Fury (2014) – M4A3E8 Sherman tank

01-04-2017

Fury is a fictional film that draws a composite portrait of tank crews and the final days of the war in Europe. Ayer was influenced by the service of veterans in his family and by reading books such as Belton Y. Cooper’s Death Traps about American armoured warfare in World War II. Ayer went to considerable lengths to seek authentic uniforms and weapons which fitted the final months of the war in Europe. The film was shot in England in large part due to the availability of working World War II-era tanks. The film featured Tiger 131, the last surviving operational Tiger I. The tank belongs to Bovington Tank Museum at Bovington, England. It is the first time since the 1946 film Theirs Is the Glory that a real Tiger tank – and not a prop version – has been used on a film set. Tiger 131 is a very early model Tiger I tank; externally it has some significant differences from later Tiger I models, most noticeably the outermost row of road wheels (of the trio per axle, used in the Schachtellaufwerk overlapping and interleaved arrangement characteristic of the Tiger I) which are also rimmed in rubber, as well as the dustbin shaped cupola. In the last weeks of the war a number of these early model Tigers were used in last ditch defence efforts; one of Germany’s last Tigers to be lost at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin was of a similar vintage. Ten working M4 Sherman tanks were used. The Sherman tank Fury was played by an M4A2E8 Sherman tank named Ben/Harry (T224875), also loaned by Bovington Tank Museum.

While the plot of the film is fictional, the depiction of the tank Fury and its commander Wardaddy parallels the experience of several real Allied tankers, such as the American tank commander Staff Sergeant Lafayette G. Pool, nicknmae “War Daddy”  who landed just after D-Day and destroyed 258 enemy vehicles until his tank was knocked out in Germany in late 1944, and the small number of Sherman tanks to survive from the landing at D-Day to the end of the war, such as Bomb, a Sherman tank that landed at D-Day and survived into bitter fighting in Germany at the war’s end, the only Canadian Sherman tank to survive the fighting from D-Day to VE Day. The plot also has some similarities to the battle of Crailsheim, fought in Germany in 1945. The last stand of the crew of the disabled Fury bears some resemblance to that of Medal of Honor recipient Audie Murphy

 aboard a burning M10 Wolverine tank destroyer outside Holtzwihr in Alsace-Lorraine on January 24, 1945.

 Otto Carius (27 May 1922 – 24 January 2015) was a German tank commander within the German Army who fought during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves to recognize extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership. Sergeant Lafayette G. Pool, nickname “War Daddy”  survived the wand died age 71 on 30-058-1991 in Texas.

 

Some pictures of M4A3E8 Sherman tank

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