The intro, we see a huge German column with a few Tiger tanks getting ready for movement, with a German MP hustling the troops along for their march. Then we pan and linger around an Willys jeep that looks rather out of place in a German column if it wasn't for the German officer sitting shotgun.note Germans actually did like to use captured American vehicles in support roles since they were reliable and easy to fix Then the shot changes to inside the car, the officer has an American GI in the back pointing a rifle at him with Kelly (Clint Eastwood yo) in the driver's position. The German MP comes back still hustling the Germans pass the jeep, walks past it, stops as if he missed something, then looks at the jeep again. Then he finally realizes that this American jeep has actual Americans inside it and begins to pull his pistol before Kelly guns it, nearly running over the MP as he begins driving back to Allied lines in the tunes of "Burning Bridges" as he escapes. Video
The scene where Joe and the squad receive their orders to pull back to the farmhouse. They are resting up by the side of the road as a seemingly never-ending column of tanks, trucks, jeeps, half-tracks and armored cars, accompanied by long lines of advancing US troops and captured Germans heading for the rear, rolls past. A house burns in the middle-distance, columns of smoke rise on the horizon and, at one point, a flight of fighter 'planes passes low overhead. It's a shot that would be done with CGI in a modern film, or filmed in rain or darkness to hide the limited resources available to the filmmakers. Here, the production had access to half the Yugoslav army and they take full advantage of it.
When Oddball's tanks lay waste to the German railroad operation. To the tunes of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" of all things. Video
Oddball's unit comes around the corner with The Cavalry while Oddball himself does the Captain Morgan Pose on top of the lead tank. After the minefield scene, it's very cool and uplifting.
Then he orders the Sherman to fire a round into the air. Really for no specific reasons other than because he could.
The fight in Clermont. One Sherman tank versus three Tiger tanks. The situation is plainly suicidal, but Big Joe and Oddball decide to go with it once Kelly reassures them that he's got it. In the course of the battle, Oddball's Sherman manages to destroy two of the three Tigers and only stopped because the Sherman finally breaks down, leaving the last Tiger tank defending the bank with nothing the platoon has to destroy it. However, in the big picture, one lone Sherman being able to take out two Tigers, even in an urban environment that might aid in maneuvering for flank/rear shots, is not an easy feat.
Kelly, Big Joe and Oddball in a spaghetti Western-style showdown with the final enemy Tiger tank, having no way of destroying it, striding in plain view towards its guns. And then they talk the tank crew into helping them!
With his own Sherman broken down, Oddball acquires a new tank by buying the Tiger tank from the SS crew!!
Note that this is probably one of the first Western films to get a very good looking Tiger tank in cinemas, even if they are fakes (redecorated T-34 to look like one). To a tank expert, the difference is obvious, but take any western audience members, especially a WWII veteran, and it's sure to send chills down their spines when they see a very good Tiger tank replica in action in nearly the same way it was in real life.
