I just watched the movie Fury, about a WWII tank crew and was reminded of a question I'd had since I was a kid.
When the tanks were in a battle three of them got blown up or disabled during the battle and after there was a brief break before the surviving tanks took off.

I could see leaving the dead behind for others to retrieve or bury since they were on the go and in a hurry, but wouldn't they have picked up the other tanks' shells and ammo to re-stock their own tanks?

It seemed odd to me that they'd just leave weapons on the ground and move on.

Tanks, for the memories ...

I wouldn't want to stake my survival in the next battle on ammo that may be damaged enough to jam the gun; unless, that was my only option. There're a lot of variables in your synopsis; but, I'd probably want metallurgy stress checks first.

Yeah but semi busted ammo is better than NO Ammo

That's what "... unless, that was my only option. ..." means.

If they're leaving questionable ammo behind on the battlefield, it means they have adequate resupply.

Well, in the movie, in their next battle they run out. I get your point about questionable ammo, but there were clearly intact ammo boxes for the .50, and I imagine the shells inside the tank might have at least been checked, or the clips from the belts of the dead.

And why leave guns on the ground? Wouldn't that just leave a weapon that the enemy could use against you if they picked it up?

Maybe I'm just too much of a scavenger.

I didn't see the movie and as I said, there were too many variables left from your synopsis. The gist of it seems to be that battlefield recovery operations isn't a big box office draw; so, you can't believe everything the way Hollywood portrays it.

No, but what you are saying is that IRL, shit is just left behind?

Tactical situation permitting, it's recovered; or, destroyed in place before it's simply abandoned.

Thanks! That's what I've been wondering.

In the movies I've seen, when a tank is put out of action it's usually burning/exploding, someplace you don't want to have a go-look-see. Even tanks disabled by blowing a tread off, were then finished off so they couldn't keep shooting. But maybe I subscribe to a better class of movies. :haha:

Apparently there was a lot of off-camera action in this film.

War is not contained in a sound stage, there's no way to see everything going on. So the camera follows the action that blows the directors skirt up and, the rest just contributes to the sound track. :fuse:

But was the movie any good?

Spoiler Alert™:

We win the war.

It was great Griff, no boring time outs to retrieve anything.
Yes, we won, but it was a surprise ending... Boom, Big Bada Boom.