The Myth of Wittmann

In terms of wehraboo worship culture, few have ever obtained the status of unquestioned Godhood quite like SS tank commander Michael Wittmann. Even notable historians cannot help themselves but describe his actions during the war with ever-increasing hyperbolic language.
His actions are, heroic, epic, beyond compare, truly a display of masterful skill....
But are his actions all they are cracked up to be? Is Wittmann truly as skilled as they claim or do some historians need to put their junk back in their pants and start looking at these 'legends of wartime Germany' as the Heros of Propaganda they are from an empire that died nearly 80 years ago.
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The Socials.
Merch: nafo-ofan.org/collections/laz...
Twitter: / piglazer
Patreon Link: / lazerpig
Discord Link: / discord
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Sources/References
Villers-Bocage - Fact and Fiction. A fresh evaluation (kzbin.infoYXLUTQn_...)
‪@WW2TV‬
Daniel Taylor: Villers-Bocage through the lens
www.amazon.co.uk/Villers-Boca...
www.panzerace.net/
www.keymilitary.com/article/c...
Discovery Channel, Killer Tanks: Fighting the Iron Fist: Ep2 The Cromwell
David Lister: Defeating the Panzer Stuka Menace
www.amazon.co.uk/Defeating-Pa...
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Credits and Music Used:
The Music of Grim Fandango by Peter McConnell
Education Background Music No Copyright Study Royalty Free Music
• Education Background M...
@backgroundmusicforvideoedits
(No Copyright Music) Waltz of the Flowers (by Tchaikovsky) by Tchaikovsky
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Grieg - Morning Mood
• Grieg - Morning Mood
Free Dramatic Background Music No Copyright Royalty Free Dramatic Background Music EMW
• Free Dramatic Backgrou...
Pentagon Wars Main Theme by Joseph Vitarelli
Evil Genius Menu 1 and 2 by James Hannigan
Spy Glass by Kevin MacLeod
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Ancient Trials by Mark Hutson
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Requiem 1 - Dies irae, Libera me by Giuseppe Verdi
Pistol packin' mama by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters
Kool Kats by Kevin MacLeod
• Kevin MacLeod ~ Kool Kats

[@LazerPig]

Going to pin any noted errors here: The Gold Cross I showed at 40:02 is a modern version of the same award, not the one Knispel would has received. I had noticed this pre-release and it was fixed in a different draft but when you have 14 drafts of the same video out and KZbin says that Draft 9 is the one thats ad approved you just kinda have to roll with it. Some of the stories about Knispel may not be true, apparantly a lot of them were made up as part of the Clean Wehrmacht myth, sources seem a little dubious, I'll need to do more research.

[@knighter1209]

Thank you for demolishing the wehraboos LP.

[@pieeater108]

The errors in your T-14 video are enormous and the list wasn’t ever updated with all (plethora) of them. Will you be addressing any of those?

[@pnda13]

This is not an issue if you could just tell us more about this Kurt Knispel guy. I feel like we owe him something.

[@lukefarnham2119]

We still love you Mr. Pig.

[@pnda13]

Also, to Rex, a gentleman knows no fear, cheers,

[@ninetalis]

Raised one to Rex and his crew! May their heroism be remembered and their spirits found peace.

[@magina23]

Lucky me to have a beer at arms reach. To Rex!!!

[@seabass4851]

Raised a tea to Rex myself, he deserves to be better documented

[@wiledman2430]

Perhaps it's fitting to say he was a bloody good bloke. To rex!

[@jeffstaples347]

Berlioz requiem, Rex Tremendae. Listen to it, and feel the intensity of his bravery and honor.

[@axel665]

Sorry to ask but didn't the m3 Stuart have raido

[@Zer0LifeNegi]

This is a British hedge: "Hmm. Seems normal." This is a French hedge: *[fucking narnia]*

[@grumblesa10]

When I was stationed in Germany I led battlefield tours working for the USO. One of the most popular was the Ardennes. A German acquaintance asked if he could bring along two veterans. One his uncle, was a Panther commander in 6th Panzer, the other a PzIV company commander in Italy. The whole "ace" thing came up and this is the gist of what they said, "Some kept track, most did not. It did not make sense, because crews change over time. We had a directive come down asking for names of the highest scoring commanders to be sent to Germany. We just picked a married guy who was due for leave." The other significant statement was, "I was too damn busy keeping my crew and company alive". Neither had a clue how many vehicles they destroyed.

[@NotQuiteSteele]

People like that are easily forgotten in favor of the drama of aces - real or not. The irony of ‘Victors write the history’ is that German propaganda figures like the aces or great generals overshadow everyday heroes who just do what they can in their situation.

[@grumblesa10]

@@NotQuiteSteele Yes, by "drum and trumpets" historical writers, movies and commercial wargames (too a much smaller degree).

[@jodo2785]

I feel like subordinates or low ranking officers would've been the ones keeping count . . . . but they were all dead or on the eastern front by this time. So we get nazi tank ace hysteria.

[@smasherblues5322]

Canadian sniper culture was similar. Counting kills is gay af.

[@screwtape2713]

@@smasherblues5322 Yes, I remember watching a documentary about the Canadian WW2 Black Watch scout sniper section. A vet talked about his admission into its ranks when his high range scores in training seemed to qualify him for placement there on first joining the active combat regiment: The sergeant in charge took him on a stalk to a frontline riverbank, pointed across the river at a German sentry and asked "You see him? Okay, kill him." - a final entry test to see if he could cold-bloodedly shoot another human. He did. The sgt. then said: "Okay, you just shot your first German. Now quit counting. " And he did. And about 70 years later, he still had no clue what his "score" was...

[@TheCalifornianeskimo]

“He occupies the footnote that Whitman should be in” God damn what a takedown and elevation in one single sentence

[@shad6644]

I came here to post that quote if it wasn’t. A brutal and brilliant bow tie.

[@kitsune3752]

The Pig has crawled out from the ashes and brought forth new material

[@themvko]

His braincells had to recover a little more after that debate with Lira

[@sombodythatyouusedtoknow9046]

All praise the Pig! ✋ 🤚 \ /

[@u2beuser714]

Ugh we talk about ww2 battles and you talk about LP crawling from the .... ASHES

[@mso2013]

@@themvko i think that goes for all of us.

[@breakerkilo406]

@@u2beuser714Cope.

[@sirlorax9744]

it is insane how the german propaganda machine was so effective that people still fall for it almost 100 years later

[@90skidcultist]

Almost 90💀

[@marley7868]

it's not the german propaganda it's more a mixture of contrarianism and american/soviet propaganda cause yunno your enemy being tough reflects better on you and some people love trying to tear down the winner

[@nandayane]

The Confederate’s propaganda machine is still effective in the USA around 160 years after they lost the civil war.

[@cyrneco]

To this day folk talk of Napoleon as the 'petit corporal' (he wasn't a small fella and was never a corporal), of the invincible caesarian legions... Propaganda works that's why we use it.

[@Gentleman...Driver]

I feel like thatsome people are so unsatisfied with their empty life, that they need to make up something to stand out. "I know something most people will never know" - its the essence of every conspiracy theory. "I am special and intelligent, all the others are just sheep and snowflakes".

[@agptyutuuturty]

When Napoleon Bonaparte was criticised for winning battles simply because of luck, he famously retorted: “I'd rather have lucky generals than good ones.”

[@xanmontes8715]

Let's be thankful his luck ran out.

[@martinjrgensen8234]

And how did that turn out in the en?

[@xanmontes8715]

@@martinjrgensen8234 i believe he was shot, exiled and died of definitely-not-lead-poisoning because the walls of his room were painted with leaded paint. I could be wrong.

[@kiyu1099]

@@martinjrgensen8234 exiled a first time, got back in France and launched the Campagne des 100 jours (100 days campaign) that ended in the biggest defeat you could ever imagine even in your wildest dreams, so the English put him in another island very far away and he died like 5 years later

[@woodennecktie]

lucky is so much overrated

[@samstarkweather5172]

The story of Rex Ingram really is quite something, it makes you wonder how many heroic deeds went unnoticed throughout that war all cause somebody couldn't or wouldn't share their story.

[@oldesertguy9616]

I was a police officer for 30 years and interviewed hundreds of people after sudden, traumatic incidents. We would often get different stories from different people at the same incident. Sometimes they were lying and sometimes they just remembered wrong. For instance, there is a phenomenon called Tachypsychia where time and distance is altered, where, in one instance, I remembered running a hundred yards when it was actually only a few yards at most. Add in the confusion of sudden input of information to your brain, especially if it were a sudden ambush, and then add in years between the event and an interview, and any testimony can be tainted. The person really does remember what he is stating, but it may or may not be the actual truth.

[@killer3000ad]

Oprah Winfrey once did an experiment to show unreliable eye witness testimony can be especially in cases where the event happens quickly and they only get a fleeting glimpse of the event. She staged a fake robbery in front of the long queue waiting for her show, then had fake police officers show up and interview the people in the queue and they all gave contradictory statements about the number of robbers, their appearance, the victim, etc.

[@WASDLeftClick]

That's the thing about human memory! It's so completely fallible, especially over long periods of time. Plus memory doesn't just include sensory information like sight, sound, touch, smell, ect. You can have memories of just your thoughts, or even memories of just the emotions you felt in a situation. You can lose memories easily, but you can also have them degrade and become inaccurate. You can simply be mistaken. You can fail to form memories of an event in the first place and unknowingly imagine fake ones later. Seriously. Your mind needs time and good deep sleep to form proper long term memories., and sometimes they just don't get that, or your mind regards the information as irrelevant and doesn't form a memory on purpose. You yourself are not even fully in control of your own mind. There are processes that are subconscious and automatic. You can exert some more control over your mind with practice, but even this is limited in potential.

[@keithscott1255]

The best one i have heard is "Aliens took me to meet naked woman on their space ship". Complete bollocks, but not a lie.

[@benholroyd5221]

I learned this in psychology in my A levels. We watched a video then had to remember simple details, like the colour of the get away car. Most people couldn't remember simple facts. I've also been accused of things, and witness accounts varied wildly. The police still didn't want to look at the video I recorded 🤷

[@WASDLeftClick]

@@benholroyd5221As I understand it, adrenaline and cortisol released as a stress response in potentially dangerous situations is there to increase your reaction time and get your body ready to do some intense physical exertion, thereby throwing your focus onto whatever needs to be done to keep yourself safe immediately. It's an automatic response, whether you keep calm or panic afterwards is up to you. But regardless, it definitely makes it difficult for the mind to memorize everything when it's literally choosing not to in favor of keeping you alive.

[@MrCat-fy7bz]

Just for emphasis at 22:34, these French hedgerows were specifically cultivated and maintained for generations starting all the way back in the Medieval period. There are literal hundreds of years worth of effort behind creating these impassable fences of dense forest.

[@michaelkenny8540]

That was the US Sector. The Commonwealth sector was much more open ground. Caen to Falaise was all open.

[@imperialinquisition6006]

@@michaelkenny8540There were definitely also hedges in the Commonwealth sector.

[@angry_z_rider4275]

Lol and we welded cut up beach obstacles to the front of tanks and ran right through em. Priceless

[@Teahillmusic]

Thay kinda make me think of like ancient monoliths of nature or a natural shrine to an ancient god or smthn

[@derekputz8568]

If anything, those photos look like Company of Heroes, Brothers in Arms, etc. actually UNDERSTATED the damn things (and the actual sizes of the fields they enclosed).

[@rabiessex3911]

> Be Stuart commander > See Tiger roll up > All your unit is on rest and unaware > "Today's the day" >Suddenly George Washington himself posses your body > Charge head on > Die a hero

[@thepolishnz]

Why Washington? He's British. It would of been Lord Wellington. Plus he was a better commander than Washington was. He fought every battle against Napoleon and won. Washington muddled his way thru the revolution. Saved by fog at bunker hill, almost wiped out his army at valley forge and relied on other fronts succeeding. If people like Lafayette, Arnold and the overwhelming support from European powers most notably the Dutch and French, and him being the first president Washington would be seen as an overwhelming faliure of a military commander.

[@HaloFTW55]

Truly, the man was possessed by the spirit of Sir John Moore. Fighting an overwhelming enemy until the last moment.

[@GabrielUngacta]

​@@thepolishnzginna be honest though, at Waterloo he needed the help of the Prussians. Wellington himself said that. Without the Prussians, he couldnt defeat Napoleon alone.

[@jacktattis]

@@GabrielUngacta No let you be honest. This is from 1973 Britannica : The Battle started at 1130hrs the French were on the run 1930 hrs in the interim it was Wellingtons troops that kept the French at Bay slaughtering 100s Blucher came in from Ligny at 1930hrs when the Guard had broken . Blucher turned that retreat into a rout. Blucher said he would come if Wellington could hold the enemy Wellington trusted Blucher so he held.

[@mikebrase5161]

Ive been a soldier, a Historian, a researcher in the archives, a Military Museum supervisor and a reenactor. After I retired from the Army I went back to school to finish my BA in History. I got into an argument with the Dean of the History department over some falsehoods he was spreading about a particular battle in Iraq. He asked me how i knew he was wrong? My reply was because I was there as an Infantry Squad Leader. The next day i brought in all my Green books that contained all of the Op Orders i had recieved as further proof he was wrong. As a Historian the "Trust me Bro" doesnt always cut it.

[@Anonie324]

I wonder where he got his shitty info from, then?

[@mikebrase5161]

@@Anonie324 Propaganda from the Leftist media is what he was using as the basis. I knew of journalists who never left the safety of their hotel room. They'd print stories based on what the heard soldiers talking about in the elevator up to the Dining facility at the Baghdad Sheraton hotel.

[@highjumpstudios2384]

Hell yeah king

[@trE3E3]

@@Anonie324 Many officers leaving the army may choose to write a book, especially if they want a political career afterwards. Many generals certainly have and many have lied to make themselves look better. Just the way of it. The Dean though... should have gone to the origin instead of a self-aggrandising autobiography or something similar

[@Dartyus]

Okay, you know what? When I picture "hedge warfare", I just picture the usual box hedges we have in Canada. It was never something I thought to reevaluate. I knew that it made defence easier, I didn't realize France was building the Great Wall of China in hedge form.

[@hastur-thekinginyellow8115]

Funny enough, Ukraine's hedges can be just as bad, and were/are integral in slowing down Russian forces.

[@airraid1266]

The Great Wall of Chiba wishes it was the French Hedgerows, you can't bribe a bush!

[@jmackmcneill]

Yeah, the technical distinction between a "hedge" meaning a decorative bush, and a "hedgerow" meaning a wall of intertwined vegetation including trees of any size short of it being woodland is not one that non-rural people realise.

[@Rapinasimplicis]

I’ve always heard stories that to break into a hedgerow it usually required engineers with explosives or artillery.

[@albinskold8792]

a wise man once said. ''we all know that Germany would have won if'' -had infinite manpower -infinite resources -more incompetent enemies -infinite skilled people

[@sonnguyenvan1599]

@AlexanderHenry-hz3tdSeek help, allahboo

[@nobodyuknow4911]

Well I win as Germany all the time in Hearts of Iron IV, which as we all know is totally the same thing as real life, so clearly it could be done and Germany should have just done what I've done before ^_^

[@WalterWhiteFootballSharing]

@AlexanderHenry-hz3td This religious shit would still be cringe and mocked if someone praised Jesus as lord and savior here. So don't take this as Islamophobia, but you suck.

[@userJohnSmith]

I mean do people forget it was fighting countries of compared able industrialization several times it's size?

[@wor53lg50]

​​​@@sonnguyenvan1599 he's preaching fast cuz he mustafa she'ite...💩.🤗..

[@scifidino5022]

Wittman feels like that one War Thunder match where you just miraculously survive everything.

[@rdallas81]

Ikr

[@calebharris292]

About 6 or something years ago i played world of tanks for like a month. Only time i did well was miraculous; set up with a tank destroyer at the bottom of a hill and wiped the 5 or six players that rolled over the top. One of the best feelings I ever got gaming, but i still sucked at the game when i went back a few months ago. Sometimes it's better to be lucky, but then you got to know when to stop.

[@chrisbricky7331]

And then killed by a Typhoon with a close air support attack in the last seconds of the battle. Yeah very much like War Thunder. And worse it was an uptiered CAS plane. :)

[@Shoelessjoe78]

This video is a overstated... His cult is definitely too built up. But to say that he lived a comfortable life while fighting and dying in WW2. Just remember Lazerpig isn't a veteran, and wasn't there for anything. take it with a grain of salt. Some valid points but too sensational for my tastes.

[@gaiofattos2]

@@chrisbricky7331 Typhoon is a real menance with 1000ib and fighter ability to make sharp turns.

[@matthewwalker5430]

I love Lazerpig, but how very dare he question the popularity of Time Team

[@toddclayton]

Aye Tony! Itsa bitta pottaray!

[@origional_name_here1429]

I agree, Time Team is fun and I feel older every time I think about it

[@dirkbonesteel]

Saw all 20 seasons and some of the new version. Now know more British history than 90% of my fellow Americans know about the US

[@kikidevine694]

I watched it all, but only for ritual purposes. Carenza, according to quite a few people I know, is a complete bitch. And not in a good way. Alice Roberts (I remember her as a baby archaeology student) however...❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@Whatshisname346]

Why was baldric on the time team again?

[@yacabo111]

Rex is the very definition of a hero. Fighting an unwinnable battle so his buddies have just that little extra time to get set. He even did it smart, playing every strength that little Stuart could possibly muster against a tiger. Truly to Rex and his heroic crew

[@Jesayou]

Maybe its because Im coming of my anti depressants but this made me cry fuck me

[@sergeantsharkseant]

Well I mean I don’t want to damper the mood but I don’t think he had all of that in mind. Possibly and likely a commendable sense of duty and bravery. But that’s it. I don’t wanna downgrade his sacrifice I am just saying

[@braith117]

He saw one of the biggest tanks of the war barreling down the road towards him and said "Bet."

[@WarmasterDeath]

@@Jesayou its all good mate, this kinda thing always gets me too, there's something about descriptions of such courage that brings me to tears and breaks my heart.

[@LTV746]

Agreed. War thunder players wouldn’t attempt this in a game

[@derekdrake8706]

Lazer Pig: As everyone should know by now, there are about a thousand factors that effect penetration. The quality of the steel, the angle of attack, the temperature.. Me: The quality of the sacred oil and incense used to bless the machine. It also helps if it finds the other tank attractive and isn't too tired that day.

[@williamchamberlain2263]

The machine spirit can be a saucy one - making it oily makes it happy

[@blacktemplar1139]

Techmarine, calm the Machine Spirit!

[@Juzevs]

i watched a video glazing about Wittmann and a guy in the comment section said UNIRONICALLY "I've already watched this video about 10 times Michael Wittman was a true SS monster, his story is so beautiful, I'm proud to be able to know about this SS legend"

[@johnnypetersen3818]

For Rex, the man who saved the day, even at the cost of his crew, his tank and himself.

[@stevensexton2221]

too Rex, cheers!

[@sigbauer9782]

@@stevensexton2221 to, not too.

[@ladywaffle2210]

"Rex" - Latin. "King." No less. To the pebble that causes the avalanche-the drop that causes the flood. To the man who saved the lives of soldiers fighting evil, who wore no crown but a black beret. To Rex.

[@colbygordon6936]

@@ladywaffle2210 Iubentium, Rex!

[@sailorgoon501]

@@ladywaffle2210 Rex - Latin. "King" Ingrum - Scandinavian. "Raven of peace; Raven of Anglia" King Raven indeed!

[@611_hornet5]

"The most overstudied battle in history." For the United States, that quote applies to the Battle of Gettysburg. Dear God does it apply to the Battle of Gettysburg.

[@elishafollet5347]

Wait really? I thought it was pretty clear cut that the confederacy lost

[@killermetalwolf2843]

@@elishafollet5347 I don't think that's what they mean? The Confederacy definitely lost, and it was certainly one of the most pivotal battles in the course of the war from a strategic viewpoint, but I'd wager it wasn't very interesting/complex tactically.

[@hyperx72]

I figured that was the battle of Normandy itself, since that's been filmed and parodied to high hell

[@FilYRU999]

@@elishafollet5347Gettysburg is so documented you can map it second by second at this point. It’s that insane

[@seanmorgan1759]

@@elishafollet5347 > I thought it was pretty clear cut that the confederacy lost Sadly, the people writing History Channel documentaries and Texas schoolbooks have not yet accepted this fact. They're still pretty sure that _one more good push_ will have those Yankees on the run and slavery reinstated nationwide.

[@CMDRFandragon]

Rex's Commander Ability: When there is a Heavy Tank within 150m of you, increase reload speed by 250%.

[@TheTeremaster]

I"m just going to mention the whole "Rommel was petty and would turn off his radio whenever he got orders he didn't like" is funny, but extremely inaccurate. Yes he would ignore orders he didn't like. But that wasn't him being petty, it was him actually following orders. The Wehrmacht ran on a doctrine called "Aufragstatik" where senior commanders on the ground were not only allowed, but encouraged to ignore orders from HQ if they felt those orders didn't fit the conditions of the battle. It's why Blitzkrieg was so effective, the German officers had the mandate to basically make up their own orders to adjust to any changes. So him ignoring an order and doing his own thing was just an use of a widely taught battle doctrine. Granted this whole idea became much less of an advantage and more of a hinderance when the officers on the field started being replaced by less experienced ones due to losses

[@TheRealTakaoAoki]

Hitler also was being more punishing on the officers that followed this too, which also probably didn't help a lot of the high ranks, it was a hot mess for sure

[@chrisschultz8598]

To Rex, a hero who gave his life for his comrades. This is the first I've heard of him, and I am glad I did.

[@chrisschultz8598]

@AlexanderHenry-hz3td Sorry, not interested.

[@insertnamehere7574]

@@chrisschultz8598 holy shit lmao. Jehovas Witnesses have nothing on this guy

[@chrisschultz8598]

@@insertnamehere7574 I have to admit, this is the first time I've been invited to a Muslim shindig. Jehovah's Witnesses are a dime a dozen around here.

[@thecursed01]

@AlexanderHenry-hz3td i think lord of the rings is a better fictional book than the quran or the bible

[@reynanlamsen2007]

​@@thecursed01Damn bro, edgy

[@generalmars3855]

I study Central Asian history, which means I have to deal with a lot of made up bullshit propagated by Chinese and Russian sources that have worked overtime to erase and undermine anything produced by actual Turkic/Mongolian cultures. I really appreciate your words about primary sources and academia. That is something I have struggled with a lot, and a lot of my work has become undoing the damage done by historians with agendas.

[@Gsoda35]

thank you for enlightening us all.

[@brucenorman8904]

I think a better term would be "revisionist propagandists".

[@hazzardalsohazzard2624]

I'm learning a very different side of Mongolian history from a Mongolian Friend than I get on Wikipedia. It's like the CCP writes Wikipedia

[@kingofcards9516]

@@hazzardalsohazzard2624 it's almost as if Wikipedia is biased on highly political topics lol.

[@kingofcards9516]

I love reading Chinese historians write down things like three headed geese as a subversive way to inform the Emporer he did something wrong without getting their heads chopped off.

[@andrewcarpenter2459]

Rex was my Cousin on my Father's side and obviously a bit of a hero of mine. My Father knew him and his death occurred long before I was born. I did however know his Father, CPT. BWI Ingram when he was very old, himself a bit of a WWI hero. Uncle B as I called him gave me Rexs' medals and items of his uniform which I still have. As a Family, we've often wondered why he wasn't more recognised for his Gallantry..after watching this I can only assume that the British powers that be found the idea of a 19 year old taking Wittmann on head to head, a tad embarrassing... He's buried in the Bayeux War Cemetery if anyone wants to visit him and perhaps say a little prayer for him.

[@MauserKar98k]

Kurt Knispel received a significant amount of awards including the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st Class as well as the German Cross in Gold. The decoration pictured at 40:00 is not that award, but the current valor decoration awarded by the Bundeswehr.

[@highjumpstudios2384]

Thanks king

[@kentuckyace1068]

Knispel was also the top panzer ace until his death in 1945

[@benjammin3381]

@@kentuckyace1068 That sort of depents on what the merits are. Wittmann had 138 kills and over 200 successful missions completed. Those also count for something, not just the kills.

[@lordbeaverhistory]

​@@benjammin3381Knipsel got 168 confirmed tabk kills, as gunner and commander. A further 30 went unconfirmed.

[@lordbeaverhistory]

He received 3 awards. Really just the Iron Crosses and the German Cross in gold. No further. And the Iron Cross is no special award. Over 4 Milliln Iron Crosses 2nd Class, and over 300,000 iron crosses 1st class were awarded. The German Cross in Gold was awarded 26,000 times. So none of the awards was very special, compared to what Knispel achieved as a Corporal

[@tinker1945]

Never let anyone break your heart more than the bot did, doing an announcement for a vid in 25 hours. Edit: KZbin borked and made this vid scheduled for tomorrow. Yes I know its out now.

[@The31stcenturyfox]

It's in one hour.

[@myselfremade]

Reee

[@talesofunity]

I'm so glad I only have a 60 minute wait. But as soon as I saw that my mouth made a "noooOOoo" sound straight out of some cute Borderlands supporting character.

[@eduardodehnal7518]

​@@myselfremadeahh yes google says that "ree" means goat

[@tinker1945]

@@The31stcenturyfox KZbin messed up, and initially put this for tomorrow.

[@corrinwilson2708]

"Describes the feeling of a 88 millimetre shell passing between his legs" Is a god damn chilling sentence, bravo

[@pancytryna9378]

I wonder how it feels, is it like "woosh" hm.

[@redcoatgaming4141]

There was a British world war two veteran at remembrance Day a few years And he described his time briefly mentioned he got injured by losing an argument with a tank

[@godhimself478]

@AlexanderHenry-hz3tdbro can you please shut up

[@AndrewGivens]

The thing about Dyas' interview/s, is that he comes across as a rather embittered man, deeply unhappy with his equipment, which he seems to have been exaggeratedly disparaging about.

[@mrfishmanelite4687]

I think it is hilarious how they spew Nazi post war propaganda and then proceed to say "history is written by the victors"

[@evanroberts2771]

"Nazi post war propaganda" is usually historical fact that is drowned out by the "history is written by the victors".

[@calebharris292]

Just like after the American civil war, the victors didn't root out the ideology and ultimately collaborated with the enemies that promised material benefit. In a way, the n@zis and Confederates won because their ideologies survive (and thrive in places) to this day

[@Norwagen]

⁠@@calebharris292they only thrive in the less important spaces, so did the Nazis really win? (No lebensraum)

[@lotlizard7735]

What's Nazi post war propaganda? Post war there wasn't a Nazi Germany.

[@TechLeafRanger]

To Rex and the crew of his tank: cheers to you and your brave sacrifice. May you smile in heaven, having served your time in hell.

[@Predator20357]

Seeing photos of the French Hedges finally got it through my skull of why the Normandy Invasion was a pain in the ass, you can hide 10 8 foot Minotaurs in those things and never be able to find them.

[@christopherjones8448]

You never thought to just google them before? Also you've just never seen them before??? Even the shitty documentaries on the history channel from 20 years ago had pictures of the things, they are a big talking point whenever WW2 comes up

[@Predator20357]

@@christopherjones8448 Nope, didn’t really care enough about French Hedges to really look into them, nor do I watch WW2 Documentaries since said example you bring up. If I did learn about Normandy Invadion, then it’s about the Landings and not the subsequent fighting that happened during the Normandy Invasion.

[@robertblack9381]

So what I'm getting from this is Wittmann is kind of like Nazi Germany in microcosm- a man of middling talent who got by by looking good and a long string of good luck, bought in to his own mythos and concluded he was a living god, then learned the hard way how wrong he was about everything. And to think I actually thought he was cool at one point. 13-year old me was the definition of cringe.

[@4T3hM4kr0n]

"13 year old me was the definition of cringe" You can thank the History Channel for that one.

[@anthonyirwin6627]

He could be fought of as the embodiment of Nazi Germany - did well initially due to certain fortunate circumstances, got complacent and arrogant as time went and eventually got shown what was good when the opposing side starts pulling its socks up

[@pennyforyourthots]

Nazi Germany really was just a country of middle managers thought they were gods until the employees unionized and kick their ass. They are great at handling people divided, but the minute they faced any sort of real resistance they fold like a paper crane.

[@geoffdewitt6845]

A lot of us were, friend. :)

[@southend26]

Nah, you weren't cringe. You knew how to learn. Counts for a lot!

[@crusaderkaiser2000]

Did you know that if Germany just did the thug shaker they probably would've won WW2?

[@Haispawner]

Stug shaker

[@bottheskitarii8881]

They did that on D day. It was a brutal battle that day, but luckily the Canadians and Americans were able destroy that horrible weapon

[@tomhsia4354]

22:29 Good God, that montage set to Verdi's Requiem Libera Me is just perfect, especially that final zoom out accompanied with the soprano.

[@kelalia]

as a German historian working on his PhD I hope I can assuage your anger by stating, that the first thing we learned is source-critical thinking. We are taught to never fully believe anything, but say instead: "this is all we know from the sources of the time and these are the reasons why they are wrong or right."

[@Shrrrg]

Lazerpig just has a huge axe to grind with historians. He doesnt know what is taught and doesnt care for it. It isnt the first thing he brought up that historians just take everything at face value and dont think about the context of the source and it isnt the first time people have told him that no that isnt what you learn in university.

[@dickb1379]

@@Shrrrg He, like a lot of people online, seems to think TV docs and history memes and hot takes are an accurate reflection of actual academic history. He's very entertaining, but serious history this is not.

[@yureinobbie68]

@@Shrrrg To be fair, the Wehraboos he's angry at didn't exactly go to university. There's enough people around that claim to have "studied" by essentially paying a guy for online courses that mirror their own opinion.

[@croxrailway1616]

​@@Shrrrghistory lessons can teach historians various values and principles, what matters is if the discipline enforces those values. If you were a historian writing/speaking on this subject, the fact no one until Taylor went to speak to servicemen who experienced it tells us historians weren't doing that. Secondly the point of history on society level is to inform and teach people our past so we can learn from it. Thus the published books, tv documentaries and youtube views are how society sees historians

[@Pepe_Silvia]

@@croxrailway1616 " the fact no one until Taylor went to speak to servicemen who experienced it" that is not a fact but utterly *?&%$§.

[@RmsOceanic]

As an example of the frustration of historical sourcing, after the Titanic sank in 1912 consensus of the narrative generally settled on the conclusion that she sank in one piece. The inquiries concluded this, and every retelling went with this depiction, stern in the air, then slid beneath the waves. However there had always been eyewitness accounts that she had broken in two on the surface, indeed one survivor Jack Thayer relayed such an account to an artist aboard the rescue ship Carpathia, giving the first actual depiction of breaking in two on the surface (inaccurate in other ways, but besides the point). And yet it wasn't until 1985 when the ship was found and was indeed in two pieces well over half a kilometer apart that these eyewitness accounts were vindicated. So why did the initial inquiries conclude she sank in one piece? Because Second Officer Charles Lightoller, highest ranking survivor, testified that he saw it go down in one piece, even though later scholarship surmised he was too busy trying to keep a capsized lifeboat from throwing the men standing on it into the icy water for him to really get a good look at the final moments. Yet the inquiries deferred to his natural authority. I tell this to assure you that you are not alone when grumbling about the phenomenon of taking a single source as gospel.

[@jacksonlarson6099]

Since we're on the topic of Titanic, I will forever be frustrated by the pop-history pseudo-parable claim that the Titanic was heralded as "unsinkable" by all that had seen the mighty ship prior to her sinking. From my understanding (and tell me if my account seems wrong), the only pre-sinking claim of being unsinkable was in an article in a maritime engineering magazine showcasing the Titanic's automatic watertight bulkhead doors. Beyond that, the narrative that man's hubris in the face of God's Earth was humbled when the unsinkable ship was sunk seems to be a post-disaster fabrication meant to further sensationalize the tragedy into some twisted moral lesson.

[@randomearthling4147]

anywhere where I can find said illustrstion? I'm quite interested

[@RmsOceanic]

@@randomearthling4147 commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thayer-Sketch-of-Titanic.png

[@roelant8069]

@@randomearthling4147 Jack Thayer has a wikipedia page and the illustration is there

[@garretturbaczewski2019]

I've heard that once the Titanics lights went out everything there was complete and uder darkness. If that's true then it would be near impossible to actually see what happened to the ship.

[@vintagecapgunsatyourmomshouse]

The trees and hedges in Belgium must be seen to be believed. It's like being in a giant vineyard, except it's whitethorn and beech trees instead of grapevines

[@NicholasEzclapz]

That explains why my German teammates on War Thunder suck. They are RPing as Wittmann himself!

[@lowtier]

no they are just brainlets when they are on your side.

[@superdevton1137]

@@lowtierlike Whitman

[@lowtier]

@@superdevton1137 Also some russain teamates as well, since their mostly Level 5 with all-premium lineups

[@spearfisherman308]

@@lowtierthere is a Russian bias in war thunder it doesn’t account for for poor armor quality or spawling.

[@fellow9939]

MIchael Wittmann isn't a myth, i saw him last week at tesco.

[@bgcvetan]

Did you remember to customary kick him in the pelvis?

[@corylarsen5788]

I've heard that the bogeyman checks under his bed every night for Wittman ;)

[@casualsleepingdragon8501]

Yeah *shows grainy phone video of someone running around in a cardboard tiger tank costume*

[@savacious8890]

yeah i believe it. You know i saw tupac at Mcdonalds, he got a bigmac and some fries. I saw Tupac at Mcdonalds, looked right into his big brown gansta rapper eyes. I said you lied to me and my family and the whole world watching Mtv, I can't believe the things you did. He looked at me and he replied He said "west si-eeiiiiieeeiiieeiieeiieeiieeiide is the best siiiide"

[@sceligator]

He tried to leave my pub without paying his tab the other day.

[@Mrjcraft00]

The fact the British Army was unionized is something I’ve never heard before and I’m honestly blown away, the jokes make so much sense now wow

[@billygoatgruff3536]

The Army it's self wasn't unionised but the men who were drafted into it had come from union workforces. So despite not actually being in a union any more they carried a lot of those attitudes and mindsets with them.

[@Jan-rq8mo]

@@lostalone9320 What the hell are you talking about? Modern unions are infinitely less demanding than the old ones. Back in those days, massive strikes and militant factory occupations were the norm for negotiations and trust me, they demanded pay rises. The modern middle class wouldn't exist if they didn't.

[@just_matt214]

​@@lostalone9320Unions in *this* era don't do that, mate.

[@codemonster8443]

@@lostalone9320 "Outrageous pay rises" mate what union are you talking about?

[@brianzmek7272]

​@@just_matt214 counter point the current writers guild strike seems to me to be asking for outrageous pay levels and terribly unrealistic concessions at a time when the studios are bleeding money. Seems like both reasonable and unreasonable trends are both present at all points in union history as is everything in human history.

[@irinaluchianova3015]

It's a shame Rex's titanium balls were not in front of the place the tiger shot at, they could have voiced the shell and saved the whole crew

[@HobbiesGamesChillin]

The German Reich: basically a crackhouse that no one took seriously till they suddenly did

[@mst3kguy754]

One of my history teacher once told our class: "The eyewitness is the natural archenemy of the historian".

[@AudieHolland]

What I have learned from this video: old age and failing memory is the archenemy of the eye witness.

[@Burkutace27]

Here's another great lesson about how much you can trust people's memory; some researchers have managed to gaslight people into "remembering" how they met bugs bunny at disneyland

[@TheNaturalnuke]

@@AudieHollandtime is the death of truth

[@jonny-b4954]

It's why even when interviewing soldiers who fought in the very battle, while they can offer some insight you can't get elsewhere, in general, their viewpoint is worthless overall.

[@ladygrey7425]

It's also why eyewitness testimony is considered to be nearly worthless in a court of law. Forensic evidence is much, much more reliable.

[@flyingsquirrell6953]

As someone who went to Normandie two weeks ago - I looked for the hedges to see the WWII stuff, and I saw them… and completely understood why the breakout from the LZs lasted as long as it did. THEY WERE FUCKING MASSIVE - LIKE THREE TO FOUR TIMES MY HEIGHT.

[@martinjrgensen8234]

They are dense as hell too, must have been hell fighting in

[@WASDLeftClick]

French ingenuity or French laziness? You decide!

[@tfs203]

I always wanted to send my Grandfather there, but he passed away before I could. He was in the 778th AAA Battalion(not a tanker, M16 AA half track) who also fought in the the Bulge, then helped guard the Remagen Bridge. He often spoke of a German pilot(s) they called "Midnight Charlie".

[@jacob5395]

​@WASDLeftClick Its more than just a hedge, some are just ancient stone walls that marked the property that had slowly had rock and soil put over it until we have a small hill... and a bush over it. You should see the diagrams of those things.

[@WASDLeftClick]

@@jacob5395 Having looked at those that's a lot more clear than just looking at photographs of it. But still, I just can't help but chuckle at the idea of some French farmers deciding not to trim the hedges and just have another croissant and cappuccino, every week, until "Hon hon hon, they were meant to be that way monsieur!". Maybe it's because that's the tone a lot of folklore has in the South were I grew up, often self-deprecating and humorous. Regardless they're very pretty to walk through I can imagine.

[@theduke7539]

I still remember killing Whitman in Call of Duty 3. Which was weird because the mission had you play as a Free Polish tankcommander serving in the british army but driving a sherman, all in the Fallaise gap(Im sure I misspelled that, but i cant be bothered to check google)

[@tedytarrify]

Thanks Lazer, had i not watched to the end i would never have learnt about Rex. I hope that God forbid, if life tests me in the way it did him, then I can offer but a fraction of the courage that Rex and his men did. Selflessly and without hesitation. I think we all agree that given the odds he and his crew were not found wanting.

[@juanmanuelpenaloza9264]

So basically being a historian is having to find every version of Rashomon ever, and trying to figure out what might have happened, knowing you can only get so close to what is by all factors, expired reality.

[@daniellarge9784]

Brilliant if unexpected reference to a fantastic film. An astute and cultured reference.

[@SlinkyTWF]

I made that analogy in the designer's notes for my "The Second World War" wargame. It is soooo true.

[@thatorangeguy3646]

Yeah pretty much

[@AudieHolland]

Most historians just take the written or spoken accounts given by those who were there (primary sources). But few take on the role of Battlefield Detective: what actually may have happened instead of what most people believe.

[@pyorre2441]

I read a quote once that stated that the only time historical events can only be seen in their true light is when they are actually happening. This quote was talking about other historic events that happened in my country and which still today have different interpretations depending on which side of political spectrum person talking about is.

[@goawayihavecommentstomake1488]

Dear Lazerpig, My grandfather was a tank radio operator who fought in North Africa, Greece/Crete and into Italy. (An ANZAC and in a Sherman tank, I think. I was too young to learn all the details). About the one story I know is that moving into Italy, they once saw a haystack in a field. They stopped. They looked at it. They agreed, something about it was fishy. The haystack fired a shell at them, which fortunately didn’t penetrate. They returned fire and blew the haystack and the tank hiding under it into a state of non serviceability. I think it turned into a bonfire. My grandad had keys to Italian towns and letters of gratitude from places he helped liberate, which is probably the nicest thing to come out of the war - people from far flung places and cultures bonded by hardship, sacrifice and humanity. My other other grandfather was recognized as an honorary german paratrooper! Certainly the best and worst of times. It’s easy to see why historians find first hand testimony so compelling when the stories are so interesting.

[@thelegoyousteppedon]

Neat

[@NoNameTV.]

ANZAC? Didn’t they have the funny penis tank?

[@Ken-kb1fr]

Quite interesting

[@grafeugenius]

"The haystack fired a shell at them, which fortunately didn’t penetrate" is one of the funniest sentence i've read today. thank you for cheering my day up!

[@spindash64]

My great uncle apparently had a few of those stories, too, though he didn’t like to talk about them. He died before I was born, but supposedly, he “got volunteered” as a gunner on a B-17 for a mission, and one of the regular crew tossed him a lighter as a thank you gift. Another time, he had to play Midwife for a women in labor because he couldn’t leave his guard posting to find an actual doctor. All of those stories are likely to vanish someday…

[@daytonmccastle5346]

To Rex. Even when theirs no possible way to win the fight, you fight anyway, truely bold in the face of certain death. Absolute champ.

[@JeremyGordon-oh6uy]

I found your site by accident and am very glad I did. Your take on Wittmann was one of the most grounded I have seen. Also I then watched your video on what sank the Moskva and was very moved by the ending, too many people forget the true cost of the war as they cheer as a brewed up tank incinerates its crew. I am now working my way through your entire back log . Keep up the good work. Ps the a10 video was also very educational especially as I used to fly (non military)

[@lyndoncmp5751]

He's wrong on a number of claims. Wittmann wasn't the commander of the 101st. Heinz von Westernhagen was at the time. Wittmann was only commander of 2nd company and he wasn't responsible for the failure of the 1st company's actions later that day under Mobius.

[@rdallas81]

​@@lyndoncmp5751true 👍

[@lyndoncmp5751]

@@rdallas81 Cheers ✌

[@justakettlehelm1673]

@@lyndoncmp5751 This is not true. Whitman is cited as the commander of the 101st, 2nd company, and you also fail to mention that 1st or 2nd company still means 101st panzer division. That also wouldn't even be a relevant discrediting in this case because he's still the commander of the 2nd company, and still was the commander of the force that fought in Villers-Bocage. Contrary to popular belief, 1st does not trump over 2nd. He may not be *THE* commander of the 101st but he is *a* commander of the 101st. You also claim LP is wrong on a "number of claims" yet you only make one very extremely minor claim, and I'm not even sure what argument you're trying to draw from this. You'd openly comment if you really wanted to push this idea instead of leaving unbacked, snarky replies under everyone's comment.

[@lyndoncmp5751]

@@justakettlehelm1673 Id advise you to not butt into something you clearly have little knowledge about. "and you also fail to mention that 1st or 2nd company still means 101st panzer division" Whaaaat? 😂 There was no "101st panzer division". It was the 101st Heavy SS Tank Battalion, or Schwere SS Panzer Abteilung 101. 101st panzer division? If you wish to be taken seriously please try and get the basics right. You've just made similar basic errors as your hero LazerPig. SS101 was a battalion not a division. Im truly sorry I've upset you by correcting the schoolboy errors of your hero LazerPig. LazerPig's errors were not minor. LazerPig claimed Wittmann was the commander of Schwere SS Panzer Abteilung 101 at the time of Villers Bocage and that he returned and took part in the second battle. LazerPig was wrong on both major points. You've followed in his ignorant manner by making your town basic mistakes. How's that for irony? Unbacked? Try Tigers In Combat Volume II by Wolfgang Schneider, and Michael Wittmann and the Tiger Commanders of the Leibstandarte by Patrick Agte. Post well and truly made in a snarky way. Dont bother me or waste my time again.

[@JM-mh1pp]

Knipsel looked like everyone's favourite companion in some ww2 themed rpg whose death launched a thousand playthroughts titled "using a glitch to save Knipsel, how to guide in minute 12" and "unnoficial community patch 1.2 adding the option to save Knipsel- fully voiced"

[@discipleofdagon8195]

Yeah, his actions may have been overblown but if there's a dsiciplinary report about him assaulting a nazi for mistreating prisoners then eh alright he's cool I guess.

[@deeznuts-kw6yv]

Alright, hot take here but. I rare say "based” due to how it’s used by werhaboos, racists and terminally online turbo nerds. But I will say without a doubt that Knipsel is probably the most "based" German soldier in WW2

[@Rammstein0963.]

How is it everyone keeps mispronouncing his name?

[@magnum6763]

@@deeznuts-kw6yv the non SS tank aces were sometimes not the worst, some of them were very bad, some of them (like knispel) had moments where they may have done good (i believe knispel was wrote up for preventing the execution of soviet pows), but were still bad.

[@deeznuts-kw6yv]

@@magnum6763 I mean, I can understand that the were defending Nazi Germany of all things, but I ain't defending their actions here, more so showing some respect to the very few who had morals

[@johnmccarron7066]

You know something else about Knipsel? He was a Feldwebel. The closest equivalent to that in the US is an E5 (Sergeant). In the aristocratic Nazi structure, having a common soldier, an NCO, as your top tanker (and not a Nazi) is unthinkable.

[@sergeantsharkseant]

Well the Feldwebel is the master of his craft. They are definitely very capable etc. Also Nazis weren’t really aristocratic, not in the traditional sense. Though one could call it favoritism and elitism.

[@DrCruel]

Knipsel was the German version of Donald Sutherland's Oddball. As for why German troops were so good in the operational military arts in the 19th and early 20th century, it was because of Napoleon, in particular the staff reforms. See *A Genius for War* by COL Trevor Dupuy for details.

[@goldenhide]

​@DrCruel The General Staff was a "secret weapon" of the Prussians for so long and then it caught on fast in the late 19th century.

[@goldenhide]

Technically around an E-6 and with bigger responsibilities. In tanks and infantry one platoon would be commanded by an officer in a company and the others often by Feldwebel...on paper. Losses would make these billets flexible through the war. But enlisted nonetheless.

[@chuckyxii10]

From what I've read of memoirs and such, its closer to a SFC. And German NCO's of the era were generally given more responsibility than other nations.

[@jesseorellana5339]

Watching as an America with a pretty gnarly hedge garden: "My hedges can stop an f-250 in its tracks. Though I don't think anyone could grow a hedge that can stop a tank..." Sees French bucage hedge: "That's not a hedge! That's a miniature jungle ffs!"

[@glenchapman3899]

Yeah I am the same. I never understood how the allies struggled through the hedge country, then came across a photo of a breached hedge. Holt crap those things were thick and dense.

[@madkoala2130]

Those hedges reminded me of that one mission in original Company of heros where you needed to use crocodile Sherman's with bulldozers to actually move through map and german ambushes were everywhere.

[@FeatherWing162]

You know, the part at the end about Rex is suddenly giving me inspiration to make a diorama based around that situation. Call it my little toast to Rex and his crew’s bravery.

[@TheGreatThicc]

The perfect example of "Let's make our deaths memorable ones"

[@Makimars]

As a kid, I subscribed to a magazine about ww2 and it had a special issue about the best tank aces. That quickly became my favorite, but it actually featured a long article about Kurt Knispel and nothing on Wittman. Later when I became active on the Internet, I was extremely confused because everyone was talking about some Wittman guy when I wanted to know more about Knispel.

[@belisarius6949]

awww based magazine!

[@HSS_yt]

i got to read Otto carius's memoir when i was 10, but i was too confused to stand on a 'side'. so in the end i ended up being a bit of teaboo. his book wasn't super accurate or fun, but it came with a tiger manual that was translated into my language PLUS it contained the artwork that came along in with the original manual. i thought it looked too inappropriate so i threw it away a long time ago. now i miss it :(

[@JoeRogansForehead]

I’ve noticed that reading older books on many subjects has a ton of info about things that aren’t even mentioned today.

[@jmackmcneill]

If that magazine is still in your parents attic, dig it out and edit wikipedia with a published source.

[@Makimars]

@@jmackmcneill Interesting idea. Might try it. I definitely know that I stored these in my parent's attic and I don't think they threw it out.

[@Call-Me-JessE]

22:27 My grandpa would always tell me about the hedgerows in Normandy and how brutal they were, I never realized exactly what he meant until I saw this.

[@highjumpstudios2384]

One wonders Wether Whitman on his second command in Europe (the one that eventually got him killed) was due to him actually believing his ow hype. That the tanks he was shooting at would take one look at his tiger and run away screaming.

[@Munkynuts]

Well done and thank you Señior Pig. I admit, I like some of ww2tv but it definitely feels like an old cable access show.

[@generalrubbish9513]

I'm honestly amazed by how many of the most common WW2 myths come from former Nazis, some of them given credibility by actual historians. It's like, after the war ended, everyone approached the people who were unambiguously the "bad guys" in the conflict to hear how things went down, and then went "Sure, that sounds trustworthy, when did fascists ever lie about anything?"

[@Mo-io2nx]

Propaganda is more powerful than we think

[@gladonos3384]

Real life isn't a Hollywood movie. Humans are selfish, greedy, vindictive, violent monsters. Everyone lies about everything and understanding human behavior is critical to discovering the truth. You are setting yourself up to fall into the same trap that the people you criticize fall into only you won't see it because you have only defined "fascists" to be evil and nobody else.

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

It's also about making out the enemy to be stronger than they actually were to make ones victory seem more heroic and against the odds than it perhaps actually was

[@griftinggamer]

Unambiguously? 😂😂😂 You say this without the least bit of irony

[@hithedragon7842]

​@@griftinggamerThey were though. This one of few historical wars where that can be said with certainty. The Allies did awful things too, but not nearly to a comparable degree.

[@ktvindicare]

This video is an hour long? It feels significantly shorter than that. LazerPig's such a good story teller.

[@neilgriffiths6427]

Agree, I felt like that was about 20 minutes - LP knows how to present, that's for sure...

[@stanleyspadowski235]

As much as his schtick is being frantic and histrionic, he sure knows how to set up a topic.

[@williammullinax6130]

Not an hour long. It's 52 minutes.

[@sirkl4272]

He also has a very, extremely, amazingly unfuckable voice, that somehow makes the content even more watchable.

[@viki5563]

tru lazerpig one of the best

[@crismaster7498]

My great grandpa was at the Villers Bocage, He was part of the 15th Isle Of Man Anti Aircraft regiment which he was classed as experienced having been deployed in Greece (Crete specifically) and North Africa (Desert Rates). He landed on Gold beach and got to Villers through Tilly-Sur-Seulles as they supported infantry. The regiment was shot up near the Village on June 13th and saw a Cromwell tank burning while advancing on the secondary road. Soon the front of his convoy they were then shot at though he couldn't tell what "Whoever peaked first got hit first." "I assume it was a tank as it tore through one of the guns and men." The battle was very chaotic though he never went near Wittmann or Point 213... As in his words "It was like searching a trench but with tanks, because the French never cut their hedges." The regiment then later had to retreat as it was only light AA just before the rest of the forces did. He was disappointed how they had to retreat and the Air Force flattened the town later anyway. He Survived the war and lived to tell me. Unfortunately he passed away at 98 from old age in 2017. A truly great man and lived long enough to tell me this. Thanks lazerpig for making this video. Hope this provides an another account of the battle.

[@adamkoslin9302]

The Isle of Man had enough people to form 15 Anti-Aircraft regiments?!?! What, do Manx pop out the womb with a Quad Bofors each?!??

[@laurancerobinson]

​@@adamkoslin9302😂 nah, it was just 15th (Isle of Man) Light Anti Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery. The Isle of Man was added in brackets as is typical of Combat Support Arms of the British Army to highlight their territorial background. With the Island being so small and interconnected, most Manx folk will have some connection to the regiment. For example 2 of my grandmother's cousins were members of it. One becoming a PoW when the regiment's third battery was destroyed during the invasion of Crete.

[@DotDotDot0272]

Thanks to your Grandpa for defending the land of my Grandpa, Grandma and Mother (Crete)

[@crismaster7498]

@@adamkoslin9302 They did have Bofors and they were good anti tank weapons in pre war Europe but they weren't directly at the front of the convoy because they were AA and it was a narrow boncage. So i don't think the could fire but they were part of a convoy. I was mistaken i should have put (isle of man) as it was the 15th but they didn't have 15.

[@crismaster7498]

@@DotDotDot0272 Unfortunately we did not win that battle, though one of the 15th batteries was destroyed by paratroopers.

[@TravelatorH8r]

Well the Whitman story definitely worked because there's plenty of our grandfathers that were deathly Afraid Of The Tiger tank without ever seeing one

[@lyndoncmp5751]

Tiger phobia had its origins in Tunisia where the circa 30 Tigers deployed there took out over 200 allied tanks for only 6 or 7 Tigers lost in combat. Those kind of kill ratios really gave the Tiger a fearful reputation.

[@TravelatorH8r]

@@lyndoncmp5751 cool I'm going to look that up thanks buddy

[@swarajkar3086]

Tigers were very dangerous to encounter though. More was Tiger II, if it did not suffer mechanical problems. Remember Tiger II never was penetrated frontally.

[@lyndoncmp5751]

@@TravelatorH8r No problem. A good source is Sledgehammers, Strengths and Flaws of Tiger Tank Battalions in World War Two by Christopher Wilbeck.

[@2adamast]

Deathly afraid or like here just did their job: destroyed a 6 Tiger attack and went on with their war without ever mentioning it again.

[@HATECELL]

My own favourite "Did you know that in WW2..." has to be the myth about how the plucky Brits and courageous Americans slapped logs, spare parts, and sandbags to the outside of their tanks to improve armour protection. The Germans were way too noble and genetically superiour to resort to such crude and desperate measures, so the went with the Schürzen, spaced extra armour. Meanwhile the brutish, barbaric, and crude Soviets uparmoured their tanks with infantry soldiers. If those people were looking at more than two pictures of WW2 they'd know that sitting on tanks was something all sides did (although maybe the Soviets are most famous for it due to them not having that many trucks early in the war)

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

When Ukraine improvises with old weapons it's plucky innovators when Russia does it's going for broke - propoganda

[@thecubicgamer6324]

Fuck, that last bit is heartbreaking. Rex’s Stuart going up against Wittman’s Tiger is on par with HMS Jervis Bay ( an armed merchant cruiser) going up against that German pocket battleship. A VC was earned for Jervis Bay that day, and if one wasn’t awarded to Rex Ingram I’m going to be pissed

[@donaldhysa4836]

He probably thought the Tiger would break down before it could fire back cause he watched Lazerpig

[@Natedawg1998]

I cried a little bit during that last segment True bravery and heroism in the face of overwhelming odds

[@stanislavkos3723]

​@donaldhysa4836 Honestly, I kinda hoped Rex would manage to land a hit that would take out the Tiger's electricity and Michael Wittman's Tiger would be taken out by a tank that wasn't even designed to fight tanks.

[@DemonHunter2271]

Who’s says that we can’t? Okay hear me out: What if we look for soldiers who have done actions that is above the call to action and give them virtual awards and medals for their actions?

[@thecubicgamer6324]

@@DemonHunter2271 he deserves a posthumous medal, recognized by his government. Not a bunch of pixels

[@LordStarleaf]

So basically Knipsel was everything Wittmann was claimed to be... just *not* Nazi, so infinitely better.

[@michividz7861]

Knispel and Carius were the real chads.

[@ladywaffle2210]

​@@michividz7861 Let's not go that far. They were still fighting for unequivocally the wrong side.

[@sorashirogami1729]

@@ladywaffle2210 People can fight for the wrong side for the right reasons.

[@ladywaffle2210]

@@sorashirogami1729 Define what Knipsel's "right reason" was. Nationalism? Germany was an overtly-racist, overtly-genocidal attempted ethnostate at the time (they are, obviously, better now) even if nationalism *isn't* a blight upon humanity. Hatred of Germany's enemies? Even worse; that just makes him another form of nationalist. Sense of duty? Then why'd he ignore regs?

[@marks7484]

​​​@@ladywaffle2210mean, if we go with that kind of scrutiny, neither soviets nor Brits were any better, only US is barely better. Pretty much everyone fighting during ww2 was a shade of nationalist , a racist, or an imperial subject.

[@dummmonke4269]

I love how the only thing you need to say in order to make a Wehraboo start crying into their pillow at night is "They lost."

[@crassustheelder9665]

I had an incredible history professor that would always say “I don’t care if you get the exact date or place wrong, as long as you can explain why something happened and it’s effect on people.” As someone who loves studying the “why” part of history and having a bad memory for numbers like dates, I loved his classes.

[@francesco8000]

I'm quite confident that if 2 soldiers were to meet on the battlefield and shoot at each other there would be 5 different version of the events: 1 for each soldier, 1 for each government explaining why their soldier is the best and a 5' version for people that don't believe anything they read because they think that they always know what is actually true and correct.

[@kekero540]

The fact that I only had Wehraboo tendencies when I was literally 12-14 speak volumes on where these peoples heads are at.

[@SeshanTM]

I’m a 14 year old and when I was 12 I did a bit of research and lost all of my wehraboo tendencies with the current state of the internet I’m surprised that people are still like that

[@kekero540]

@@SeshanTM true, but back in 2012-2014 Wehraboo hatred wasn’t as relevant and widespread as it is today. I’m glad we have made the internet a better place for young history buffs.

[@alexs5744]

I lost mine the same age, my realization is that they lost and they were not the best.

[@bruhzy2139]

I successfully dodged the wehraboo draft

[@Theredcarolinian]

Dodged the draft, bro I muntined after being sent againist the army's of logic and research.

[@leperchaun194]

Can you do a video elaborating on that point you made about being led by Patton essentially being an act of self-sabotage? I don't recall hearing much about him being a particularly inept commander, but I'd love to learn about it.

[@henryhaile1653]

Well this is just off the top of my head but I do remember that he caused a lot of problems with the British when working with them and also deliberately mismanaged humanitarian supplies going to concentration camps survivors as a result of his antisemitism.

[@Full_Throttle_Axolotl]

I think he goes into more detail in his video about the Crusader

[@insert_name_here6487]

my friend i also draw your attention to biscari

[@gleggett3817]

recent discussions on WeHaveWays podcast learnt me a few things about Patton. 1) The way Alexander coached him, 2) that he was self-aware about putting on an act for the benefit of his troops 3) his wife and his subordinates edited his diaries for public consumption (the wife moved a comment forward so it looked like he predicted the Ardennes offensive)

[@henryhaile1653]

@@gleggett3817 oh that sounds really interesting, what's the episode called?

[@twofortydrifter]

The French hedge clip. I'm dying.

[@Surya-uj7re]

I was drinking when I watched this video, so raising one to Rex happened by default, but I'm glad to do it anyway. It's the thing I've always wondered -- how many acts of heroism like Rex's goes completely unnoticed because in a major war with casualties in the millions, no one has the time to document every single soldier's actions. How many soldiers who took down half a dozen enemies in a heroic last stand while their friends retreated, and whose actions end up summarized as 'unit retreated at 1415 hrs with moderate casualties'.

[@ricardokowalski1579]

Agreed. May we live to be worthy of such brave actions I drink to that.

[@granatmof]

How many heroic actions are erased by shells and bombs, or ended quietly? Planes and boats full of soldier tied down with gear were shot down and sunk, the lives on board over in an instant or not. Each one of them a story, each one of them in their way a hero fighting against tyrannical fascists and those that go along with it by "just following orders". The war was won by the Rexes, those that charged instead of hiding, not just for country but for their fellow soldiers in spite of organizational failures at the top. The Allies won through competent NCOs and junior officers who lead their men to victory, and by farmers and factory workers and supply lines that gave them the tools and supplies to do it.

[@maxbennett5412]

Probably a lot. It is both sad and great to know that people do incredible things all the time and we just don't hear about them.

[@WhySolSirius]

@@granatmof I think this is why Band of Brothers is such a good story. Because its about the grunts having to do the best they can to overcome tactical missteps from the higher ups, with what they had on the ground.

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

Indeed the heroic deeds we never know

[@harrisionstan3773]

Glass duly raised to Rex Ingram and his crew. I'd never heard of him before, and his is a story that deserves to be told. Thank you for enlightening me.

[@harrisionstan3773]

And only 19.

[@bgcvetan]

Even his wikipedia page does not show up.

[@thebrickcult6418]

@@bgcvetan Make it then

[@TheCalantyr]

To Rex!

[@sterlingsmith202]

Rushed to grab a drink to raise!

[@MrTylerStricker]

22:47 Thank you for mentioning the hedgerows...not enough attention is given to how difficult an obstacle they were to units from both sides during already difficult engagements. Often, these battles were decided by unit's sole ability to either successfully advance past, through or over these hedgerows & a good amount of resources were spent on many improvised modifications that would be made in order to better deal with them.

[@metalburner357]

22:14 Thank you for this, it's insanely frustrating when people seem to think those hedges were little more than small roadside ditches with leaves on them.

[@RamadaArtist]

11:13 "Not that the Americans were having a particularly easy time regardless; they had Patton leading them" The amount of shade that LazerPig can summon out of nothing itself is truly inspirational.

[@rhysofsneezingdragon1758]

I'd rather have anyone leading me than Patton, I will say.

[@donaldhysa4836]

Patton was ten times as capable than the best british general of both world wars

[@sampackman69]

@donaldhysa4836 having gone through your comments on this video (there's a lot, with timestamps, and I don't know why, considering that LP would never respond lmao) I can't tell if your a freedomaboo or a wehraboo Both are equally shit opinions, BTW

[@Codaddict]

@@donaldhysa4836 ten times zero (Monty, Haig) still equals zero, so that ain't the flex you think it is.....

[@elmascapo6588]

​@@Codaddictmonty never got defeated by rommel tho, so i guees he is higher than zero. Also, O'Connor existed

[@danielomar9712]

Considering how huge the hedges are in France im surprised both the Allies and Axis did not suffer even more casualties just from the confusion of walking around a freaking puzzle piece

[@Kernelpopcornx]

Such a great commander goes off on his own doesn’t tell anyone anything he is encountering and alerts the enemy that there are forces still near. What a genius 😂

[@Yolocaust_]

Ofc He told His staff that He charges. Okw knew it

[@bottheskitarii8881]

Ah look at him go... a true war hero. Gunning unarmored vehicles before getting his tank destroyed by smaller infantry

[@twofortydrifter]

I have a degree in this shit and I never heard of the importance of historical reenactment. Go figure. Learning about how people function was the single most important takeaway for me.

[@FoFcraft]

“If only” and “nazi German” should only ever be together in the sentence “if only the nazis had never existed”

[@cs40660]

“if only more nazis died”

[@rudatkatzn9171]

I agree. Those bastards have put a huge shit pile of shame on our history. Killed 6Millions alone through industrialized murder. And even more through Combat that they caused.

[@weldonwin]

Or "If Only Nazi German FUCKHEAD Adolf Hitler had been dragged out of his bunker like the shit-stained coward he was, so he could stand trial and dangle on a rope, like scum like him deserve"

[@steinmayer2791]

And Stalin and Mao and and..... you know where I am getting at

[@lorenzooliveira1157]

It’s an interesting what if, if the Weimar Republic got their shit together, what would the world look like. Would the Soviet Union be as powerful during the 20th century? Would the British empire fall? Would Hitler become an accomplished painter? Who knows

[@WoobooRidesAgain]

*Rex Ingram* is the kind of name a literary critic would say is too much of an action hero name for a person to realistically have, like Jack Stone or Miles Long.

[@Wfalen]

Max Fightmaster

[@nbewarwe]

Rex Stealbalz.

[@daniyarsadykov3385]

I instantly remembered Leo Major: A Guy with an eyepatch who stormed Nazi occupied village alone while dual wielding smgs

[@sampackman69]

​@daniyarsadykov3385 Leo Major. The Canadian with balls of steel that stormed a village full of SS, several tanks and a lot of standard infantry With 2 people, couple of SMGs and a PIAT. And he fucking won

[@donaldhysa4836]

He ran around firing eraticlly in his small inferior tank and got killed. How is that action hero material exactly?

[@clairenollet2389]

The video gets better on repeat viewings, so you can catch all the wonderful little jokes and sight gags. LazerPig is my spirit animal. Only gay. And Scottish.

[@Triad_Orion]

One of the most important classes I took in majoring in history was Historiography. The one lesson that I considered most important from it was the one that encourages you to look at your sources and consider biases that might be in place with them. Now, largely a lot of that was aimed at *secondary* sources, particularly ones making analyses of primary sources, but I took it to question even your primary sources. And I believe my professor nudged us in that direction as well. To remember that a primary source is still subject to bias, because it was written by human hands and anything written by human hands has context to it. Even if not everyone has an agenda, not everyone has a perfect memory or understanding. One can look at the field of Historiography as an arm of Academia, more interested in pushing entire schools of thought for additional clout over others. But the class and study did teach me to further fine-tune my historical bullshit detector, and hearing this story, the presentation, is a good reminder how important that lesson is. The sheer horror I felt when it was revealed no other British soldiers were interviewed from the Villers-Bocage incident in the many decades since the battle was palpable. That no one bothered with digging into this supposedly legendary battle that's been covered to death is... alarming, to say the least. It's a big case of everyone losing the forest for the trees. Thank you for your research and presentation on the topic. It's refreshing, and I appreciate your sense of humor to go along with analysis.

[@danjames8314]

"it was only shear weight of numbers that the allies won" always remember kids, when a wehraboo says this remind them that they lost a town to two dudes and a jeep

[@brucenorman8904]

I prefer to throw back at them that the Germans were successful in June 1941 only because of shear weight of numbers.

[@elitebeachgaming]

Is that the two Canadian guys?

[@tizi087]

and the "Wehraboo" will point to the K/Ds and the losses on both sides. And to the shit the germans pulled off. War is chaos. So shit like that happens on both sides

[@TheSixthSense2]

Yeah, ww2 has many weird stories... about how a guy with an eyepatch and a longbow fought on the beaches of normandy or how cat survived 3 sinkings of famous battleships or that the dutch escaped the japanese while being disguised as an island. But can we use these weird stories as a factor of how the war would have turned out? Or that they were just random events, or heck might even be propoganda to boost morale.

[@rikk319]

Leo Major? And a Canadian too, eh.

[@aundondo2175]

as an american i can explain why time team was popular. Because Phil Harding is a legend. Not going to say its the most productive or info-rich show, but i will never get tired of watching that man get excited over rocks

[@jeremypnet]

Not rocks, broken pottery.

[@jonprince3237]

@@jeremypnet and post holes that no longer contain posts, but you can clearly see where they once were.

[@alexhando8541]

​@@jonprince3237 Tony: "What have you found here Phil?" Phil: "Weww Toneh, weev fownd sum post 'owes which we reckon arr frum a bronze ayge rownd 'owse. Thar's orso sum burn marks which doo serjest thut it woz bernt dowwn at sum poynt. Iy've manijed to fynd sum contemporeh pottereh sherds as well. Havalookertha!" Tony: "Wow, very nice Phil. Now onto Trench 4 and Brigid..."

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

@@jeremypnet Phil loved flint too! You might be thinking of Phil Blinkhorn (the pottery expert and real MVP of Time Team)

[@ralach]

@@alexhando8541 wasn't it Phil who also had that expression "Stone the crows!" ? i miss "Time Team" (and RIP Mick :/ )

[@TheLeviathan356]

It's honestly kinda depressing how so many people can worship and place men like Wittman, who are in every right evil, in such high honors. Yet when it comes to Men like Rex they are completely lost to history and replaced by arrogant assholes who just so happened to be in a position to yell into the biggest megaphone the world may every see. To Rex, may he eventually be recovered and recognized for his heroism and bravery.

[@Nick-rs5if]

I actually had to rewatch the ending, just to grab a glass. To Rex! 🍷

[@princesspupcake1269]

Rex's sacrifice is something that deserves a medal of honor, honestly. Selflessly charging right at a tank his little Stuart most likely couldn't disable, let alone scratch (though, im not a tank nerd so i dont rly know, maybe it could have), just to give his comrades a little more time to realize wtf was going on, it's certainly heroic.

[@denneledoe873]

what pains me most is that there we're so many allied troops that all did heroic shit like this, only to be a footnote like Rex. Most sacrifices will be lost to time, not even mentioned in a log, the stories taken to the graves by their friends.

[@cowtown9437]

again don't honor a white supremacist crown apologist like rex, you two don't get the bigger picture

[@Alertenstein]

@@denneledoe873 Its probably why a lot of decorated veterans will say they aren't a hero, the real hero's are the ones who never came back.

[@dawn4383]

​@AlexanderHenry-hz3tdAll Deities Are Fictional

[@Norwagen]

@AlexanderHenry-hz3tdbro I’m not converting over a KZbin comment. I’m gonna stick to Jesus

[@Evil0tto]

My dad served in Patton's 3rd Army in Europe... and he would have agreed with LazerPig about him.

[@F14thunderhawk]

Patton is a bit odd. Hes good at Strategy and Logistics when he actually stops to do Logistics, but is terrible at tactics and liable to ignore logistics entirely once he gets into action. He was given Bradley during Africa and Italy specifically because Bradley was good at Tactics and Logistics, making them a decent Joint command.

[@samuelsmith6281]

Patton's voice also sounds a lot like Donald Trump's...

[@loyalhoodini4944]

@@samuelsmith6281ok and?

[@Evil0tto]

@@samuelsmith6281 🤣🤣 Now I'm picturing Donald Duck giving the famous Patton speech.

[@MaxCroat]

I mean absolutely no disrespect to your father, but how is his opinion on a man he probably never met and knew nothing about relevant?

[@samw5644]

i never quite understood just how hellish it must have been to fight in the boucage until you pointed that out.

[@joshuanicholas832]

Bro I’m high af rn watching this in the garden and a wee fucking hedgehog snuck up on me the hell is happening 😂

[@williamchamberlain2263]

:)

[@MrTriantos]

As an ex - NATO officer, I salute Rex Ingram and his crew. To overcome your own fears and choose to fight instead of flight, that is exactly what makes a good soldier. His actions gave his comrades time to evaluate the situation and act accordingly. Thank you for bringing this up. Brave men should never be forgotten. But for me, the most interesting thing about this batlle, is what propaganda can do, even after so many decades. Makes you really think about what you see on the news today...

[@IAMPORK]

Way late, but I did a tiny bit of digging and it appears that Rex escaped the tank but refused to leave the rest of his crew. It seems that he was gunned down while trying to open the driver hatch.

[@SportbikerNZ]

Ex NATO officer??? Right.

[@hs4619]

@@SportbikerNZ ever heard of retirement?

[@SportbikerNZ]

@@hs4619 Ever heard anyone refer to themselves as a Nato officer instead of an officer of their own country?

[@ahmadjavedaj]

Rex and crew. Your bravery saved many that day. Better soldiers died that day to save their fellow men. May you all rest in peace.

[@Tenebris_Sint]

Another “everyone else is wrong, I’m the only one who knows what really happened” video.

[@wolfthegreat87]

Though I do agree with you in the belief that the idea of a "refined German officer corps" is a myth, I believe the idea that they were all drug-addled psychopaths is a myth as well. Though some of them were certainly druggies (Goring particularly), I believe that the majority were not, and that calling them druggies or psychopaths sort of removes responsibility from them. Overall a great video though, I was hoping someone would make a piece on Wittmann like this eventually, even just looking over the face value details of his career (as heavily skewed as they are in the popular perception) I got the idea that he was a bit of a pathetic coward.

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

Bit like" Kremlin drunks" some are/ were but to say all are is to decieve oneself

[@MrGksarathy]

The thing is, all these officers were true blue fascists, and fascism provably rots the brain and turns one into a childish psychopath. Look at how modern day Nazis behave, and then look more closely at accounts of the original Nazis lives, especially their personal ones.

[@ShortSpanChannel]

Many German officers came from the Prussian elite and were well trained and cultivated by passing well-established military academies but there were also plenty of officers that got into the army and rose through the ranks because they were well-connected Nazies with good hair etc. underperforming fanatic SS troops were one example, and because German army greatly expanded since Hitler come to power, there was not enough time to get everybody to the same standards, through war were military standards constantly on decline a lot, and by the end of the war Germans fought with teenagers and elderly by masses... As for declaring German military officer staff as psychopaths, well, considering that the US sent into war minorities that were good for war but not good enough to vote or even sit on the same side of the bus not to mention Brits & France oppressed something like 1/3 of the world that did not vote to be their colony, I find these kinds of statements as being disturbingly amusing patriotic rant toward the supremacy of one nation over other in times when all large nation behave rather poorly by default, and this was also reason why Germany fought two World Wars as they did not feel secure against shaddy nations with plenty of colonies that were making alliances all around Germany... And don't get me even started about the carpet bombing of German cities that was excused by one accidental night raid by Germans on a British city due to an error in navigation because such behavior would be definitely not considered crazy when you can generate plenty of excuses for carpet bombing of cities that did not seem necessary before which uninformed population will be easily get persuaded with because you know "we are the good guys", and of course, Japan surrendered because of being nuked, not because it would be invaded by the Soviet Union and split in half like Korea otherwise. As if it made much of a difference for Japanese leadership if the city was bombed by thousands of cheap bombs like Tokyo or one expensive...

[@lotlizard7735]

Good post, very informative. I personally find it peculiar that WWII history buffs ignore things like the Holodomor, the RAFs policy of "Strategic bombing". Hell of a euphemism. But anyway have a nice day, all.

[@Redfox161616]

my favourite thing thing about Whittmann was how he got double teamed by the Northampton shire Yeomanry and Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment

[@mattl3729]

Sigh.

[@williambeavis9929]

I personally enjoyed the fact that a 75mm or a 17 pounder entered his personal space and killed him.

[@Palgineer]

@@williambeavis9929 I enjoy the idea that he got killed by a British shell fired from an American tank named after a Soviet town if Joe Ekins' account is real. If not, then I enjoy the idea that he got smoked by Canadians, because either way, he got clowned on.

[@ikko93]

@@williambeavis9929 I enjoyed how many he before killed man thats so epic ^^ My best Boy :3

[@williambeavis9929]

@@ikko93 youtube subscription to the history channel detected. Opinion: discarded.

[@Warmaker01]

It's fun that tank ace was brought up because it wasn't really a thing tracked on an individual basis. Units may have had these figures but not quite an individual tank commander. A tank is also comprised of a crew of 4-5 men that all need to do their job properly. So the notion of 1 guy getting recognized over all the others of the tank is a bit crazy. This isn't like how air forces tracked kills because fighters were for almost all cases, crewed by 1 person. I also appreciate you brought up Kurt Knispel. He died on April 1945, he almost made it to the end of the war. But he doesn't have the recognition. You rightly brought up most of the reasons why he wasn't pampered, inflated like Wittmann was, i.e. his appearance and being a member of the Wehrmacht, not the SS, etc. But there's another reason why: Knispel was a Feldwebel, just an enlisted NCO. Armed services get kind of snobbish parading around a mere enlisted man for something, but more than happy to do so if it's an officer.

[@groofromtheup5719]

Hard to imagine how anyone could claim to be an ace of anything crew serviced. You could pair a tank commander that is literally mentally deficient with an expert crew that knows how to ignore him and end up with numerous kills.

[@femmytwinkmachinst8941]

I guess it could happen with 2 seat fighters like WW2 nightfighters. Everyone remembers Heinrich, Prince Sayn-Wittgenstein no one remembers the radar operators he treated like subservient peasants. Ironically for someone so aristocratic and extremely vain he didn't die to an allied nightfighter like a Mosquito but by getting smoked by a lowly teenage Lancaster gunner.

[@GundamReviver]

@@groofromtheup5719 partially, tank battles really often do boil down to who sees the other first. And that's where the tank commander really does come in.

[@groofromtheup5719]

@@GundamReviver I've never been inside of a tank, but I am guessing everybody is looking for the enemies. Yes, that is the comanders primary job, but nobody is going to stay silent if they see an enemy tank.

[@GundamReviver]

@@groofromtheup5719 well, no, but it's not like they have a lot of windows to look out of. The driver has a little scope of sorts or drives with his head out, but will be minding the road. Radio guy can't generally see shit, loader sees nothing, gunner can look through a 'silver straw' where the gun is aiming... But won't be moving the turret a lot since you don't want to smash it into stuff or have it facing the wrong way. It's why an anti tank tactic is to shoot at its vision slits and periscopes with machine guns and thst basically instantly blinds a tank, at least it did then, now there might be some special cameras or something.

[@gunhojput]

Thank you lazerpig you are one of those sites one comes across quite by chance and when your story is listend to you either repel away or resonate with it i found all you said regarding wittman to ring true to me so i subscribed i particlarly like the note about rex and his plucky crew it feels damn good to remember the good guys for a change, dear rex may you ride in the hearts of many knowing you gave your all for future generations to be free, thank you rex and crew in grattitude i am. love to all.