In this era of Hollywood special effects blockbusters, relying on only $2 million in crowdfunding to make a shocking war movie sounds a bit like a pipe dream. However, the Russian film "Panfilov 28 Warriors", which was released in November 2016, created a miracle.
There is no small fresh meat to join, no beautiful women to attract attention, and there is no romantic battlefield romance, and some are just a true restoration of the battlefield. The whole film can not see dazzling special effects, "Panfilov 28 Warriors" relies on pure realism style, with whistling artillery fire, rumbling tanks, with the will to fight with flesh and steel, with the spirit of life and death, with rigorous weapons, costumes and tactical actions, truly restore the tragedy of the Great Patriotic War and the bravery and fearlessness of the commanders and fighters of all nationalities of the Soviet Army. The style of the whole film is as straightforward, intense and full of stamina as vodka, but it is enough to shock and move the audience.
The plot of the film is simple, reflecting a blockade battle that took place on November 16, 1941, in the Duboshekovo region, 8 km southwest of Volokolamsk. The defending side was an anti-tank support point belonging to the 1075th Regiment of the 316th Infantry Division of the 16th Infantry Division of the 16th Army of the Soviet Western Front, consisting of an anti-tank gun platoon reinforced by a unit of the 4th Company of the Regiment; the attacking side was an infantry reinforced armored battalion under the 11th Panzer Division of the 46th Panzer Army of the 46th Panzer Army group of the German Army Group Center.
The reason why this heroic Soviet army group in the film is called the "Panfilov 28 Warriors" is that, on the one hand, because two days after the Dubosekovo Blockade, the 316th Infantry Division was awarded the new title of the 8th Guards Infantry Division for its outstanding achievements, and was named after the division commander and Soviet hero Major General Panfilov, who died on November 17. On the other hand, on November 28, 1941, the Red Star newspaper published an editorial entitled "The Last Wishes of 28 Heroes", describing the battle in detail. Since then, the deeds of the "Panfilov 28 Warriors" have not only become well-known in the Soviet Union, but also been compiled into the history textbooks of Soviet primary and secondary schools.
Careful details of the equipment are considered
Tanks Panfilov 28 Warriors reflects an anti-tank blockade battle. Therefore, tanks and anti-tank weapons naturally become the main props of the whole film. If you are careful to distinguish, the German tanks appearing in the film are divided into two types: the III G and the IV F1.
The identification characteristics of the Type III. G are: 6 pairs of load wheels, 3 pairs of carrier wheels; the 50 mm L42 main gun uses an external shield; only 1 parallel machine gun on the right side of the shield; a new command tower is adopted; a ventilation fan is installed in front of the command tower; a glove box is welded to the rear of the turret; and a new driver observation window is also adopted. The tank was produced between 1940 and 1941, and it makes sense to appear in the film.
The F1 IV, with eight pairs of load wheels and four pairs of carrier wheels, was the last IV tank with a short body and a 24x 75 mm short-barreled gun. It was also the first Panzer IV with escape doors on both sides of the turret to be changed to two-piece left and right opening. The escape doors of the previous IV. A, B, C, D and E turrets were all single-chip forward opening. In the film, german armored men emerge from the turret escape door, intending to use the MP40 submachine gun to shoot at Soviet soldiers. There were also Soviet fighters who jumped on the paralyzed No. IV F1 tank, kicked the Germans who were preparing to climb out of the escape door back into the turret, and threw a Molotov cocktail in it. From these two bridge sections, the audience can clearly see the details of the escape door. In addition, the front armor of the tank hull was changed back to a flat type, and the thicker type had a protective armor above the driver's observation window that could be lowered to block the window, and the design continued from F1 to the end of production of the IV. In addition, the bent bracket under the barrel guard (used to crush the antenna on the hull in advance when the turret rotates to avoid the side-by-side machine gun from accidentally firing into the antenna) is obviously bent with angle iron, which is completely different from the earlier bracket bent with iron pipe.
Some of the films do not have a welded debris box in the rear of the turret of the IV F1 tank. For example, the one that rushed into the Soviet infantry position and repeatedly rolled the trench with tracks in an attempt to bury the Soviet soldier alive. In fact, there is no welding debris box on the initial production type of the IV. F1 type, and the manufacturer installs it according to the feedback from the front line during the production process. Production of this type of tank lasted from April 1941 to March 1942, with a total of 487 units produced. In the German panzer corps of 1941, this type of tank was undoubtedly cutting-edge.
In the film, the rifling in the barrel of the Iv F1 tank is clearly visible. The placement of spare track shoes and spare load wheels on the tank hull and even the turret, which is a common practice used by armored soldiers in wartime to enhance tank protection, has also been well demonstrated in the film, which makes people have to admire the meticulousness and care of Russian filmmakers.
Anti-Tank Guns After talking about tanks, it's time to talk about anti-tank weapons. The main anti-tank weapons of the Soviet army in the film are 2 M1937 45 mm anti-tank guns, 2 PTRD Simonov anti-tank guns, as well as RPG-40 anti-tank grenades, RGD-33 cluster grenades and Molotov cocktails.
The M1937 45 mm anti-tank gun is an improvement on the M1932 type 45 mm anti-tank gun. Mainly the metal gun wheel was changed and a suspension device was added between the axles; the overall width of the gun was increased by 0.24 meters; the firing device was moved to the high and low side; the gun bolt was changed to an upright wedge type, which could achieve semi-automatic locking, and the rate of fire was increased to 15 to 20 rounds per minute. The main feature of the appearance of the gun is to look at the gun muzzle from the direction of the tail of the gun, the overall gun shield is tilted backwards at a certain angle, the two sides are folded backwards at a 45-degree angle, the middle part of the gun shield is high left and low on the right, the upper edge of the gun shield forms a semicircular gap in the middle position, and there is a square observation window on the left side of the gun shield. When the gun uses the UBR-243SP type cap-piercing shell, it penetrates 51 mm vertically at 100 meters and 43 meters vertically at 500 meters. Considering that the frontal armor thickness of the German V. F1 tank, the strongest German protection in 1941, was 50 mm/80 degrees, the turret side was 30 mm/65 degrees, and the hull side was 20 mm/90 degrees, the M1937 45 mm anti-tank gun could still pose a certain threat to the strongest German tank if the tactics were used properly. Against the Much Weaker Ii. and III. Tanks, this anti-tank gun is more handy. In terms of organization, the anti-tank gun platoon under the Soviet infantry battalion in 1941 was equipped with 2 guns of this type. Each infantry division had 1 M1937 type 45 mm anti-tank gun battalion, equipped with 12 guns. The Independent Anti-Tank Destroyer Regiment has 4 to 5 companies and 16 to 20 M1937 45 mm anti-tank guns.
Anti-Tank Gun In addition to the M1937 45 mm anti-tank gun, Panfilov 28 Warriors also highlighted the PTRD Simonov anti-tank gun. This is a wartime emergency product that fully embodies the Soviet weapons design idea and is simple to the extreme.
The PTRD Simonov anti-tank gun is a manually operated single-shot rifle. The gun uses a conventional rotary bolt with two radial convex lock lugs at the nose, a long recoil of the barrel when firing, and a spring buffer in the stock to cushion the recoil. Due to the efficient brakes installed at the muzzle and the rubber cushion on the bottom plate of the stock, the recoil of the PTRD shooting is relatively low, which can be borne by the average soldier. Since the whole gun is 2 meters long and weighs up to 17.3 kg, the PTRD has a foldable bipod under the barrel and a handle for easy carrying. The gun's flip gauge and crosshairs are located on the left side of the gun body, and when firing a copper-clad steel armor-piercing bullet with a hard steel core, it is about 35 mm vertically armored at 100 meters. When firing the BS-41 tungsten core armor piercing shell, the depth of vertical penetration of 100 meters is about 40 mm.
The 2 PTRD Simonov anti-tank guns that appear in the film are all wrapped in a layer of cotton fabric on the butt pad to avoid frostbite on the face. Considering that it is the middle of winter, this humble detail truly reflects the reality of the battlefield.
According to Soviet regulations, the PTRD anti-tank gun was operated by an anti-tank team of two men. The deputy shooter carries a submachine gun, and in addition to protecting the shooter, he is also responsible for reloading the anti-tank gun. Because PTRD is quite large, if the shooter alone completes the loading process, it will take too long and the rate of fire will be too slow. In the film, when a PTRD anti-tank gun team is all killed, a rifleman who has never touched an anti-tank gun rushes over to try to operate the anti-tank gun. This fully reflects the extremely simple structure of PTRD and the fact that it is easy to get started. At the same time, with no co-shooter to help reload ammunition, this PTRD had a much lower rate of fire than the other 1 anti-tank gun group.
In the film, there is also a seemingly inadvertent detail that fully reflects the rigor of Russian filmmakers. That is, when the rifleman picked up the PTRD anti-tank gun to move the position, he also grabbed the ammunition package. The ammunition pack of the PTRD anti-tank gun is a satchel made of canvas, divided into two layers, which can hold a total of 20 rounds of 14.5×114 mm bullets, which is exactly one ammunition base of the PTRD anti-tank gun. The fully loaded ammunition pack weighs more than 4 kg. According to the regulations, the main and secondary shooters of the PTRD anti-tank gun each carry 1 ammunition pack.