Podbit · The Rest Is Entertainment
The American Sherman tank couldn't match German Panzers on firepower or armour. But the US won because they simply had vastly more of them. Tom Hanks says this answer — pure industrial volume — genuinely surprised him.
Where this was said
At 29:40 · chapter starts 29:30
James Regan asks the simple but perfectly pitched question: what is Tom Hanks's favourite tank? Hanks throws himself into it with genuine enthusiasm, recounting his conversations with WW2 experts who explained that the American Sherman was not a technical match for German Cromwells or Panzers. [1] — Tom Hanks "Sherman tank: a volume business: Experts told Tom Hanks the American Sherman tank succeeded in WW2 not because of technical superiority ove…" 29:40 The American answer? Volume. They just made vastly more Sherman tanks. It's a satisfying, counterintuitive piece of military history from a man who has clearly done his homework — and it connects directly to the WW2 destroyer film he revealed earlier in the interview.
Experts told Tom Hanks the American Sherman tank succeeded in WW2 not because of technical superiority over German Panzers, but simply because the US produced vastly more of them.
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Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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