I watch it as a boy 7years old now iam retired at 60 years old the series is still the best can beat any tv show today Again Vic morrow is superb as Saunders the story the script the music excellent Combat is a real masterpiece
I'm in my 60's too. I was a boy and watched it with my Dad. It was special watching with him. He used to say to me with a smile, "the sergeant, he watches out for his squad". Just me opinion, but I think no actor cast for a role did it better than Vic Morrow. He has a couple of Emmy's for best actor in a recurring series. Kirby is the last living cast member!
That’s cause Kirby has been in the stockade since the war ended. He’s been jailed for insubordination and mouthing off to Saunders. Plus all the times his right arm and hand got wounded he’s been having lifelong issues with them and has been having therapy and rehab. He might get paroled in 2025. 80 years after the end of WWII. Just sayin …😅😂
The learning curve in this one? A former tank driver with claustrophobia learns to overcome it as he drives a German tank in a tank dual in close-in combat. Wonderful, magnificent, superb, just plain Wow! Combat was the best ever!
I love this show I grew up watching it at my grandma's house in the 70 on channel 44 in Venice Florida and then after combat went off I watch Creature Feature
My grandfather served in 3 different battles / conflicts in north Africa in WWII. He received 3 bronze stars,and never told us when he was alive. There were and are many men like him in every war. These are the anchors to winning.
Same thing with my Dad. Got a Bronze Star and Purple Heart at Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941. We grew up not knowing about any of what happened until after he passed away. He never talked about his war experiences.
I used to follow Combat in brisbane QLD:(AUS) in 1963-64 and 1965. Now i am 72 years of age. Living in Norway. Seeing Combat again. Brings back a heap of memorys. Thanks Mate. for posting.
I want to Thank You SO much for posting all these great episodes. Takes me back to childhood, watching Combat when it first ran in prime time. Also, I enjoy the sometimes lively conversations these great old shows spark to life. Thanks again, Randy
65. I watched this show with show with my Dad all the time. It was fun watching with him. He was in the 327th, 101st Airborne. If it was just him and I watching (had two older sisters, younger brother besides mom) he would point out things. Like this episosde "The Hell Machine". He said, "Well, that tank looks pretty scary. They all looked scary even while they were idling. But the Kraut tanks were more squat looking, different turret and wider tracks". Back then we just had encyclopedias or books. I finally found a paperback novel translated to English, written by his Aide de camp, "With Rommel In The Desert" it had a lot of black and white photos of the North African campaign with the Afrika Korps. Yup, their armor sure looked different.
I watched this series as a 6 year old. Interesting production note: The series was largely filmed on a Winery in Central California with orchards throughout. The owners agreed to explosions only if the crew would blow up a tree stump for each blast. Many of the blasts are actual tree stumps being destroyed. Another side note: Saunders hates guns in real life. Rick Jason brought rifles to the set and would offer to take him shooting when not filming. Vic Morrow always declined. Another side note: Little John always removes his helmet inside a Church. When a new Director told him not to he had a rage fit and almost quit. They left him [and his helmet] alone after that.
Frank Gorshin by far the best impressionist! He starred in two Combat episodes: - The Hell Machine (1965) … Pvt. Gavin - The Medal (1963) … Wharton. Thank You Mr. Gorshin. RIP.
To commenter IZZY you are right on about Frank Gorshins 2 COMBAT appearances.Ever notice how the scriptwriters on these tv shows RECAST the same great ACTOR in a VARIATION of a previouse episode he starred in. In Gorshins case the MEDAL episode had him jump on the tank and use the machine gun to cut down the enemy-while this episode the HELL MACHINE had him drive the tank!! I guess hen the scriptwriters need a few more episode story lines they come up with a variation of a previous story.
@@gator6551 The episode was called "The Duel" with Bobby Rydell as the trapped private under a truck axle while Saunders battled a German tank on his own.
It was also broadcast in Japan in the 1960s. Of course, the voice actors said the lines in Japanese, so it wasn't until the 1990s that I first heard the voices of Vic Morrow and Rick Jason. Perhaps because I was used to the voice of a voice actor, I was shocked in a sense, saying, "Eh! Such a voice!" I have some on VHS and DVD, but I'm lucky to see them on RU-vid now. By using Google translation.
I remember watching Combat when I was 5 years old when my Dad was stationed in Ft Benning, Georgia....I liked this tv show because my father was a Decorated Veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam...RIP Dad...
How refreshing to see all the episode's exterior scenes filmed at Thousand Oaks -- truly "opening up" the show -- and not on the over-used, already-seen-from-every-angle Franklin Canyon Reservoir and MGM backlots. The added production expense and time that resulted in the aerial views pays off magnificently. Act III: When the German officer's car finally outran the tank and Saunders sprayed the four occupants with waist level firing of his uncanny Thompson (accurate from any firing position and at any distance ; never requires reloading), the camera clearly shows the terminal damage to the enemy's radio on board. A key point. Yet, viewers don't witness whether all the fired-upon Germans' wounds were instantly fatal. In a similar, real life, war-time situation Saunders would have approached the vehicle and administered the coup de grace -- a grisly measure to insure information of their tank being commandeered by Americans isn't blasted all over the enemy's radio broadcast system. Presenting it "delicately," perhaps off camera, we could have heard the gunshot(s) from Saunders' pistol, "finishing off" the wounded. I suggest "off camera" because the fatal elimination -- and at point-blank range -- would be too graphic for many viewers, including too many parents sure to complain about disturbing their impressionable children's entertainment viewing. A fault: The grisly wounded American officer would have been experiencing shock by Act IV. And been less communicative. OR screaming for Saunders to administer a morphine shot. I like 'The Hell Machine''; it's within my personal "Combat!" Top Ten. Again, on behalf of fans, "thank you" to provider GR160289.
SC Vandy I f you grew up in the 60's the vietnam war was raging and the FCC was on a mission to reduce the violence or tone it down. Lots of good shows were cancelled
Love the jeeps. When I was stationed at Ft. Hood in 1979 with the 1st Cavalry division, the 2nd Armored and III Corps, they still had WWII era jeeps for us in the motorpool. Really fun to ride in but hard to get parts for at times.
A simple plot yet so suspenseful! I bet the inspired scriptwriters summed their plot up in 2 sentences! Action packed at the end. What an adrenaline rush! It’s stories like these viewers rave about to their friends recommending to watch this particular episode.
What happened to the crew of these shows? The actors, directors, writers all phenomenal talent! I know they have passed but they should have taught their children how to write and act. Hollywood does not make shows like this anymore. Shot in 6 days and with a low budget. Amazing!
Gotta Love Frank Gorshin! Always plays the "weasel", kind of scared, "Tough Guy". Gorshin fills a niche that no other actor could quite provide. Gorshin is part of my lifetime of TV memories. Almost feel like I knew the guy...
Yes, it seems ashamed to kill someone who was just trying to help, even if they were SS, who would have thought we'd be helping each other get to the moon 20 years later, just learned myself that the Germans invented the air driven torque wrench around 1980 type ALKITRONIC if you're interested...
What a great show better than half the stuff now the old sarge tuff as nails pity he accidentally died making a movie I remember Theis shows were on a Friday nights when I was 12 years old . Brian Perth Australia.
Watched it as a kid. Loved it and the Rat Patrol. Something about these old shows. Not like today all soap operas and how much T&A and swearing can they get away with. You know Not 1 actor in this episode use a single swear word, not 1 !!! And it was still good. Just could never figure out at the end why Sgt. Saunders, smart as he was, didn't load and fire the tanks main gun when they pulled them out of the ditch. Could have destroyed it in one shot of course that would have meant the Riddler wouldn't have been able to make all those nice circles in the dirt driving the tank around but it would have been exciting to see them fire the main gun and take out that tank. Still a great show every week. Combat and the Rat Patrol. Where did time go????
Watched this show as a kid, then starting in my high school years I worked with my Dad in a machine shop manufacturing parts for these very same tanks! Also, Dad was a tank driver in WWll.❤
I remember when I lived in Gibraltar in the sixties my father used to watch COMBAT. Like most men at that time they had fought with the British Army, in WW2 ,and was in Regiment of with a high percentage of Irish Republic citizens. Over 100,000 from Eire fought to destroy Nazi Germany, and were treated very badly by the Republic Ireland Government, that many were forced to go back to Britain to get away from the hostility of their own Nation, after the war. Irish Goverment had a plan called operation starvation to exact revenge on their own citizens who fought against the Nazis. Please look it up. They were forgotten Hero’s.
If that's so, there's not a thing about any Irish "Operation Starvation" on the Internet. Maybe you're thinking of the Irish from Northern Ireland, which wasn't part of the Republic. I cannot imagine that many Irish from the Republic joining the British after the Brits seized all the Irish ports during the war.
Well .... what can I say .... I am very impressed about this particular part of the whole series. I love the most this part of the two "dancing around" > "German" tanks, which prevented the German one of using its main gun !!!! That was so cool !!!! It was a great pleasure to watch it !!!!
Could have grabbed that German staff car but that would have required moving the captain again. Would have made faster going once they did, though. Frank Gorshin was an Army veteran. He was assigned to Special Services, naturally.
4:10 Saunders approaches the stalled tank right where the tank's coaxial or eyebrow MG could have ripped him in half. He'd have approached a buttoned-up tank from the rear.
THE craziest episode yet! German tank drives up & crew keels over; captain happens to speak German with no accent even though badly wounded, comes to at right moment; Germans don't notice uniform, etc. - they would have been shot as spies for wearing enemy hats & stolen vehicle, ooh boy
In all the episodes I've never seen a German made truck like Mercedes, Opel or Hanomag. The German vehicles are always made by GMC, Ford, Chevrolet or Canadian CPT's, Dodge Ambulances etc, etc. The halftracks are M3 ore M5 instead Hanomag. Only in the Africa campaign and the Battle of the Bulge the Germans used captured vehicles. In Africa both the Germans and English troops, in Belgium the Nazi SS dressed in American uniforms to infiltrate behind American lines. I understand German WW2 equipment was hard get those days.
@@adamnoman4658 Many of the people behind this show actually served in WWII as did quite a few of the guest actors and directors. You are a fool of the first order.
@@adamnoman4658 Saunders represents 50 or more seargents who faced problems in WWII. This is realistic. My dad served in the Korean occupation in 1949 and faced wicked snipers. K
I always loved Frank Gorshin! Growing up in the 50's and 60's he seemed like an old friend. Played such a great variety of Characters. As a young man he could play an ageless character in such Classics as "The Untouchables" and more. He is missed...
Imperdible esta serie por canal.4 en nuestro el salvador querido esos anos 70tas un saludos desde el sur de california bendiciones camaradas de la 3/2 de artilleros
When you are in a tight spot you have to keep a level head. Sometimes the most craziest ideas will work long enough to get further if you didn't. Saunders knew he didn't have a chance if they were on foot.
LMFAO! I used to watch this show as a kid. Little did I realize at the time how unrealistic the plots were. Still however, this episode was very entertaining.
ive been watching combat shows and this is the only one that struck me as unrealistic so far but basically just how it happened to stop in front of them w a dead crew.
@@danielpitti9761 There is a line in one of the shows, where Kirby is sitting by a tree, complaining of group of other soldiers being "clowns" or something like that. Saunders reply is, "I got you, don't I?"
This is very accurate. Complaining is part of the psyche of the American Soldier. If he's not complaining, somethings wrong. From my 22 year experience in the Army as both NCO and officer.
This was one of my favorite shows grew up in England never missed it when I new series came on we had two channels lol tv BBC1 and ITV wow it was awesome when BBC2 showed up Kirby was the man for sure 👍
Hmm. What's a Walker Bulldog Tank(I think that is the model, not sure with all that German graffiti) doing in World War 2?? If it were there, the Germans AND the Russians would be in trouble! The California National Guard provided the tank and were operated by a Sergeant and a Major. The episode was filmed at Thousand Oaks and they were in the middle of a cold snap when it was filmed!! You can find out a lot online...............
