Paint schemes other than tri-color,Summer 1944

I saw some of the same stuff.  What recently really shocked me was the standard WWII footage of the pre-Ardennes King Tiger unit with the the entire unit laid out on a flat field, TCs in the hatches with the commander rolling by etc.  All of the king tigers had that pea soup green mottled with field gray-green splotches.  Impressive camo that I've never seen modeled.  Of course, that could be because it is colorized film.  If I remember the segment correctly it appears that the tank was rolling from right to left instead of what I think is the customary left to right movement it normally has.

What was the name of the program. Might be able to run down some clips on YouTube...

Doogs,if your cable service has the Military Channel [ & I'm sure they do ] they've been running a series titled "WWII in Color".It starts at Germany re-arming & end's at V.E. day, in a nutshell.The episode in question was titled " Overlord" , the build-up,invasion, & thru Caen. I still don't think it was merely colorized old newsreel,but,I have no credibility in that judgement.  keith r.

I've been watching that series as well; it's from the late 70s and also covers up to VJ Day as well.  Some of the show's material is in fact colorized, and I was thinking the same thing; I never saw anything remotely resembling what is generally accepted as the paint schemes mostly on the episodes that covered from Normandy to VE Day.

There is always inaccuracies in documentaries, some more then others. A popular camo in the Normandy area was green and red-brown squiggles on Pz Iv's and Panthers. I've seen some captured French tanks in Splinter or striped patterns as well.

The WW2 in Color is interesting but certainly not authoritative.  Whereas many still b/w photos exist where you can plainly see widespread use of German 3-tone camo pattern.  You hear occasionally about oddballs (.e.g Tigers of Kampfgruppe Fehrman or Ersatz M10/Panthers) because they are "odd" against a sea of thousands upon thousands of photos of dark yellow painted material with varying camo applied.

One could certainly be faulted for mimicking the pea green over grey of sPz Abt 503s Tiger IIs based on a colorized film clip -- when many b/w photos of these very same tanks abound.

"All of the king tigers had that pea soup green mottled with field gray-green splotches.  Impressive camo that I've never seen modeled."  Because it is the imagination of the film technician.

Due to the prevalance of colorized film clips and these annoying "WW2 in Color" hack jobs, my default setting w/anything in color from WW2 is to question its validity.

Well,Thank you Roy & other's for clarifying my inquerie.As I said,I've No experience at picking out real color film from colorized in a cutting room.The other scenes did look authentic.Chalk it up to the never -ending quest for Historical accuracy. Thanks, keith r.

Documentaries are also famous for not being too careful about matching up true period video clips with whatever time period they are discussing. Since the actual amount of surviving footage is limited, recycling happens all the time. Can't tell you how many times I've burst out laughing when I see video of Panzer IIs in France being used to represent whatever the editors need to show "tanks on the move" or "German armor" regardless of whether they are talking about France 1940, Normandy, Russia, N. Africa, Italy, etc.

Here's another trick to look out for next time you watch a History channel about armor.   I noticed it ad nauseum in the recent "Greatest Tank Battles" series (although this happens in most every TV documentary w/armor). 

Whenever they're discussing a battle, they try to match footage of the vehicles going from left to right if they attacked East (e.g. Germans attacking Russia, US fighting in Europe) or right to left if they are showing Westward attacks (Russians against Germans, Germans against Western allies, British fighting the Afrika Korps). 

They are mindlessly slaved to the concept to the point that they'll use mirror image footage to keep the "directional" integrity.  I cracked up watching transposed Tigers going from right to left -- because they were fighting the battle of the bulge -- but the glacis MG and view port were plainly switched over.  It's as if they think the viewing audience is too stupid to realize that tanks can't be filmed going FORWARD regardless of the perspective of the camera.  They think it'll confuse us dumb tank geeks, I guess.

I have read where the German Army did go back to a gray base sometime towards the end of the war, so there might have been some Ardennes panzers in a gray scheme - even black & white photos can show a difference in the color and contrast of an area the size of a tank.

But I don't think anything, unless it was originally captured gear, and then repainted, would show up gray during the summer of 1944

As for documentaries - most are not geared to the "nuts & bolts" crowd - more to just the history lovers.  There's kamikaze scene that is used for every US carrier in the Pacific.  Also, a lot of ex-soviet film was either staged, or released after they were winning.  Unless there was a point to be made, you'll see very little from pre-Stalingrad days - even now.

Mike

In retrospect,I should have paused & thought of the scene of the Willy's jeep with it's back end on fire that's used in near every WWII segment on the Mil. channel,regardless of the year or campaign.Sooner or later, most everyone asks a dumb question ! Thanks all, keith r.

saransk

I have read where the German Army did go back to a gray base sometime towards the end of the war, so there might have been some Ardennes panzers in a gray scheme - even black & white photos can show a difference in the color and contrast of an area the size of a tank.

Mike

This was a shortage contingency ONLY if stocks of the existing ordered colors for three-tone weren't available AND the factory in question had older stocks of the Panzer Gray still on hand. It was never ordered that they go back to using wholesale panzer gray schemes as an end-of-war scenario.