German weaponry including tanks tended to lead technological advance and/or presented the most formidable asset in combat for most of WW2 - the Allies were typically playing catch-up and eventually overcame by sheer weight of numbers. I’d say part of the fascination for modelmakers is analysing what made German weaponry superior & feared. Villers Bocage crystalises that interest – one Tiger vs. a lot of (inferior) opposition. Had there not been a wealth of surviving Nazi propaganda & archive material readily available I’m not sure the fascination would have been so great.
Because of the above, kit manufacturers have saturated the market for decades with German weaponry because that’s where the interest was & not because there were legions of closet-Nazi modelmakers. It’s only in relatively recent years that manufacturers have caught on to a rising ennui amongst modelmakers that Allied weaponry had been woefully under-represented.
So I think it’s a projection of the viewer to infer there’s any glorification going on. We all know German technology partially defeated itself through over-engineering, impractical design, and failure to produce the best examples in sufficient numbers.
It seems to be a thing. Throughout the 19th century there was a fascination with Napoleon, who shared several traits with Hitler. While Peninsular War, Trafalgar and Waterloo veterans were still alive Napoleon was being deified as the best military tactician since Alexander the Great – in the UK and across Europe, not just in France. The atrocities committed by Napoleonic forces especially in Spain and Russia were oddly forgotten, as well as the colossal loss of life generally caused by Napoleon’s imperial ambitions. We haven’t given Hitler the same treatment for obvious reasons, but Von Manstein, Rommel, even Wittman? Maybe we laud them only because “we” beat ‘em.
Winning against a superior foe is glorious.
Beating an inferior foe carries no honour.
Taking candy from a child is only brutish, stealing a the crown jewels
from a high security facility will make the thief legendary, especially if
he doesn’t get caught.
Each modeling subject has its masters in subject. Earnhardt, Garlits, Stewart,
Poole, Carious, Rudel, Hartman, Sakai, certain Uboat captians, Boyington, Bader. Good guy-bad guy doesn’t matter about being best in the field. There is always a mystique about being the best. That is why kits of their subject sell well.
not arguing with that Top. my point was more that Knispel had far more kills than Whitman but you don’t see the Knispel Konigstiger. he was reputedly the commander in that KT footage of a battalion size element of KT’s in formation and riding off
Semper Fi
dan
Folks: many are kind of missing my point which is probably my fault for not spelling it out. 1. i don’t agree with disliking Whitman because he was an SS true believer, but i’m entitled to consider any SS member a pig2. i’m not saying he doesn’t warrant attention for his skill and kill count;3. Aside from one member here, i don’t think any reasonable person or scholar will say anyone bested Knispel in overall kills. his character was such he often gave “kills” to newcomers to prop up their careers . that’s a true soldier. i’m just saying Knispel is ignored
OK fair point Daniel – it also begs the question why equivalent Allied tank aces (American, British, Russian) are virtually unknown. Alright I’m talking personally but who can name any? I can’t name one, and clearly they don’t register with kit manufacturers. How come?
I can think of a few reasons e.g. Allied propaganda didn’t function the same way as the Nazis’ glorification of combat stars (although that’s not true of the Russians), and maybe Allied tank commanders didn’t have the same opportunities to score big…hmm…discuss….
The Americans had Lafayatte Pool as a tank ace and I think Dragon(?) had a his tanks markings as one of the choices. His tank was “In the Mood”. He went through 3 Shermans. I know Russia had tank aces and I am sure the Britts did but I don’t know who they are . I would love to have Knispel’s tank but there is not much in the way of photographs of his tank. You can extrapolate the markings knowing the units and tanks he crewed.
Lafayatte Pool know aka “War Daddy” gets acknowledged in “Fury”.
Has any major movie studio evet made a similar movie about a German tank ace?
The 1957, Der Stern von Afrika (English: The Star of Africa) is the only WW2 German ace film that comes to mind. It’s a terrible movie that seems like a Nazi propaganda film made 12 years after WW2.
Nice point Top. Knispel was lucky because of his prowess each time his unit returned to a rear area for rest or refit, he drove off with a new tank. Each time it got bigger. He went from the PK 2 to the Konigstiger.
Well that was a hell of a lucky guess. I first encountered that word studying Russian history as part of my Russian degree. We may have been talking about Peter or Catherine. One of the Greats at any rate. I think the professor’s point was, “Just adding the Great to your name didn’t necessarily make you great.”
i’m relying on a wider preponderance of evidence from numerous sources which aren’t related in time or era; i never propped Knispel up as some anti Nazi crusader. my point was he was a better shot than Whitman, had more kills and by most accounts was a self deprecating man and a stoic. Whitman was the opposite and i’m not too upset that a Firefly popped the cork of his Tiger I. that’s all.
ps, i never read anything by Kurowski. i don’t read much in terms of military biographies. i studied the tactical geniuses when i was in USMC OFFICER BASIC COURSE in Quantico. Von Clausewitz etc. No Kurowski though. Myths and legends tend to propagate when it comes to famed military men. but reading many other sources and amalgamating the gist of a historical figure’s narrative is my wont when it comes to the science of deduction on the BS meter
ok. is that definitive, empirically anchored and imbued with ontological certitude? i don’t think that anyone, myself included, should be dogmatic in a manner which renders anything to the contrary nugatory. are you seriously disputing that Knispel didn’t have more kills and at longer range than Whitman? you can hold that thesis as it is your opinion but remember, what you and i say are mostly opinion.
Sir: are you positing that i, in stating Whitman is overrated , am also saying that Knispel was a “good German”? that’s a fallacy as i make no claim to his morals and had i been an American soldier then i’d have killed Knispel just the same.
