How Historically Accurate Are Sniper Elite 5's Uniforms?

[@alexross8739]

Awesome stuff! Happy to help and great to see the start of this series coming together

[@duglife2230]

Although they are obviously not as common in the game, there are also a good deal of inaccuracies with the American G.I.s depicted in the "Liberation" mission. The most blatantly obvious one is that you have US Rangers parachuting and riding gliders into France in broad daylight, when in reality it should have been airborne troops (either from the 82nd or 101st) jumping in the middle of the night. I get the mission takes place after June 6th, but to my knowledge the rangers never did airborne operations in World War Two. It felt like a missed opportunity to not have such an iconic unit as the 82nd "All Americans" or 101st "Screaming Eagles" appear instead. The rangers are also wearing paratrooper helmets. Also, I get they wanted to be inclusive because this is the 2020s gaming industry, but there was absolutely no frontline unit in the US Army during the war that was desegregated. Having the African American troops was inaccurate, and even the 555th paratrooper skin they added, while a cool addition and representation of an underrated unit, was too. The 555th "Triple Nickels" never saw combat during the war. They had the privilege of being the first African American paratroopers which was definitely of historic significance, but their operations during the conflict were limited to being smoke jumpers helping combat wildfires started by Japanese fire balloons in the Pacific Northwest. I am not totally mad they added him because as I said the unit deserves recognition, but adding a more iconic airborne unit that actually took part in the Normandy campaign would have made more sense. The paratrooper boots on the 555th trooper's model are accurate as well as his M42 trousers, but the coat/tunic is definitely off. It also has a US flag on the right arm, which is inaccurate as the only airborne unit that wore the flag as an actual patch was the 82nd. The 555th would get folded into the 82nd, but only after the war, making it the first integrated unit in the US Army.

[@alexross8739]

Absolutely, the US uniforms are far more egregious in game and the entire D-Day sequence as well, I may come to looking at the US uniforms however I would have to do a bit more research into it, the German uniforms are a topic I am quite knowledgeable on by default. But yeah you are very right with what you're saying Rebellion did a terrible job at the US uniforms

[@eamonfitzmartin998]

In the first level, the American soldiers ALL wear sergeant chevrons on their arms, but have lieutenant bars on their soldiers. Every single American throughout the game is simultaneously a sergeant and a lieutenant.

[@alexross8739]

@@eamonfitzmartin998 Indeed, no research was done into them, rebellion put in no effort haha

[@eamonfitzmartin998]

@@alexross8739 unfortunately a standard of modern games now

[@alexross8739]

@@eamonfitzmartin998 For sure

[@The_ATF_]

Thank god! I was about to have to eat my lunch without some great content to watch

[@kevinmolato692]

Awesome! As a historian and an educator, I appreciate your actions to highlight the historical aspect of our gaming.

[@ad3mn]

I am actually impressed by the ingame graphics of the uniforms.

[@Plutopongovideos]

Underrated channel

[@hauptmannhk8805]

The presence of the M36 tunics and M40 trousers isn't inaccurate per se, German field tunics and trousers were used until they were too damaged to be worn so veteran soldiers or troops stationned behind the Atlantikwall (like most of the Germans we encounter in the game) could very much still have them, though they were not as widespread as they are shown in the game. The Gebirgsjäger gaiters make sense given that the most successful snipers in the German army hailed from these divisions, there's even photos of standard Waffen-SS soldiers wearing them despite not being GJs themselves. Not inaccurate in itself but not as widely worn as shown in the game once again. I have nothing else to say about the rest, good video and good research!

[@alexross8739]

Absolutely agree mainly in regard to the M36 tunics and M40 trousers, other examples of tunic such as M40 and M42 would also be present especially with rear area troops and veterans, however the M43 by this point was in full production and any replacement of uniform would most likely provide an M43, and for the trousers too, in regard to the gaiters, Waffen SS were more well equipped generally, although the way SE5 has it, they are Wehrmacht snipers, and due to this being a sniper game there are too many around anyway, but despite this you can tell with the elite snipers rebellion weren't going for realism but instead trying to make them look cool by kitting them out with lots of different bits

[@hauptmannhk8805]

@@alexross8739 For sure, though I'm glad they tried to make the sniper jägers look more realistic than they did in SE3 and 4.

[@alexross8739]

@@hauptmannhk8805 Definitely, the uniforms are far improved from the previous games, especially SE4, however there is still lots to amend as plenty of it is just either wrong or missing

[@MrBill1976]

You forgot to mention the incorrect use of Heer and Waffen SS eagles on uniforms and wrong placement of them

[@alexross8739]

Yeah that is present with officers, there will be a video about them eventually, there are plenty more inaccuracies in regard to them

[@Sid_Black]

5:06 "Rank-and-File would not have pistoles..." That would be true for US, British or Russian Troops...since they have not been occupying force Unlike german troops, that would stay in potentially dangerous areas even out-off-duty. So germans did carry way more "sidearms" with them

[@alexross8739]

No this is not true, pistols were not issued to soldiers like this, only certain special roles would have them within a squad which are the MG1 and MG2 of the MMG group in a squad, other soldiers in the squad would have no sidearms, rear area soldiers especially in Western Europe did face dangers of partisans however it was not nearly as big a threat to the lives of German soldiers for them all to be carrying sidearms, if you want to look into this there are plenty of books on the topics regarding infantry equipment carried by German soldiers and even Anti Partisan warfare which shows that soldiers fighting partisans on patrols carried far less equipment, usually only their rifle and ammo pouches for it rather than any other bits of field equipment.

[@V1PER237]

What is your Xbox and tv / monitor you use when playing for fun? Edit: what is your opinion on Zombie Army Dead War and would you want another Zombie Army game with mechanics like Sniper Elite 5?

[@TWilsonSE]

I use a regular Xbox One, and a 24" Samsung curved monitor. And I really like ZA4, and would like to see a new Zombie Army on the SE5 engine.

[@V1PER237]

@@TWilsonSE thanks

[@MrAgent47.]

What about official headgear and uniform?

[@KittlessAlt]

What about the Fallschirmjäger?

[@alexross8739]

Definitely got a few inaccuracies there as well, might get covered in the future but if not they are missing a good few bits of uniform like the Fliegerbluse and also the insignia is incorrect on the jump smock, further they are all buttoned up at the legs however by this point as they weren't jumping most would have them undone at the legs

[@angryeliteultragree6329]

The Jagers in game, have bone bag smocks, instead of the button up versions they would have by now. And the Jagers also had a lot more uniforms that would be unique. Like the swamp camo.

[@danielwatson3985]

It's always amazed me that in films, TV and now video games they can spend boatloads of money to make them, but they often do not go to the trouble of actually obtaining the services of knowledgeable advisors to make sure they get things as correct as possible. One thing that is glaringly incorrect in the SE games is having Heer (Army) officers with the SS arm eagles! Absolutely incorrect. They would have worn the standard Heer breast eagles in silver for officers and gold for Generals. Some SS officers are shown in the early black uniforms worn by the Allgemeine SS but these were phased out well before the events in this game. Most were stripped of their SS insignia and reissued to eastern "volunteer" troops, factory guards, etc. The SS went over to the grey/green uniforms but in a slightly different color than that issued to the Heer. They seem to have done a pretty good job with the Kriegsmarine (Navy) and Luftwaffe (Air Force) uniforms in game. Another big thing... seen all too often not only in games but also movies and TV shows... it seems nearly every German officer has a Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross... this is TOTALLY incorrect. There were 7,318 KC's awarded, as well as 882 Oakleaves, 159 Swords, 27 Diamonds, 1 Golden Oakleaves and Swords and one Grand Cross. For the number of men Germany put in the field you would not see a KC holder that often. That would be like showing nearly every U.S. officer with a Medal of Honor or British or Commonwealth soldier/officer with a Victoria Cross! Re: awards in General, mostly in the cases of Soviets/Germans in the SE games as they tended to wear their awards even in combat... placement of same is also important. You won't see Iron Cross 1st Classes worn on the right side of the chest but only on the left and on or below the pocket. There was an order in such things... some went on the right, some on the left. Some things above the pocket, most on or below. They need to do their homework, but again just get the help of those who study and collect such things. Plus there are TONS of reference books and such out there in order for them to get things right. They went to a lot of trouble to show textures, materials, etc., on such things as the uniform materials, leathers, webbing, etc. I own many original examples and seeing them in game they are pretty much spot on. So how they can do things like put SS arm eagle's on non SS troops just astounds me! It's a pet peeve with me going back to such things as Hogan's Heroes (which I've always loved) where they would have a Heer officer wearing a Waffen SS officers cap, or a General or Field Marshal in the Heer wearing a Luftwaffe dagger, etc. Little things on the whole and forgiveable to an extent re: Hogan's as it was a comedy that I'm sure was put together as cheaply as possible while trying to give a good look overall. For the time and the resources they had I think they did okay. But to have games like SE which seem to strive for accuracy fall down big time in some things... especially when there are so many knowleable historians and collectors out there is just beyond belief. I pray they will continue to put out new SE games but I hope that they'll see out some experts and use their knowledge and resources to make the games even more accurate.

[@gijoemasters]

My problem with the uniforms in more modern ww2 games is just making uniforms that didn't exist, like when the game says the soldiers are the SS, instead of correct uniforms they are in weird Wehrmacht SS hybrid uniforms with SS sleeve eagle but Heer collars attached. (Prime example of this is in COD WW2 in the Paris liberation mission) Like I get it, SS bad, but don't try to put them in your games and not use the correct symbols. Clearly that isn't an issue with this game cause the swastika is all over the game, I'm sure SS rune tabs wouldn't be that hard to model cause the only difference is the collar gets changed and the location of the eagle from the right breast to left sleeve.

[@The-LUMEN-SAGE]

Are you bothered about still being level 40 still nearly 1 year later?

[@csschot]

yeah it doen't feel like an achievement anymore to be level 40, se4 did a way better job, levels doesn't say anything to a players skill, at this point in the game they are wortless

[@filipeamaral216]

"How Historically Accurate Are Sniper Elite 5's Uniforms?" They aren't.