German military courtesy

[David Wilma]

I was watching a German training film from World War II
available on Youtube (what a resource). Watching closely
It appears that the same people produced and directed
both U.S. and German army training films.

What I noticed, that was never picked up by Hollywood,
was that the soldiers greeted each other with the
traditional German handshake and not the Heil Hitler
that we have all been conditioned to expect.

The film is here

There are many others. Fascinating.

[GFH]

Post by David Wilma
I was watching a German training film from World War II
available on Youtube (what a resource). Watching closely
It appears that the same people produced and directed
both U.S. and German army training films.
What I noticed, that was never picked up by Hollywood,
was that the soldiers greeted each other with the
traditional German handshake and not the Heil Hitler
that we have all been conditioned to expect.

If you are interested, let me suggest:

Zemke, Hubert, Zemke's Stalag, 1-56098-018-4, 1991

GFH

[Don Phillipson]

Post by David Wilma
I was watching a German training film from World War II
. . .
What I noticed, that was never picked up by Hollywood,
was that the soldiers greeted each other with the
traditional German handshake and not the Heil Hitler
that we have all been conditioned to expect.
. . .
The film is here http://youtu.be/yBThvkdzW00

This would be the normal (pre-Hitler) German convention.
The orthodox military convention is a salute (whether a
military or a Heil Hitler salute), not a handshake.

The film's first sequence shows rankers shaking hands
when assembling under shellfire. At three minutes troops
are shown going to ground at one shellburst and getting
up without waiting to see whether there may be a second
or a salvo. Both sequences seem unrealistic -- which is
a pity, considering that German training of front-line troops
seemed better overall than US or British training.

[news]

Post by Don Phillipson
The film's first sequence shows rankers shaking hands
when assembling under shellfire. At three minutes troops
are shown going to ground at one shellburst and getting
up without waiting to see whether there may be a second
or a salvo. Both sequences seem unrealistic

After shaking hands and being briefly briefed there was a shell burst
and the officer comments that it had been a close one. Curiously, the
don't seem at all shaken by it, nor do they seem to have been
momentarily stunned by the concussion or the noise. A pistol shot that
close is enough to make most people's ears ring.

[David Wilma]

The film was made for trainee consumption so any realism would
be edited out and the director would have the men behave as
the high command expected. The same with the military
courtesy. I would think that the Nazis would want to underscore
the Heil Hitler greeting and I do'nt think we saw that. Or was the Heer
concerned that too much Nazification would compromise the fundamental
message of training and tactics? I was just surprised that the civilian
handshake made it over to the military.

Did the U.S. or the British have similar mechanized tactics? Are those
training films available?