Enemy at the gates...

My father flew anti-submarine patrols in the war. At one point, to enhance their training and understanding of subs, he was taken out on a short cruise in a sub. He said his clothes stunk for weeks.

I know a bit about sniping through making specialty ammo for snipers and shooting some sniper matches. The rifles and ammo portrayed could not make the long range one shot kills of the movie. Other than that, it was very entertianing.

An excelelnt pair of books to read about shooting in wartime are "A Rifleman Goes to War" by McBride and "Shots Fied in Anger" by John George.
 
If you want accuracy, go watch a grainy B&W war documentary. Hollywood movies are supposedly for entertainment. That's why they have smoking hot Rachel Weisz in that flick instead of some 200lb Russian mamas.
 
If you get to critical you will just ruin a good movie for yourself.

I loved EATG and it is at least partly responsible for my interest in milsurps.
It is also definitly responsible for all those Mosin sniper repros you see advertised everywhere.

It also encourages a lot of people to get interested in milsurps and Mosins and even for people who just watch the film and never take it any farther at least they know what happened at Stalingrad. I have seen people(well Americans anyway) who were shocked to find out the Soviets were in WW2 ON OUR SIDE!
 
sf said:
If you want accuracy, go watch a grainy B&W war documentary. Hollywood movies are supposedly for entertainment. That's why they have smoking hot Rachel Weisz in that flick instead of some 200lb Russian mamas.
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Big enough to burn Diesel!
 
I have seen people(well Americans anyway) who were shocked to find out the Soviets were in WW2 ON OUR SIDE!
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WOW... Just WOW...

They basicly broke the back of the 3rd reich. 30 million russians died in ww2 fighting.

I've got respect for that.
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In a meat grinder like Stalingrad the Russians had what it took... Meat.

The Eastern front fascinates me because it was far more brutal than any other campaign in all of WW2. I don't think any account, no matter how detailed or graphic, can show us what it was REALLY like.
 
The Eastern front fascinates me because it was far more brutal than any other campaign in all of WW2. I don't think any account, no matter how detailed or graphic, can show us what it was REALLY like.
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I agree the Eastern front was the most brutal arena of WWII. I had two Uncle's that fought & were wounded there but miraculously survived their wounds & made it back to Germany to rejoin their family. The whole family immigrated to Canada in the late 40's. One of my Uncle's would not talk about it at all. The other would talk about it if he was drunk. He said the worst part of it was the cold, & the lack of proper clothing, & food. He said he used to dream of bread. He was a light machine gunner, & told me the worst part was shooting the many women soldiers the Russians threw into battles. I am just happy that I didn't have to live through that horror.

George
 
Overall, the movie "Enemy (Enima!!!!!) at the Gates" was another Hollywood dissapointment.

If it was on par with the movie, and a great western, "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" with Clint, I would have at least expected Va-SILLY to at least have cut down Sasha from the water tower with his boy scout knife, better yet if Clint were in the movie, he would have shot the hangmans nuise like he did in "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"! They just don't make them like that anymore! That would have been an easy shot for Va-SILLY considering he took out the telephone wire at 155 meters!!!

I give Enima!!! at the Gates just 1 kernel of popcorn out of 5, considering all the numerous errors not already mentioned. :popCorn:
But it was entertaining, just not accurate.
 
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"Good the Bad and the Ugly". I saw that one. Didn't know the Confederates had MG-42s in the Civil War, but the Mitrailleuse was fun.

With a well-bedded Moisin-Nagant 91/30 and the right ammo, I would say you've got one chance in 3 of taking out a wire at 155 metres (which was, for far too long, the width of the Stalingrad battle). Those things can shoot, if you understand them and can use them.

Far as total historical accuracy is concerned, maybe they shold have issed live rounds tot he NKVD Maxim crew........ that might have made it more "authentic" but I'll bet the actors' union would have been ticked!

Good movie, I thought.. But did anyone really understand the hero-creation process that the Party was using? It worked: you watched the movie!
 
cyclone said:
Intelligence was a tricky thing - it's unclear just how much could have been picked up from captured enemy soldiers (as the story goes), esp. the kind who would have been in the know.

By the way, das boot was a pretty good movie, movie-land effects or not! ;)
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Intelligence on the Eastern front wasn't as tricky as dealing with the Stalinist propaganda of the time. Nobody dared question Soviet authorities or they'd risk being one of the 250,000 odd summarily executed "traitors, cowards, and panic mongers" who were shot during the war. (Or becomming one of the "purged".)
It is likely that Koenig existed and was played up by both sides propaganda in the same way Zaitsev was played up by the Soviets. The real story is likely far less than movie worthy and most of it forgotten since neither records nor people had a good track record for surviving the East front.
 
glang1 said:
I agree the Eastern front was the most brutal arena of WWII. I had two Uncle's that fought & were wounded there but miraculously survived their wounds & made it back to Germany to rejoin their family. The whole family immigrated to Canada in the late 40's. One of my Uncle's would not talk about it at all. The other would talk about it if he was drunk. He said the worst part of it was the cold, & the lack of proper clothing, & food. He said he used to dream of bread. He was a light machine gunner, & told me the worst part was shooting the many women soldiers the Russians threw into battles. I am just happy that I didn't have to live through that horror.

George
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My long ago neighbor who served with the 144th mountain division(If I remember right) told me the Russians once used dogs trained to be fed under vehicles that were released on battlefield with explosives strapped to their backs with a antenna like trip detonator, caused hell for the armour and half tracks when first used because they thought they were rescue dogs.He also mentioned lack of food lived on salted cucumbers and scrounged potatoes for weeks.Never ate a cucumber or potatoes since
 
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