If you have seen my first article (Fury and its problems) this is a part 2 to Fury and its problems
At 31:58 minutes into the movie, Fury and his tank platoon is being shot at by two anti-tank guns. Now these aren’t just your normal anti-tank guns these are Pak 40s! If you don’t know what a Pak 40 is, it is the 7.5 cm Pak 40 was a German 75-millimeter anti-tank gun developed in 1939 by Rheinmetall and was used during the Second World War. With 23,303 samples produced, the Pak 40 formed the backbone of German anti-tank guns for the latter part of World War II. The weapon was effective against almost every Allied tank until the end of the war. Now I say almost because it could generally penetrate the IS-2, Churchill and M24 Pershing, but this Pak could have easily penetrated Fury’s tank and the other tanks that accompanied Fury. These are not just your typical Wehrmacht troops commanding the Pak 40s, these are Waffen S.S troops and these troops have a fearsome reputation. The Pak 40s that these S.S troops are operating have been well hidden in the forest that Fury’s tanks are advancing towards. The Pak’s are beside trees in bushes and with the S.S uniforms they blend in well with the forest, so these Pak’s could have easily killed Fury and their other tanks.
Another issue about the Pak 40 scene is a Waffen S.S trooper holding a Panzerfaust which could have easily destroyed Fury, but Brad Pitt and his men all have plot armor (which means that the movie wants these men to live longer to advance the story). In reality, this troop would have either destroyed Fury (the most realistic outcome) or the Panzerfaust would kill either Norman (the bowl gunner) or Gordo (the driver of the tank) and there is a box of Panzerfaust next to him, so if he does miss shooting Fury, he can try again and again until he succeeds.
The same thing applies to this Pak 40 commanded by Waffen S.S troops in the image above. You can see that the Pak 40 has a clear shot of Brad Pitt’s tank, so the S.S troops missing the shot in the movie is simply unrealistic. If this was real, the Pak 40 would penetrate Fury’s armor and kill the entire crew and possibly destroy the tanks behind Fury, so that the Germans would stop their assault on the town.
In this scene, Brad Pitt is against an S.S battalion and he is against three hundred S.S men and almost all the S.S men are armed with Panzerfausts that could easily kill Brad Pitt’s tank and his crew, but this movie wants to see the characters beat the S.S army (even though it’s unrealistic)
Look at the image above, there are 300 S.S men most carrying Panzerfausts and like I said before one Panzerfaust could have easily killed Fury and it’s crew. This is a highly experienced battalion which has dealt with this stuff before and these troops marching and singing would put the fear of God into anyone’s hearts if you heard this less than a km away. One of the crew members (Norman the bowl gunner) sees this battalion and warns Brad Pitt and the other members of the tank crew then Brad Pitt decides to fight the S.S battalion and make it their last stand.
This battalion could have resulted with one of the SS men either Panzerfausting the Sherman and destroy it (most realistic outcome) or just throw grenades into the Sherman and kill the crew. One of the scenes in the final battle shows Brad Pitt on the top gun of the Sherman killing some soldiers and this is when the elite German sniper shows up.
In the image above, you can see that this sniper is not playing around. He is fully camouflaged so neither Brad Pitt nor Norman can see him. This sniper is carrying a scoped Kar 98 which is very deadly in the hands of a professional. Another thing that the sniper is doing is pulling the bolt back slowly so not too much smoke comes out of the chamber, this makes sure that Brad Pitt and Norman do not see the sniper’s position. That gives you enough information that this is an elite sniper we are dealing with. The sniper sees them, but they don’t see him. This next point is by far the thing that most annoyed me. Brad Pitt goes on the top machine gun on the tank and the sniper takes a shot. He shoots Brad Pitt five times in the torso! Even getting shot once by this sniper would have killed you. In reality this sniper would have killed Brad Pitt and the German army would have gone into the tank and killed Norman.
In conclusion, I love the movie Fury, but I think the power of those Pak 40s could have easily penetrated Brad Pitt’s tank. I have said before the Pak 40 has a 7.5 cm gun and that gun can easily penetrate Fury and the other tanks. Another thing is that the movie has really underestimated the Waffen S.S whose soldiers were armed to the teeth. They have Panzerfaust MG42s (the fastest machine gun in the world) and many other weapons that could have easily destroyed Fury. If there was one thing I could change about the movie Fury, it would be a more realistic view on the tanks armor and the performance of the Waffen S.S battalion because you have to admit those were well trained and well-armed soldiers.
