Bell and Blade, I think. Not a bad flick.