Why were German tanks sent to the front at the end of the war painted red?

Why were German tanks sent to the front at the end of the war painted red?

[@billwilson-es5yn]

The red is iron oxide used in red oxide rust inhibiting primers. Germany had a shortage of the resin / binders needed to make paint so tinted the red oxide primer to be a darker color then added the other colors in stripes to save paint. They used whatever was available to make the other colors so often applied material that was washed off by rainfall. Scale modelers made some of those with the added colors showing signs of being removed by rain.

[@KB10GL]

Interestingly, the American P40 aircraft that were used in Operation Torch [invasion of north Africa] that were painted in a desert camouflage colour would, over time, fade to a pink hue. Quite pink I believe.

[@CVP-og9pw]

You sure it's iron oxide? I remember that even 10/20 years ago you still could buy the orange steel antirust primer that contained Lead Minium, probably the same stuff used in ww2 Now i think its still sold but very hard to find Edit: now i remembered that there is also a darker red primer that doesn't contain lead minium, that's probably what you are referring to

[@ryleeculla5570]

Many things use red primer before putting on the final coat

[@D9fjg]

Grammar

[@warwarneverchanges4937]

@@CVP-og9pw Its a biproduct the longer you burn it the darker the pigment. Still in use today, its free pigment.

[@jessikablake4784]

The red ones go fasta

[@Dr.Silverwolf20]

betah fer getin ta da fiht an get krumpin quika

[@rorydrutman173]

was looking for this comment

[@Theodoric99]

WAAAAAGH

[@vectra9_957]

Eva seen a purple panther?

[@mathiasgroer9807]

I was surprised how someone can put so many faults into a video that short.

[@highjumpstudios2384]

The content mill grinds on

[@Sherinanigans]

please do enlighten us and give the correct facts :)

[@YourLocalSid]

​@@Sherinanigansfr

[@sadestmage]

I mean, why should they care?

[@Virtuosity109]

Am i trippin or would the allies not bother bombing a PAINT FACTORY

[@H.M.SKingGeorgeV]

Incorrect, feldgrau (field gray) was not strictly used in the European theatres of war, nor was dunkelgelb (dark yellow) strictly utilised in the African theatre of war. The factory standard paint scheme from 1939 to 1943 was feldgrau, this changed when orders were recieved to finish all vehicles from that point forward in dunkelgelb. Factory standard paint schemes are, for the majority, irrelevant anyways. Vehicle crews adapted their own camouflage schemes in the field with the colours available at their disposal, hence why in 1944, vehicles were being finished in iron oxide primer, because they had no colours at their disposal. The iron oxide primer actually wasn't that bad of a "camouflage" for the Battle of Berlin, I am almost certain that it would have thrown off the first Soviets that encountered this "scheme".

[@makeromaniagreatagain9697]

To confuse the RED army and make them think the German tanks were in the same side as them

[@DemonicRange]

T34 and KV series honest reaction (they arent red):

[@Megozelenka]

BECAUSE RED GOES FASTAAAAH!!!!

[@schuhsuppe7228]

Didn't expect a Warhamer refference on these kind of shorts lol

[@cl86241]

🐸red go fasta

[@nicholasbradshaw6629]

"Have you ever seen a purple tank?"

[@Enozenim_LJO]

@@nicholasbradshaw6629 i'm assuming this is a quote i don't know... but maybe purple goes so fast it overflows the integer limit going into negative speed traveling back in time so we never get to see any?

[@george9453]

"Wez paint the big dakka yellow cuz' its explodes more"

[@jarskil8862]

Dont recommend this channel. Im sick of shorts where things are prolonged and prolonged without actually saying anything

[@henryng7893]

Agree

[@kurtmitterling5930]

Germany stopped using Panzer gray in mid-to-late 1943 after that every vehicle until the end of the war when they ran out of it was painted Dunkel Gelb. or dark yellow.

[@panzerabteilung]

Not mid or late. In fall blau all tanks were already cammo

[@War_Gaming_RUS]

They stopped using ''grey'' in late 1942/early 1943. After that the base paint/primer became dunkelgelb (dark yellow) and on that the camo was painted by the tank crew. So stop spreading misinformation

[@LeroxYT]

​@@War_Gaming_RUSdunkelgeld, was? davon hab ich noch nie gehört

[@gabormasli6129]

Yep, dark yellow became the standard paint, Einheitsfarbe 43

[@War_Gaming_RUS]

@@LeroxYT das ist auch dunkelgelb und nicht dunkelgeld XD

[@ant4812]

Red oxide primer ( RAL 3009 Oxirot ) was the colour that all the hull plates arrived at the assembly plant from the armour manufacturers in. Also the same colour on the inside. The main gun barrel though, if it hadn't been painted red, would be a darkish grey colour. It wasn't paint, but a heatproof laquer, which it left the Rheinmetall factory in.

[@JorgeCaceres-uv5fh]

buen dato!!! gracias!!

[@kennethhoppe2259]

Sir you know History.

[@warwarneverchanges4937]

The maroon or "red" primer is a biproduct from the iron industry (Free pigments) Its still in use, the darker or lighter variants depends on the burntime, In Sweden the traditional houses are painted with this colour, that was redily avalable due to the ore industry and smelting. The panzers painted in this colour get a pinkish tone after exposure to weather, hence the pink panther "myth"

[@johnfarscape]

That's a long video, just to say, it's primer.

[@mline250]

Hahaha, my thoughts too.

[@henryng7893]

Annoying isn't it?

[@RaulArmandoIbarraVera]

They were rushed out of the factories with their red primers still on?

[@JorgeCaceres-uv5fh]

obvio........

[@Riceball01]

And painted in the field by their individual units.

[@RaulArmandoIbarraVera]

@@JorgeCaceres-uv5fh it's just that the video is way too long for something as simple as that

[@Bobo-ox7fj]

​@@RaulArmandoIbarraVera Gotta waste as much of your time as possible!

[@frydemwingz]

they couldnt even paint the tanks? I wonder, is that why they couldnt feed all those prisoners? because they were being bombed so badly? thats weird. hmm

[@PugilistCactus]

They also didn't have time to paint them. It was built and pretty much driven to the battlefield.

[@Riceball01]

They could be painted, it's just that they were usually painted in the field by the units receiving them. In some pictures you can see a tank painted in a camo scheme where you can see the red primer as part of the camo scheme. This shows that they did have paint to paint their tanks, just not at the factories.

[@Madmaxxxx1984]

We caused the starvation problem than spun it as war crimes .... we are masters of propaganda.

[@CQF4]

You don't feed prisoners with paint.

[@huntmatthewd]

Make sure that you give them all haircuts before ending them. 🙄

[@Jeremia-ek3jd]

Hell of a fight when they didn’t even have paint

[@executivedirector7467]

They did though. This video is nonsense. The never ran out of paint.

[@fluffywarhead]

even worse some T34 were sent to battle not even having the primour.

[@ww2rctanks738]

You really need to update your knowledge. Bit of a mess here.

[@austingoss2468]

Alot of the times the tanks were not pained from factory or painted one color because most units would paint them in the field

[@annedejong1040]

The sand yellow from 1943 onward was a given, till they ran out of it

[@annedejong1040]

Also closing on their borders made them go for more green and brown-red relatively

[@executivedirector7467]

Only for a limited period, from spring 1943 to summer 1944. After that they began doing the multicolor camouflage painting at the factories, and they never stopped. This video is complete BS.

[@annedejong1040]

@@executivedirector7467 you are not mixing with the application of zinnerit maybe?

[@feedingravens]

At the end of WW II, the german fuel production was down to 3% of its status in 1944, before the Allies started bombing the german fuel production in earnest. As a byproduct of making fuel from coal was sulphur, they also had no material for gunpowder. Latest 3 months later the germans would literally have run out of ammo.

[@kronaarabelle5577]

“Why did Germany do x at the end of the war?” Because they were losing and running out of shit lol almost always the andwer

[@julianbrelsford]

In the middle of the war, and sometimes at the beginning of the war, "resource constraints" ends up being a valid answer. Why did Hitler invade Russia? Resource constraints. Why didn't he invade England? Resource constraints. Why didn't he bomb the United States? Resource constraints.

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

Wish more people would acknowledge that they were spent force in 1945 when they surrendered they only had ten days worth of fuel ⛽ at their much reduced amount of use and three weeks of mined coal and thirty tonnes of Tungsten of which they were needing about a tonne a day for machinery purposes and occasionally as ammunition

[@TheAboriginal1]

Yup they were cooked after the Ardennes. They pushed all their chips in on that battle and got smoked.

[@liverturcxdanpavs]

@@TheAboriginal1lol, the war was already decided on the eastern front. The U.S. only fought the remainders of an already decimated armed forces. Beside a few thinned out and under-supplied SS division without any air support, there were mostly old or unfit men and young boys left to fight in the West.

[@theplayerofus319]

​Kursk was where they pit all their chips in lol. If that force was send to the ardennes the allies would have to swim back to england​@@TheAboriginal1

[@KommandantWaffle]

I’m so sick of getting recommended ai voice channels that just spread misinformation because they can’t be bothered to look anything up or put even the slightest bit of effort into their video

[@fahey5719]

That is not red but "brick" coloured lead based rust primer. The minimum paint layer needed to protect iron. You then paint final paint coat on top. In an emergency you leave as is. At the end of the war Japanese planes showed flaking paint. Might be because of bad paint, maybe missing some component, or because aluminum lacked some chemical treatment (zinc chromating or phosphatizing) in which case paint does not "stick".

[@igotfriendsinlowplaces2971]

Germany was producing 1000 tanks a month in late 1944…

[@SWSagume]

Panzergrau was also only used in the first 3 years of the war, as proper camouflage was deemed unneccesarily for an invasion force who would move a lot to new landscapes in short time spans. Starting with 1942 not only in africa but also in europe they used the beige sandy tone for all their tanks replacing Panzergrau. Later on as the Wehrmacht saw themselves on the defensive they introduced more and more camouflages to conceal their vehicles for defensive roles. An army on the defence conceals and covers themselfves more than an invasion force, you can see this with US tanks being mostly in olive and gray tones sent to the front. This is also why you dont see a Tiger in simple Panzergrau, the camo was phased out at that point in time the tank got introduced and the tank was rather used when germany started to be defensive.

[@stue2298]

The red paint was just a primer, called Red Oxide. It is applied to stop ferrous metals from rusting. it just the first stage of the painting process but late war they didnt have top coat of paint and wanted tanks in the field and not in the paint shop.

[@thatguynathan5816]

Please don't show the bovington panther. I get your trying to make a point but that's not a captured one that's a British panther. It was the British after we captured that factory and just thought we'd turn the handle to see what came out

[@Vanderlayindustries]

I can't wait for the day someone decides to do a history shorts channel that isn't diabolical shite.

[@pdraggy]

Lol i guess that's one way to stop them from camouflaging their tanks lol

[@skyranger1366]

When you can't even paint your tanks you know the war isn't going well.

[@butterballmach2]

Because they were pulling a Stalingrad the russians did pumping them out to quickly thos that did get painted where factories farther away from the frontlines and thos that steel grey (That wasn't paint) or Primer red were sent right from the factory to fight

[@Will-dn9dq]

They also wouldn't paint them for the actual area until shipping or delivery. Skip that step you rush them out the door before bombers come.

[@brianfoster7064]

Good old red lead.

[@guppiapfeljustleopardthing8756]

Is that a Pictures of the Panther 2 hull while IT was restored some time ago?

[@kyizelma]

it is because you can see the interlocked welds and track design

[@venox5045]

This looks something coming out of a star wars film

[@pongsapakseansaman4055]

Red Panther is 3x faster than regular Panther

[@ygma1460]

Challenge: In Parola Tank Museum in Finland, there are multiple preserved StuG III tank destroyers. One of them is painted in the sandy yellow paint. Finland is mostly forests and swamps, not deserts. Tour guide told us people often think this StuG III was originally intended to be sent to Africa, but was redirected to Finland instead - That however is not the case, it came out of the factory painted like that, intended to be used in Finland and would have been painted locally into local camo scheme, but it did not arrive soon enough to see service or be painted and was preserved as-is. Thoughts?

[@YOUPIMatin123]

Wrong. So wrong. The real historical reason is: RED GO FASTAAAAA

[@jellomcfello9626]

I see a red tank and I want it painted black

[@Zorro_Blood]

Germany 1945 no more paint Germany 2020 no more toiletpaper

[@JürgenStübinger]

Alle Fahrzeuge der Wehrmacht waren Standardmäßig feldgrau.Die Tarnbemalung wurde entsprechend dem Einsatzort gewählt.Mir ist nicht bekannt,dass Fahrzeuge nur mit Rostschutzanstrich ausgeliefert wurden.

[@muziekjes6811]

Maybe they were red to not stand out against the background of a very very bloody war.

[@vonbennett8670]

I thought it had something to do with 'The Red Barron' and Germany's desire to create hundreds of 'Tank Aces'?

[@skyraider87]

That was the SS, who were actually regularly outperformed by the Wehrmacht. But the SS didn't like that they were actually incompetent (definitely had nothing to do with all the meth they did), so they often created tank aces by attributing the kills of a whole squad to one person in order to appear better and more elite. Michael Wittman is an excellent example of this. Germany credited tank kills to squads, not individual commanders or crews. So if they toom out 6 tanks, it was recorded as the squad having taken down those tanks. You'll notice that Kurt Knipsel, who was not a member of the SS and was highly critical of the Nazi party as a whole, was never nearly as rewarded as someone like Michael Wittman, despite doing more than Wittman.

[@vonbennett8670]

@@skyraider87 I was joking. I was referring to the Red Barron from World War I.

[@skyraider87]

@vonbennett8670 I know, but its really funny that you were 100% correct to mention the desire to create hundreds of tank aces

[@angryeliteultragree6329]

If any of y’all are farmers, a furrow is the mound and the trough that’s created by a plow. A fuller kinda looks like that. I’m pretty sure that’s where it came from.

[@LBCB94025]

*_What about driftwood??_* 🧐🤔😳🤦🏼🤨🤷🏼 #wth

[@chadwhitman1811]

German War production did not peak until fall of 1944.The biggest success of the strategic bombing was the the targeting of the oil industry both natural sources and the synthetic oil industry which dramatically decreased oil production until by the Ardennes offensive in Dec. 1944 the capture of American fuel depot was factored into the overall plan.Many of panzer crews abandoned their tanks and walked back to Germany.

[@dukecraig2402]

Their production peaked because USAAF intelligence determined that a more effective way of denying the German military tanks and planes was to destroy them after they were produced in the railroad marshaling yards, that's where everything could be found, tanks, planes, 88's and any other type of gun imaginable, trucks, staff cars and not only the spare parts for all of the above but also the soldiers, sailor's and airmen that were going to use them, in early 1944 they started laying up on bombing factories and started concentrating on railroad marshaling yards, that's why their production number's were so high and also what makes those number's so deceiving, they were producing those number's but a large number of them were being destroyed in those marshaling yards before they could get to their area of operation, and railroad marshaling yards with their long and narrow shape lent well to being bombed especially when the bombers would set their Intervalometer's to drop the bombs along a path as opposed to a salvo drop where they're released all at once, the results from hitting those marshaling yards were much better than targeting the production facilities.

[@tylerdurden9161]

Red=Mad.😂

[@CT9905.]

In other words, they could not Afford to paint their equipment!

[@OscarOSullivan]

The song Vicar of Bray perfectly describes George Galloway. He is a member of the tankie left who long were just as homophobic, bi phobic etc as their conservative and soft left. He is also an apologist for dictators such as Putin and Assad. That LBC interview is one of the few times I have agreed with a LBC presenter.

[@kevinwynott7755]

Primer Red.......

[@majorkursk780]

The color is actually red oxide primer.

[@craighansen7594]

The kids water color paint sets were confiscated for the war effort.😢

[@therooster1339]

I like the way they referred to the night raids that targeted civilians with absolutely no military importance, or structures within miles as though it was a legitimate strategy.

[@thequaquman6563]

bait used to be believable 😭

[@christianjacinto7042]

Wehraboos, wehraboos everywhere.

[@KrisTomich]

German civilians had their chance to resist. They went along with the crowd.

[@zachh5812]

Boohoo. They shouldn't have started a genocide and tried to take over the world. 😥

[@alexsandermc9794]

@@KrisTomich Resist? like fighting agains the army? are you kidding?

[@juanmarelli7450]

Was simple, there aren't time enough to spent it painting more than the rustpoof paint..even the interior of the tank, being white until end 44

[@floridaman3892]

I’ve never seen so much false information in a short that isn’t from South East Asia or India

[@floridaman3892]

The red paint is primer, the Germans couldn’t afford to waste materials on painting their tanks, and painting them with camouflage likely wouldn’t have helped the tank as German tanks were large, loud, slow (for the most part), and heavily armored. Doesn’t help that most of the factories got bombed into rubble, so Germans didn’t want to waste time painting their tanks due to the risk of them being destroyed by bombing before they got out of the factory.

[@Riceball01]

​@@floridaman3892But they did camouflage them, just not at the factory. Camouflage schemes were typically applied in the field by the unit receiving the tanks.

[@boogerhooks]

"Painted in lead driftwood" Your AI narration is crap.

[@crackerjack2303]

We defeated the wrong enemy

[@KrisTomich]

No we just quit too early.

[@jacobtuttle4311]

No... We beat the right enemy. Like out of all the wars in history this might be the least morally ambiguous of them all. We fought against two genocidal regimes one of which explicitly intended to wipe out certain ethnic groups from the face of the earth

[@tritium1998]

Plenty of its other enemies it made would have defeated it without you.

[@mohamedbaradji7504]

Can KZbinrs stop yapping and get to the point? The topic is why were German tanks red? Wtf are you talking about the colors of various theaters and not the specific color?

[@LEEWANDOWSKY]

Makes no difference they were still able to operate the crematoriums

[@mr.anderson3288]

Damned allies

[@lancerevell5979]

In the later war period, Dark Yellow ("Dunkel Gelb") became the standard factory applied color, with dark green and/or red brown camo. Eventually, like the Soviets at a certain point, had to rush the new vehicles out in primer.

[@executivedirector7467]

No. Never happened. The video is wrong.

[@boosthub3143]

Imagine if the Germans did have enough supplies …

[@skyraider87]

They still would have lost because their leadership was completely incompetent

[@markholmphotography]

Nope, nope - no Panther tanks were sent to the front in red primer

[@leedswiggy]

Still used to this day.

[@mach1553]

Ran out of gunpowder, oh shoot!

[@alexread4803]

Casually shows panther 2

[@davidthomas3859]

Lead primer is used today on industrial equipment and ships.

[@lancerevell5979]

Red oxide primer was once often used on cars too.

[@Musicreach101]

Not true at all.. they ran out of paint so they improvised with other materials to try and conceal tho tanks best they can

[@stevenewman1393]

Um the light and dark Grey and Sandy yellow colored tanks were used every were through out the entire war, and if you're going to explain things to people who need to truly get all your facts straight before doing so!🤨.

[@kilersocke]

We have no ammo! We have no crew! We have no more green for the camo paint job.. but we have red?! Well that must be enough..

[@xap95]

They made a deal with the Trade Federation

[@bungiecoocoo]

That was long-winded.

[@Ruskot2008]

I like to think that the red symbolizes Germany's blood after the bombardment.

[@ralfmachulla4012]

How ever, the allies killed civilians and prisoners! Greetings from Wilhelm Gustlow, Dresden, Stettin, Würzburg, Breslau, Dessau, Königsberg, Weimar, Leipzig, Berlin, Jena, Rheinwiesenlager, Buchenwald,…

[@kennethhoppe2259]

It's some amazing Camouflage seems painted by units in the field especially Octopus 🐙 Camouflage

[@AbiyuChallanger2]

My fav tank panther 😂

[@eddychong9477]

So they can run three times faster?

[@DistrictTerra]

Thats a long way to answer the question.

[@rocksteel44]

...AUSGEZEICHNET!!!!

[@scottyfox6376]

Ive worked on a DAK halftrack & its coloring was more pink tbh. Still having its palm tree 🌴 over the swastika.

[@SALTrips]

That's cool! Do you have any way that I can see its pictures?

[@War_Gaming_RUS]

Probably due to aging. They used dunkelgelb (dark yellow) by default.

[@kevinwynott7755]

German vehicle coloration is a complicated study by itself... Panzer Grey was the standard color initially HOWEVER........ Tanks In North Africa eventually got a Desert Brown over spray. Also,units that fought in Southern Russia sometimes got the same Desert Brown color...... partly because of the arid conditions,and at least one Panzer division intended for Rommel in Africa,was redirected to Russian in full Africa Corps paint.(Many of 5th SS "Wiking's armored vehicles were Afrika Brown during the drive into the Caucasus) In 1943,the color was Changed to Dark Yellow with Red brown and Dark Green overspray..... This was the standard until the end of the war..... Because of shortages,tanks began appearing in , Amongst other things: Solid Dark Green,Red Primer,and Panzer Grey..... Tanks and armored vehicles built in the Czech factories, such as the Hetzer,and SdKfz 234 armored cars, tended to arrive "pre-painted" in a hard edged version of the German Three color camo scheme.

[@EdgarAcevedo-j2b]

👍 yup I read the same thing once

[@EdgarAcevedo-j2b]

I think it was the 10th Panzer that was intended for Africa 🤔

[@leonmusk1040]

Also they ran out of time to apply the flame retardant light arms buffer coating. they had a particular coating for the tigers but it wound up being to time consuming so they stopped applying it as it was causing bottlenecks in supply.

[@spencersecrest6001]

​yep called zimmmerite

[@pagreen39]

its primer

[@dr.johannesmunch891]

Yes they left the factory red, but before joining fights they received the grayish Zimmerit-coating (which could have fallen off during transfer so was applied late).

[@Nighttimeqt1]

Why? Because it's red!

[@stacylee4948]

Vk3002?????

[@JoeB-w8b]

Iron oxide primer

[@bradleyedwards9244]

Derrrrr. The same reason in a snow environment ya don't wear camo. At least it didn't start with BUT ITS NOT WHAT YOU THINK....when in fact it's usually EXACTLY what ya thinking 🤣🤣🤣🇦🇺

[@ricksimon9867]

There were no red tanks. This is completely false, start to finish.

[@Panzer_Tracks]

Tank

[@charlesburgoyne-probyn6044]

Because Germany was a spent force and the jig was up hence their surrender general wencks relief army which never arrived and steiner counter attack which was abandoned

[@kingcarrot6355]

Alu-minium

[@kohlenklau399]

I say these statements have some truth to them but they are so mixed up they make no sence.

[@MrSpamaccount]

ALUMINUM AHAHHAHAHAHAHAH

[@Nerthos]

TL;DR the bad guys bombed the paint factories

[@christianjacinto7042]

TLDR the good guys bombed the paint factories FTFY

[@Nerthos]

@@christianjacinto7042 >Good guys >Sided with Stalin Pick one

[@Maks-xg2fd]

Lack of paint.

[@mattfantastic9969]

I'm so sick of AI voices

[@65bravo]

Just not true .... a myth

[@Cat_42038]

Its surge lmao

[@seanbutnotasheeple2090]

Modern desert cam has pink and purple

[@nicklasfstelager9951]

wrong frist they used grey (panzer graü), but in 1943 panzer gelb / dunekl gelb became standard colr until the end, at in 1945 the used the red primer colro because the didnt have a lot left in the factorys

[@levitticus99]

Incorrect AI generated trash

[@ajtheflame9180]

Say what you eat but that red looks badass