The Tanks Are Coming

THE TANKS ARE COMING is a Warner Brothers (WB) short dedicated to military preparedness which in 1941 with the first peace time draft in effect and WWII raging was a major motivator. WB put a lot more into this short then usual. First it was filmed in the expensive Three (3) Strip TechniColor process. Second featured the WB stock company and third had the full cooperation of the U.S. Army and its Armor Training School at Fort Knox Kentucky.

Story in brief is that of recruits being indoctrinated in the then new theories of armored mobile warfare. Learning how to maintain and use their new equipment in a effective manner. Watching it no doubt gave theater goers the feeling that we were in good hands and prepared for the conflict ahead. Unfortunately our future enemies watching this no doubt felt we would be better off sticking to making refrigerators then playing with the big boys.

That is the best lesson in watching this now is how UNPREPARED we (U.S.A.) were at this new warfare and for WWII in general. The equipment that had to be depended upon just was not very good and would certainly not deter our future enemies Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. Nor bring confidence to our future allies. We were fortunate to see this on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Its one (1) of those things that you have to be lucky to catch, but if it was not for TCM would never be seen at all.