MovieChat Forums > Patton (1970) Discussion > Possible error about tank fuels

Possible error about tank fuels

posted 9 years ago by lmh-10
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Early in the film, where Bradley is briefing Patton, there is this little bit of dialog:

We'd send over a 75mm shell,the krauts would return an 88. Their tanks are diesels. Even when we managed to hit one they kept on running. Our tanks. . . . The men call them "Purple Heart boxes. " One hot piece of shrapnel and the gasoline explodes.

The thing is the Panzer II and Panzer III, described as the workhorses of the German Army in Africa were gasoline powered.

So am I missing something or is this a scriptwriter's error?

[–] MadTom 9 years ago

Definitely a script error. Only the Soviets used diesel-fueled tanks in large numbers in WWII.

[–] lmh-10 9 years ago

I checked and Italians had a number (in the hundreds) of diesel tanks in North Africa and the US Marines had around a thousand in the South Pacific.

I still think it is an error but I wonder about the source. For what it is worth, I read that problems with the Sherman tanks and fire was with the ammunition exploding when it was stored without being enclosed in a 'water tank'.