Received Wisdom

Delving into the world of Italian war movies as I've been over the past few weeks, I've fond that one of the most consistent criticisms of them is that of the anachronistic and incorrect equipment and props which often feature prominently in these films.  Now, I can be pretty obsessive on the subject of the wrong tanks, etc featuring in World War Two movies, but the fact is that there is often no alternative: the only genuine German World War Two era tanks still in working order, for instance, tend to be museum pieces.  Personally, I find the way the same tanks and armoured vehicles in Italian war movies turn up fighting for both sides, often in the same movie.  Some of the films also adopt a 'mix and match' approach to the small arms used by all sides, with German soldiers frequently wielding post-war Italian-made Beretta sub-machine guns instead of the correct MP40s, for example.  (That said, I've seen the same sort of approach in 1950s British war films, with the Wehrmacht using British Bren and Sten guns).  Both German officers and British commandos also have tendency to wave around American Colt .45 automatics.  Except that this isn't necessarily a mistake.  British commandos, for instance, were often issued with the Canadian made version of the Browning 9mm automatic, which looked very similar to the Colt, (which is hardly surprising as they had the same designer).  Moreover, the Germans copied the Colt automatic (and the Browning) and small numbers were issued to their armed forces.  Which all goes to show that the 'received wisdom' of armchair critics and experts is sometimes wrong.

Amongst the most notorious anachronisms in war movies is the helicopter the German general arrives at the mountain base in part way through Where Eagles Dare.  According to received wisdom, helicopters only appeared in 1945, just too late for the war and were exclusively American.  Except that isn't true.  In reality, both Germany and the US were operating small numbers of helicopters from 1943 onwards, more often than not in the search and rescue role.  Indeed, the Germans actually operated two different types of helicopter, some in the Mediterranean theatre, others in Europe.  In fact, some were even used in combat: during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944/January 1945, five German helicopters were used to attack American tanks, destroying two Shermans.  However, most of the European-based German helicopters were used as mountain search and rescue aircraft, meaning that the general's use of a helicopter to reach a mountain lair in Where Eagles Dare, far from being anachronistic, is actually quite credible.  Granted, the helicopter used in the film is an American Bell model, first produced in 1946, but in principle, its appearance isn't as ridiculous as received wisdom would have us all believe.  Which leaves me wondering how many other pieces of 'received wisdom' - not necessarily film related, either - are just as wrong.