The Real "War Daddy"

[SfanGoch]

Everyone who has seen the film, "Fury" is familiar with Brad Pitt's character, tank commander SSgt. Don "Wardaddy" Collier. Most don't know that this character was based on SSgt. Lafayette G. Pool, nicknamed "War Daddy" by his crew. In just 81 days of combat, from 27 June to 15 September 1944, War Daddy and his crew destroyed 12 Panther tanks, destroyed 258 armored vehicles and guns, killed nearly 1000 enemy soldiers and captured 250. As the author of the linked article  Michael Bennighof, Ph.D., wrote:

"It's a record unequaled in World War II and unlikely ever to be matched."

 

The Real War Daddy

Armor, The Combat Arm of Decision

[bamadon]

Great article! He was a pretty bad a$$. Took some guts to go up against Joe Louise too.

[High octane]

What about Audi Murphy in the movie To Hell and Back which is supposed to be a true story?

[SfanGoch]

Audie Murphy was a legend. But, Pool's amazing exploits took place in a period of less than three months. German Aces such as Kurt Knipsel, Michael Wittmann and Otto Carius never achieved such a record of success over a similar period of time. War Daddy was the Joe DiMaggio of tankers.

[OldTrucker]

2 hours ago, High octane said:

What about Audi Murphy in the movie To Hell and Back which is supposed to be a true story?

Both outstanding in their own right. Just a different mode of service and different types of situations!

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

I didn't know that there was any link to a real person & the movie, but I enjoyed the movie a great deal.

"Hey boys, you think Hitler would "BLEEP" one of us for a chocolate bar?"

 

Steve

[SfanGoch]

The use of "131", the only operational Tiger tank in the world, marked the first time that a working tank of this type was used in a movie since some surviving Tigers were used in the 1950 British film, "THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED". This movie features a number of captured German equipment. Can't get more authentic than that.

 

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

4 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

The use of "131", the only operational Tiger tank in the world, marked the first time that a working tank of this type was used in a movie since some surviving Tigers were used in the 1950 British film, "THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED". This movie features a number of captured German equipment. Can't get more authentic than that.

I did know that the Tiger used in Fury was "Tiger 131", the only operational Tiger left from a museum in England.

I saw a documentary about that particular tank a few months back.

It was quite interesting.

Apparently the movie was filmed in England mostly because of the availability of operational WWII equipment.

10 operational M4 Shermans were also used.

 

Steve