Just finished watching an episode of Greatest Tank Battles that featured the struggle for the Hockwald gap at the end of WW II
It was certainly interesting to see a series pay attention to this particular Canadian Battle when so many of their stories virtually ignore Canadian involvement.
http://www.history.ca/video/default.aspx
This battle took place in Feb 1945, and saw the Canadains try to breakthrough to the Rhine and the German industrial heartland. The battle took place just inside the German border as an early spring began to break making the terrain extremely diffcult to cross even for tanks, never mind while under fire. The Germans put up a ferocious defence, and yet the Canadians prevail, but at a terrible cost.
They try to cover quite a bit in just an hour, so there is going to be a lot left out, but in the broad overview they give of the battle they do get across the difficulty of the situation. Especially interesting, as always, is the testimony of the veterans that took part in the battle. All of the Canadian ones seem incredibly humble, despite the enormity of what they accomplished.
I know the show has to keep focused on the armour's role in this battle, but if I have criticism of the way they explain the battle its that they made it seem like the tankers were devoid of infantry support most of the time, and this certainly wasn't true. After all this is where Major Fred Tilston won his VC.
They do cover the importance of artillery and close air support, and I don't think they needed to dwell on the infantry role during the battle, that certainly would've taken away from the point of view of the program, but it is missleading the way it is shown; it could lead a viewer to think the Canadian Infantry were almost absent entirely.
The show made use of some footage and stills I hadn't seen before, as well as more recent footage of how the battle ground looks today, and they poignantly get across just how diffcult and costly the battle was
Still I appreciated that the show gives a good sense of the bravery of the Canadian crewman in facing vastly superior armoured Vehicles, like the Panther and Tiger, the tactics they used to defeat them, as well as the most horrendous environmental conditions imagineable.
Might be flawed but definitely worth watching
It was certainly interesting to see a series pay attention to this particular Canadian Battle when so many of their stories virtually ignore Canadian involvement.
http://www.history.ca/video/default.aspx
This battle took place in Feb 1945, and saw the Canadains try to breakthrough to the Rhine and the German industrial heartland. The battle took place just inside the German border as an early spring began to break making the terrain extremely diffcult to cross even for tanks, never mind while under fire. The Germans put up a ferocious defence, and yet the Canadians prevail, but at a terrible cost.
They try to cover quite a bit in just an hour, so there is going to be a lot left out, but in the broad overview they give of the battle they do get across the difficulty of the situation. Especially interesting, as always, is the testimony of the veterans that took part in the battle. All of the Canadian ones seem incredibly humble, despite the enormity of what they accomplished.
I know the show has to keep focused on the armour's role in this battle, but if I have criticism of the way they explain the battle its that they made it seem like the tankers were devoid of infantry support most of the time, and this certainly wasn't true. After all this is where Major Fred Tilston won his VC.
They do cover the importance of artillery and close air support, and I don't think they needed to dwell on the infantry role during the battle, that certainly would've taken away from the point of view of the program, but it is missleading the way it is shown; it could lead a viewer to think the Canadian Infantry were almost absent entirely.
The show made use of some footage and stills I hadn't seen before, as well as more recent footage of how the battle ground looks today, and they poignantly get across just how diffcult and costly the battle was
Still I appreciated that the show gives a good sense of the bravery of the Canadian crewman in facing vastly superior armoured Vehicles, like the Panther and Tiger, the tactics they used to defeat them, as well as the most horrendous environmental conditions imagineable.
Might be flawed but definitely worth watching