Shown Their Work / Girls und Panzer

Due to the length of the trope entry in the main page this specific trope entry has been given its own page.

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The Vehicles

• As the title suggests, the tanks used are all based on actual tanks; aversions become noteworthy.
  • Episode 1 shows: The British Churchill Mk VII and Matilda II, the German Panzer IV, StuG III and Panzer 38(t), the Japanese Type 89 I-Go^note The Alleged Tank and the American M3 Lee^note for extra Shown Their Work bonus, it's mentioned in the official website to be in the British "Grant" configuration, and is correctly shown to be lacking an MG in the commander's cupola. Also, the British Mark IV (male) and Medium Mark A Whippet and the German A7V and Panzer III were shown in the recruitment film.
    • Episode 1 also averts the trope whith the Churchill's gunsights showing an incorrect "6 Pdr" label.^note While the most famous Churchill variants did, in fact, carry a 6-pounder gun, the Churchill VII (which is not only meticulously rendered but also labeled as one in the manga) carried a 75mm gun instead (although this was a bored-out 6-pounder done for two reasons: standardising ammunition and increasing power of HE shells). However it was far easier for tankers to refer the gun as a six-pounder, so it is more of a semantic issue.
  • Episode 2 shows: The Japanese Type 10, and the Kawasaki C-2 transport plane that delivers it, using the LAPES method. ^note LAPES as an airdrop method for cargo and tanks is a sound concept, as proven by the M551 Sheridan and airdrop tests for the M1 Abrams; however the practicality of airdropping a Main Battle Tank into combat is questionable. It could be done, but it is generally not worthwhile to do so.
  • Episode 4 shows: The British Crusader, the American M4 Sherman, and a brief shot of the British Panjandrum.
  • Episode 5 shows: The American M4A1(76)W Sherman, with the longer, more powerful 76mm gun, and the Sherman Firefly, a British modification packing the immensely powerful 17-pounder. It also has scale models of an Italian Fiat 2000 World War I heavy tank and of an American M25 "Dragon Wagon" Tank Transporter.
  • Episode 6 shows: The Soviet T-34-85, the Polish 7TP (twin-turreted MG version), the Japanese Type 97 Chi-Ha and pre-WWII FT-Ko^note which likely only serves the purpose of a Visual Pun, and the German Panzer VI Tiger I. Also featured is the Focke-Achgelis Fa 223, a rare WW2-era German helicopter.
  • Episode 7 shows: The French Char B1 bis, the German Tiger(P)^note The Tiger(P) is not the same as the production Panzer VI Tiger. It was designed by Porsche but lost to the Henschel design in the competition. The already produced chassis then became the basis of the Ferdinand/Elefant tank destroyer and the Italian Carro Armato P 26/40, Carro Veloce L3/35 and Semovente 75/18.
  • Episode 8 shows: The Soviet IS-2, KV-2 and T-34 Model 1943^note with hexagonal welded turret, commander cupola and improved F-34 gun. Also shown are the Soviet BM-13 Katyusha rocket artillery and the British Indian ACV-IP.
  • Episode 9 shows: The Russian RF-8 Aerosled and a chibi Japanese Type 3 Chi-Nu medium tank.
  • Episode 10 shows: The German Panzer V Panther, Tiger II, Jagdpanzer IV, Jagdtiger, Jagdpanther, Ferdinand/Elefant and Hetzer, plus the Japanese Type 95 Small Personnel Carrier^note which does indeed carry just three people and American M151 MUTT.
  • Episode 11 shows: The Soviet BA-64 armored car and a fully operational German Panzer VIII Maus.
    • Episode 11 also averts the trope with the Hetzer. It shows the (slightly different) internal layout and gun mouth of the post-war (thus not Sensha-do-legal) Swiss G-13 variant.
  • OVA 1 shows: The American M3 Stuart.
  • OVA 3 shows us a lot of Academy Warships, all of them based on real aircraft carriers. Recognizable in formation are the ships of Ōarai (based on the Japanese carrier Zuikaku), Anzio (Italian-themed school, based on the never completed carrier Aquila), Kuromorimine (German-themed school, based on the carrier Graf Zeppelin), Pravda (Russian-themed school, based on the carrier Kiev), Koala (Australian-themed school, based on the British carrier Invincible^note NOT an aversion; she was offered to the Australian Navy, but ultimately remained in the Royal Navy), St. Glorianna (British-themed school, based on the carrier Ark Royal), Saunders (USA-themed school, based on the carrier George Washington), Maginot (French-themed school, based on the submersible gun cruiser aircraft carrier Surcouf^note yes, it existed), and ChiHaTan (Japanese-themed school, based on the carrier Akagi). It also shows "past" images of "historical" city-ships, including one based upon HMS Dreadnought.
    • The Ribbon Warrior manga gives us Tatenashi High School (theme yet unknown), whose ship resembles the Souryuu
  • The Ribbon Warrior spinoff gives us the Type 97 Te-Ke, the M22 Locust, the 7TP, and cameos by the Stuart M3A1, the Panzer II, the TKS, the Hamilcar glider, the Renault R35, the Renault AMR35 (ZT-1 7.5mm, ZT-1 13.2mm and ZT-2 variants) and the Panzer I.
    • One of the aforementioned noteworthy aversions comes in chapter 1 of Ribbon Warrior, depicting a battle for tanks under 10 tonnes. One of the tanks shown is an M3A1 Stuart, which is several tonnes over the top 10 tonnes weight. In chapter 5 there is the Renault R35 which only 0.4 tonnes over the limit.
    • Added to that, a few critical drawing details of that tank can only belong instead to an M2A4 (while other details are of the M3A1).^note Namely, the M2A4 had a raised iddler that was lowered to the ground in the M3A1 by a support arm whose only purpose was to allow that wheel to be lowered. The tank is drawn with BOTH raised iddler and support arm. That tank is ALSO over 10 tonnes. The same artist has drawn the same "mixed" tank in other works.
  • The Fierce fight! It's the Maginot battle! spinoff, in addition to the already-seen B1 Bis and FT-17 tanks, gives us the Renault R35 and the Somua S35. Plus the Renault UE chenillette (small tracked vehicle) and the ANF-Les Mureaux 117.R2 recon plane.
  • The movie introduces the M26 Pershing, M24 Chaffee, Centurion Mk.I, Mörser Karl and the T28 Super Heavy Tank in the University Team. The previously mentioned Medium Mark A Whippet is seen as a display, the Crusader is seen in use, as well as a Panzer II driven by Maho. Chi-Ha-Tan, aside from their abundance of Type 97 Chi-Ha, also have Type 95 Ha-Gos They also mentioned the Brummbär, Sturmtiger, the Tortoise assault tank, and the Tsar tank. Jatkosota High School brings with them a BT-42 assault gun and even shows its ability to be driven without treads. The show also features a C-5M Super Galaxy in use by Saunders and the IJN Kasuga used as a ferry. Several pre- and post-WW2 armored/scout cars are seen in use as transportation cars, including the world's very first AFV, the 1898 Simms armoured quadricycle. And Marder III ausf. M also briefly shown in World of SPG advertising◊. Meanwhile, Ami Chono is shown arriving at the Nishizumi household in a Kawasaki OH-1 "Ninja" scout attack helicopter.
  • In Das Finale Part 1, an image of the Saint-Chamond, a French WWI 'tank'^note Historically, it was classified as a tank, but it's fixed cannon, underpowered engine and terrible traverse due to it's design regulated it to a role similar to that of WWII-era self propelled artillery and assault guns is seen on a poster detailing the upcoming tournament and later, a small gold-plated model as a trophy.
    • BC Freedom Academy also boasts an all-French tank repertoire of Somua S35s, a Renault FT light tank as their flag vehicle and several ARL 44 prototype tanks that was developed near the end of WWII. Ōarai also adds a Mark IV landship, a WWI-era tank to their fleet.
    • During the start of the tournament, various vehicles can be seen parked within the venue; Saunder's M20 Scout Car, St. Gloriana's Rolls-Royce Bentley luxury car, Pravda's BA-20 armoured car and Anzio's Lancia 1ZM armoured car.
  • Das Finale Part 2 has a montage showing bits of each of the other matches in the tournament, showing a lot of minor schools and part of their tank lineups. The highlights of the new tanks are: Koala Forest High School (Australia) using a few AC1 Sentinels, Viking Fisheries High School (Norway) fielding a Neubaufahrzeug, Blue Division High (Nationalist Spain) with a Verdeja II, and Waffle Academy (Belgium) with an AMC 35 and a Vickers T-15 light tank.
    • Chi-Ha-Tan mostly sticks with their assortment of Type 97 Chi-Ha mediums, both old and new, along with the Type 95 Ha-Go, but also uses two Type 2 Ka-Mi amphibious tanks. There is also a brief shot of the O-I super-heavy tank, but it does not participate in the match.
• Not only do all the tank cannons make different (and reasonably accurate) noises, but if you listen carefully during the titles of the film, you can hear that their engines are different too.

Everything Else

• The tanks generally follow the physics of operating a tank. If you get a tank stuck in the mud, forcing it to accelerate can get it stuck deeper and eventually destroy its track. Some tanks also can't go uphill without enough momentum, something that even starting players of World of Tanks know. These things are shown in episode 3, where one tank trying to retreat gets stuck in the mud, and another has trouble going up a small incline.
• Firing on the move leads to near-guaranteed misses; tanks need to be stationary to have a better chance of an accurate hit. Gyro-stabilized tank guns would only be perfected during the Cold War, but even today tankers prefer to fire from a stationary position, then move, a technique known as "Shoot-and-Scoot."
• Also, since early tanks didn't have internal radios, it's impossible for the commander to verbally communicate with the crew over the tank's engine noise, so they had to give commands to the driver by kicking them to indicate which way to turn. Hilarity Ensues as Saori tries this on Hana in episode 2. (They later get modern radios and throat mikes. Also, by mid-World War 2, most tanks had internal radios as standard kit.)
  • In the manga, they even mention that was done mainly with the smallish Japanese tanks. Cue Saori's legs not reaching Hana's shoulders in their roomier German tank and Miho handing her a stick to poke Hana's shoulders with. The anime also showed the impracticality of kicking the driver's shoulders in that particular tank, just more subtly; Saori has to swing herself down and out of her chair in order to reach Hana.
• The Shermans seen advancing down the beach in the opening are correctly covering their front and flanks, according to American doctrine.
• The cover of the instruction manual Mako is reading is based on the historical manual printed for Panzer crews in WWII, though the picture of the man on the cover is changed into a woman.
• The instructor's shoulder patch is the correct shoulder patch for armored units of the JGSDF.
• Saunders' tactic of intercepting the Ōarai team's radio transmissions is possibly a reference to the Allies success at intercepting and decrypting Axis codes during WWII. Further, Miho's counter is a reference to Funkspiel (or any number of similar operations on any side of the war) which involved sending false information over channels you knew were intercepted and compromised by the enemy.
• The Churchill and Matilda II tanks that can somehow keep up with a Panzer IV^note The Churchill and Matilda II had top speeds of 15 and 16 mph respectively, while the Panzer IV could get up to 26 mph. sounds silly. Yet remember, the Type 89 they had in tow is as slow as the Matildas. Which again makes sense because the I-Go is in effect just a slightly upgraded (by 1930's standards) Vickers Medium Mk.II and thus follows the British infantry tank design school, which never emphasized mobility.
• An I-Go fleeing (or later, chasing) a Sherman sounds even sillier... until you remember that WWII tanks were usually driven off-road at far less than their top speed for fear of throwing a track, and THEN you watch in Episode 9 exactly up to which point is Shinobu willing to test her tank's limits.
  • Which is itself followed by a heavy tank doing exactly that (throwing a track for being driven too fast off-road) at precisely the worst (or best, if you are rooting for Ōarai) time in the Final Battle.
  • Considering that the maintenance of Ōarai's tanks is being done by the Automotive Club, it's very probable they've tuned up the Type 89's engine and suspension to make it somewhat faster than its numbers on paper would indicate.
• Miho takes advantage of the KV-2's long reload time to stop and line up a shot at one of its weak points.
  • Also, said KV-2 correctly angles its hull to maximize the chances of bounces against its armor.
  • The KV-2 is shown firing high explosive shells, which is not uncommon in the war, but it seems to do an unusual amount of collateral damage to the nearby buildings...because they're actually firing the 'concrete buster' shell, specifically designed to destroy German bunkers. Why? This shell carries less high explosive material than the older OF and F series of shells, but makes up for it with much better penetration, where it was noted to be quite useful against armored vehicles...like tanks. Perfect for Sensha-do.
• Episode 9 draws very similar parallels to Eastern Front in WWII. Like the Germans, Ōarai is surrounded by superior Russian forces who are better prepared for the cold environment. At one point, some of the Ōarai students look jealously at the Pravda students, who brought plenty of food and warm clothing while they are left shivering and hungry inside an empty church.
• The Tiger(P) is correctly portrayed as being a very finicky machine to work with, as it constantly suffers from major mechanical problems.
• The final match against Kuromorimine takes place at the East Fuji Maneuver Area, the JGSDF's major training grounds, and the home base of the Fuji School Brigade.
• The list of schools in the tournament (most of them named after tank-related WWII trivia) of episode 5 averts this. It shows one named after the Blue Division, Spanish Nationalists (winning side of the Spanish Civil War) serving under the German flag^note Spain was officially neutral in WWII, but politically and ideologically aligned with the Axis side. in Russia). They never had any tanks. Indeed, they were known for good anti-tank infantry. The ones with notorious tanks^note (theirs were the first tanks to free Paris) were the Spanish Republicans (losing side of said Spanish Civil War) serving under Free French colors. That's three things opposite to history in a row. It might be intentional, given how they don't make it past the first round..
  • And then in Das Finale, we see the same school gets their collective asses handed to them on silver platter by Saunders. Possibly referencing the vicious beatdown that Spain received from the US during the Spanish-American War
  • Speaking of Blue Division, their students can also be seen wearing seemingly ridiculous Navel-Deep Neckline uniforms that shamelessly display their cleavages. But believe it or not, those uniforms were actually inspired by the real life Spanish Legion whose members were allowed to fully display their chest even during public military parades.
• The strategy used by Kuromorimine in episode 10 may be a reference to the way the German Blitzkrieg was able to get the drop on France by maneuvering their tanks through the dense Ardennes forest, which were thought to be impassable to armor.
• Episode 2 zigzags the trope by making Erwin feed us a very wrong historical reference^note namely, that the StuG III was used in the Winter War (although she never actually mentions the conflict by name, so this is questionable) when they were actually used in the later Continuation War. It was later stated in the director's twitter that it was intentional, so history geeks would know that Erwin was sometimes wrong in historical matters.
• Other examples include Yukari shown loading a shell into the PzIV's breach using the technique described in the training manuals.
• Some fans have found a Freeze-Frame Bonus in how closely the guns' muzzle flashes match the ones from their real-life counterparts.
• The student council going to the MEXT office to discuss the fact that the school is going to be closed looks less implausible for those who have been student representatives themselves. (Downplayed in that being successful is less common in real life).
• Ask a tanker - any tanker - and they will tell you that tankers complaining about tracks being heavy, like poor Jagdpanther-chan does the second time Anzu hetzes her, is Truth in Television.
• That Negated Moment of Awesome where Hippo Team fails to take out the big bad Maus was silly, right? Firing at it from the front would be hitting its thickest armor, you have to go for the back! Except the only weak point of that particular tank, had it seen combat, would have been bouncing a shell from the lower part of its 460mm thick gun mantle into its weak (50mm) top armor. Its rear armor is too thick even for their heaviest guns. ^note 190mm - that's 40mm more than a Tiger II's front armor without the slope.
  • And Das Finale eventually provides the payoff for this in an understatedly awesome moment as Pravda goes for the exact tactic mentioned above in their match against Kuromorimine. Bonus for the successful shot coming from the KV-2, pitting the largest gun against the thickest armor in the show.
• Rabbit Team takes out an Elefant by aiming at its weakest point, the small hatch in the rear used to unload spent shells.
• Leopon team angles their hull during their You Shall Not Pass! moment in the Final Battle to absorb a staggering amount of punishment. At least three of their unangled opponents are not so lucky.
• All scenes set in Ōarai^note the coastal town, not the school ship match up with real places. The battle scene in episode 5 and the final scene in Episode 12 after they return from the finals shows the real roads and buildings along the real routes they took, down to spoofs of the names of the real stores they come across and the specific vending machines at the train station.
• The times they "prod" enemy tanks into taking certain actions (both quite spoilerific) through machinegun firing portray the quite common pre-laser sights tactic of firing a short coaxial MG burst to "zero" the main gun on the target; if the MG hit, the main gun also would. This practice meant that in tank to tank combat, many crews would treat incoming MG fire as a warning of incoming main gun fire and react appropriately.^note Laser rangefinders and computerised FCS rendered this practice obsolete, but it's still used today with certain weapons, such as the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle.
• Darjeeling's English proverbs; some of very commonplace, like "all's fair in love and war"; others, such as the "a horse may stumble though he has four feet" are fairly obscure.
• The history geeks actually pronounce "Caesar" with a hard C, the proper Latin way of doing it, rather than with the soft C commonly used by English speakers. However, this is likely just a fact that the Japanese used the Ka katakana for the word.
• Remember the face-off between Hippo Team's StuG III and Carpaccio's Semovente in the seventh OVA? Read pp. 19 & 49 of this; "Jousting with Their Main Guns: A Bizarre Tank Battle of the Korean War"
• The tiger faces painted in the Saunders -pardon, in the "Flying Tankers Tankathlon Volunteer Group"- tanks in Ribbon Warrior is closely based upon actual tiger face paint jobs upon American tanks. It didn't happen in WW2 but in Korea, but they DID choose an actual American tank tiger face to replicate.
  • And the Flying Tankers are a shout out to the Flying Tigers American Volunteer pilot group.
  • And when the Flying Tankers arrives in GAL.49 Hamilcar gliders carried by B-29 Superfortress bombers, we also see that the gliders were being guided by a forward air control team inspired by US Air Force's Combat Control Team.
• From the same spinoff series, Katyusha has a Pravda team led by Nina to enter the Tankathlon under the name of Katyusha's Volunteer Army, an obvious nod to People's Volunteer Army, a Chinese expeditionary forces deployed during the Korean War under the order of Mao Zedong himself but were organized differently outside of the People's Liberation Army jurisdiction to prevent an open war against the United States.
  • And when Katyusha, Nonna and Klara decides to enter the Tankathlon themselves, they signed to the tournament anonymously as "Polite Girls" referencing the Little Green Men, an unmarked detachment of masked soldiers (but armed with weapons and equipment that were at the time used only by the Russian military), sent by Russia to occupy Crimea during the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014. Due their supposed well-mannered behavior during the occupation, Russian media mainly refers to them as the "Polite People".
• In Episode 10, when the Automotive club are arguing over whether a tank can drift or not, one says that they can't, but another says they can and that wet pavement would make it easier. Both are correct- without two separate sets of wheels a tank can not fulfill the technical definition of drifting, but if the driver gets the tank going fast enough, then shifts to neutral and pivot steers, the momentum will keep the tank going forward while the chassis will rotate. And yes, wet pavement makes this a lot easier. Have fun replacing the transmission, though.
• In the Movie, we have Continuation High School with their BT-42 driving circles around Pershing. The speed is actually a thing given that the BT-42 is a BT-7 with a custom turret so it can hit a top speed of around 33 mph (53 kph). Then also when they lose their tracks, they utilize the BT's Christie suspension original usage of being able to drive without tracks with a steering wheel.
  • To be noted, however, to be able to drive without tracks the crew still need to install a gear on the last roadwheel like shown on this The Chieftain Hatch video^note it transferred engine power from the drivewheel to that particular roadwheel. It can be handwaved with Mika and Aki quickly installed it off-screen though.
• Continuation High School's Finnish-themed school is played not just with their tanks, but their antics in World War II. Such includes fighting superior tanks with weaker tanks^note Finland never had a dedicated tank development program and had to rely on captured tanks or aid from other countries and stealing it from their enemy. According to the CD Dramas, this is what they did to University Team after they lost and left early to escape.
• The BT-42's magnificent jump over a dry lakebed seems impossible... except a BT-7 actually did this in WWII, with a record-setting jump of 42 meters. Further, a few other instances of jumping tanks are a Shout-Out to a stunt pulled by a British tank driver, who, suddenly trapped between two enemy forces, decided to Take a Third Option, floored his tank's acceleration, and attempted to jump a 15 meter river. He succeeded, and his entire column followed suit.
• Before chasing the Anglerfish Team's Panzer IV down a flight of steps, Katyusha and Nonna wisely rotate their tanks' main guns to point toward the rear. Due to the turret placement and length of the gun barrels on the T-34/85 and the IS-2, going over uneven terrain or down an incline with the main gun pointed forward had a risk of causing damage to the gun barrel if it accidentally hit the ground. (This same problem was demonstrated in the movie White Tiger.) This also applied in the later match when Leopon and Katyusha rotate their turret backward before plowing through buildings and when a M26 Pershing started going downhill, to which they rotate their turret sideways.
• Pravda's KV-2 tips over (and disables itself) when it tries to rotate its heavy gun turret while on a rock outcropping. The historical KV-2 was notably incapable of traversing its top-heavy turret on the move precisely because of the inherent stability problem, made worse here by its positioning.
• One anthology manga chapter averts Easy Logistics and shows us how complicated tank maintenance can be. Not only could one tank include hundreds to thousands of parts and sub-components, different tank models need its own specific components and spare parts. Hoshino even lampshades that perhaps this is one reason why most schools don't needlessly mix multinational tanks on their lineup, and the Automotive Club is barely able to keep up with Ooarai team's tank maintenance because of its small team size and relatively manageable size of their tanks ^note this chapter takes place sometime not long after Anzu established Ooarai Senshado club, so the heaviest tank on Ooarai lineup would be the Panzer IV and the M3 Lee.
• During Ooarai's practice match in Episode 3, Anglerfish Team's Panzer IV receives a hit on the rear from Hippo Team's Sturmgeschütz III, however, they are not disabled. On the surface, this may look like plot armor in action, but it's actually not the case. All tanks in Sensha-Do are equipped with monitoring equipment to determine the damage they receive. Comparing the location of Hippo's Team shot to the internal layout of a Panzer IV reveals that Hippo Team hit nothing of significance, as the engine compartment for the Panzer IV is situated more right of the tank. The importance of where a land shot is again shown in the Anzio OVA, where Anzio's tankettes prove to be difficult to eliminate until Ooarai manages to finally do so with good aim.
• In the ninth OVA, Oshida and the Escalator riot squad are wearing riot gears (sans the baguette) that were inspired by the ones worn by the Republican Security Corps, a general reserve force of French National Police that are best known for their crowd and riot control duties. In addition, they are also wearing yellow banded helmets that differentiates them from their military counterpart, the Mobile Gendarmerie which has similar functions and roles.