this gentlemen is fantastic! I've studied US armor for years and Ton's stories beat the heck out of reading dry statistics about the tanks. Statistics don't win wars, men like Tom Sator did.
@@markpaul-ym5wg Do you mean 1) do I crawl inside the tanks?, I used to get in every one that I could, or 2) did I serve in the Armed Forces; I'm ashamed to say that my asthma prevented me from serving. I have often regretted that.
Mr. Sator, thank you for giving this interview. My generation is definitely listening. My grandfather was a codebreaker at the same time you were in Europe. I'm glad you didn't have to go to Japan.
This is a jewel! You have struck gold with Mr. Sator's experiences! Kudos! The benefit is that we have his experience in this recording. As each generation dies, their experiences are lost. As resources dwindle, we become poorer. If we remember people like Mr. Sator, we are not as impoverished and are wiser because of him.
Just, wow. Thank you Mr. Sator, I for one, am utterly humbled by your experience and words cannot express my gratitude for your service and sacrifice. I know there is so much more to your story and I would love the opportunity to hear you tell it. What you shared is going to be viewed and reviewed for the rest of our history now. You make me proud to be a decent person.
Rest in peace mister Sator. You were a great man. You are a shining example how we as men should aspire to become. Respect for you and your fellow men at arms.
He will rest in peace, a Simple man making his was to the World, And a Bad Ass of he is Godbless his soul and may the West Know them and their sacrifice as we do now.
I would give you a thousand thumbs up for uploading it,Chieftain,but I only could give one.Because I always wondering,how many "internationals" like Mr. Sator,were fighting during the war.What was their experience,how did they live through the war ... and so many other questions.It helps me a bit to understand those times and to understand my grandfathers family and generation. Thank you for sharing this interview.
Thank you for posting the whole thing! Individual stories are a fascinating perspective. Everyone knows the broader political and military history, the personnel experiences and opinions of those that were there are a great thing to have. Especially when those that were there are thinning rapidly in recent years. Thank you both for the time and effort. :)
SGT Sator seems like a genuinely sweet soul. Thank you Sergeant Sator for the freedom I have to serve and retire. And SGT Sator is right. The German people always treated us well when I was there (shortly after the Cold War ended 91-94).
What a nice man . These are the men who are the real Americans : soldiers, Dad's , who came home and built the country that sadly is decaying around us . Remember them and honor them by standing up for the values which are incompatible with the forces of evil !
The not lighting more than two smokes from a match dates back to the first world war. Lighting up three smokes off the one match would give a sniper the chance to draw a bead on you . I heard this from a WW I veteran of western front when I was a child and it is something I have never forgotten . It was a practice that I observed during the many years that I smoked , not that there was much danger of snipers in peacetime rural Australia , out of respect for my countrymen who never made it home.
I love these interviews. I just wish there were video cameras back throughout history. American Civil and revolutionary wars, roman massacre of teutoburg forest... I guess there weren't any survivors to interview on that one lol. Could have interviewed the Germans that did most of the killing. But all those stories, all that history and individual perspectives gone forever. I'm so grateful people took the time to do this.
Easy going hero...matter-of-fact description of loading those 7 rounds that killed a German- marked Sherman by direct fire was unique and thrilling. I'm proud of him and his fellow soldiers, those who returned and those who did not.Thank you Sgt. Sator.
LOL...they were talking Bavarian...and no body can understand that! HOW TRUE!!! Nick, You sound so far away from him, like you are 100 yards away. Please, get closer, bear in mind these guys are older, but its also a bit more personal when your chair is closer to the guy you are interviewing. Just watch 60minutes, they are not more than 10ft away. I love the fact you are doing this and there are so many veterans, keep going, for all their flags!
I love it when he explains how much he loved the Sherman even though it didn't have the best of guns. He perfectly explains why a gun on a tank is far from everything. The memory on this fantastic old man is remarkable! This must be the best video Ive seen in a long, long time! Thank you so much! :)
"Never light three guys on a match" "I've never heard that one" Odd, I've never served in the military & I've heard that one. It's from the allied trenches in WWI. The story goes that the German snipers were very good. They'd see the match light & by the time the match got to the third guy the sniper was well aimed. Apparently the third guy often got knocked. At least, that's how I heard it anyway.
My Uncle Oscar told me that one, he was a Combat Engineer in the south pacific during WWII and he said that was some of the things they talked about right before landing. Another was how they filled buckets with sand and stuck beers / soda's in them then filled em with gas. overnight would chill the bottles down. Never tried it myself.
Your story is very fascinating Mr. Sator! I could not encourage you enough to write or have a ghost writer put your story to written word from your birth to your days spent now. That would be a book I would love to read and reread. The part were you talk about meeting a young german girl and falling in love even with your predisposition of feelings towards germans. The storys coming out of Hollywood were never so romantic. You are the Real Deal in my book Mr. Sator I would love the opportunity to read yours. You are my mother and father's and my uncles and aunts generation and anything of me that makes me proud I learned from them. I try everyday to impart the value's they taught me to my children and share with them the contribution your generation made to the world every single chance I get. Please sir, your story has value more than even you may appreciate. Do not for a moment longer debate whether or not it would be treasured, it would. Your story will remain relevant and will enrich the lives of those who read about it for generations to come.
Always worth listening to someone with hands on experience . . . which includes you, too. I hope you don't mind if I talk armor here for a moment, though I'm a Navy man: In 1974 I visited APG Maryland with fellow armor enthusiast (and, later, M60A3 Driver) DLH. During our photo session there, I fell in with a white haired gentleman of short stature (just thought I'd rub it in a bit) who had a delightfully Austrian English lilt to his speech. Being young, dumb, and upward thumb, I engaged this gentleman in trivial conversation, but, to my utter privilege and pleasure, he began to relate his wartime experiences to me. He was a StuG crewmember-commander-and here's the salient point he made sure to imprint upon me, and which I hope you will not mind me sharing with yourself and the WoT audience (and I paraphrase here): "You know why you won? It was the tracks. Ours were good for 500 kilometers. Yours lasted three thousand kilometers. We simply could not get enough replacements, what with the bombing and all." For want of a nail . . . * I quite appreciate his natural bias, toward his vehicle and toward the ability of his service to win the war on other fronts-the technical, ELINT, Tactical and Operational Commands, Logistical, and, of course, the constant battle of industries between his people and ours . . . still, I bet his point has intrinsic value and is worth relating. And to all USA Tankers and Tankees who went and saw the elephant: Thanks for holding the line.
Great interview. Thanks for sharing. Watched it twice, second time with subtitles. Thought it might help. It doesn’t. In fact made me laugh at google’s attempt. A bit like when Mr Sator tried to translate Bavarian accent and couldn’t.
Wonderful to hear the attitudes and the thoughts of someone who was actually there, using the equipment and dealing with the problems. Interesting comments on the optics the Sherman had in comparison with the German optics. It seems the Sherman's were designed for naval guns. Does anyone know of any other evidence of this?
Hearing this really made me realize just how much I missed from not having my grandfathers around as they died when I was very young. While neither were tankmen nor do I think that they had as interesting a story as Sator, nonetheless they were undoubtedly a fountain of wisdom and had great stories to tell. My favorite part was about how he became a citizen. Not only was the fact that it looked like he was gonna get whacked by the mob hilarious only for it to be one of the most wholesome ways of giving this man citizenship, it also was the most beautiful type of citizenships. I have no doubt that Mr. Sator had a great appreciation for this country. While our grandfathers may have fought for it, most were already citizens. Mr. Sator's citizenship was secured through his service to the country. One of the things that I wish was discussed was the Holocaust. Sator was not only Jew but also a Hungarian one at that. Needless to say, this probably hit very close to home for him and I would have liked to have heard if he stumbled across one of the camps or something. I can't even imagine what that would have been like. However perhaps some things should not be asked. Anyway, great interview and Sator seems like he was a really stand up guy. God rest his soul.
The interview is more thang good but don't understand why was the interviewer so far from the person he's interviewing. So weird when he's asking question. Why can't he just sit beside the man?
Interesting story. I recognize that accent. A Hungarian, like both my parents were. They however were still young kids in a fascist government when WWII was happening. They didn't get to come to the USA until after the 1956 revolution, after many years of living under communism. My father became a US citizen when he enlisted in the US Army after wandering around Italy for a while. I don't know the whole story about that but that's what he told me.
hey chieftain can I maybe get his contact my grandfather worked in counter intelligence in Germany at this time as an officer after his time in the cavalry and I'm thinking he may have know my grandfather as he was also a working in the OSS for awhile after the war?
my grandfather's name was Morris Grossman and he was with the 11th cavalry before he was put into the OSS and did alot of work for them and after the war at the Nuremberg trials and later in Japan and Korea under general MacArthur
My father was in the Battle Bulge 4th and 11th drove Tanks he told me after the war the Russians were on one side of the river and US on the other The Russians wanted to buy his uniform there's was rough in texture .
3 On a match came from WW1. At night, the time it took to light 3 cigarettes gave German snipers time to line up on the glow of the match and shoot. And how has this got 14 dislikes ??
"The Sherman was a very impressive piece of equipment". I can only imagine what it would feel like to be a tanker in one of the massive German behemoths of late WWII. Like the Panther, the Tiger I or the Königstiger.
Its a funny thing that the gentleman from Hungary does not pronounce Budapset correctly, not to be picky...great interview however...I'm happy he came out of the war in good order mentally unlike my Dad...
this gentlemen is fantastic! I've studied US armor for years and Ton's stories beat the heck out of reading dry statistics about the tanks. Statistics don't win wars, men like Tom Sator did.
Have you ever studied armor from inside a tank?
@@markpaul-ym5wg Do you mean 1) do I crawl inside the tanks?, I used to get in every one that I could, or 2) did I serve in the Armed Forces; I'm ashamed to say that my asthma prevented me from serving. I have often regretted that.
Mr Sapor - I’m British and your good feelings about my country are reciprocated
Thanks for your service Mr. Stator and your story is fantastic. We need more tanker interviews, especially from the greatest generation.
Can't believe I only found this just now. Incredibly precious to have such recordings as the number of these people inevitably dwindles.
Mr. Sator, thank you for giving this interview. My generation is definitely listening. My grandfather was a codebreaker at the same time you were in Europe. I'm glad you didn't have to go to Japan.
This is a jewel! You have struck gold with Mr. Sator's experiences! Kudos! The benefit is that we have his experience in this recording. As each generation dies, their experiences are lost. As resources dwindle, we become poorer. If we remember people like Mr. Sator, we are not as impoverished and are wiser because of him.
Just, wow. Thank you Mr. Sator, I for one, am utterly humbled by your experience and words cannot express my gratitude for your service and sacrifice. I know there is so much more to your story and I would love the opportunity to hear you tell it. What you shared is going to be viewed and reviewed for the rest of our history now. You make me proud to be a decent person.
Rest in peace mister Sator. You were a great man. You are a shining example how we as men should aspire to become. Respect for you and your fellow men at arms.
Passed Nov 29,2017 Dearly missed
💔💔🇺🇸🇺🇸🙏😇
He will rest in peace, a Simple man making his was to the World,
And a Bad Ass of he is
Godbless his soul and may the West Know them and their sacrifice as we do now.
I do hope you get to interview more veterans, increasingly rare a breed as they are these days, regrettably.
I would give you a thousand thumbs up for uploading it,Chieftain,but I only could give one.Because I always wondering,how many "internationals" like Mr. Sator,were fighting during the war.What was their experience,how did they live through the war ... and so many other questions.It helps me a bit to understand those times and to understand my grandfathers family and generation.
Thank you for sharing this interview.
think a good example for the other side of that coin would be guys like Guy Sajer who were conscripted as part of the VolksDeutsch initiative.
wow, very happy to have it in full, thank you so much, Major.
Nick, I would like to thank your for this. This gentleman is delightful! I know you had to really enjoy this interview! Thanks for this.
Thank you for posting the whole thing! Individual stories are a fascinating perspective. Everyone knows the broader political and military history, the personnel experiences and opinions of those that were there are a great thing to have. Especially when those that were there are thinning rapidly in recent years.
Thank you both for the time and effort. :)
Thank you. The raw footage has value in and of itself.
A fine piece of work, Mr. Moran. Looking forward to more interviews and tank reviews. The combo is really enlightening...
Thanks so much for posting this.
Excellent video.
SGT Sator seems like a genuinely sweet soul. Thank you Sergeant Sator for the freedom I have to serve and retire. And SGT Sator is right. The German people always treated us well when I was there (shortly after the Cold War ended 91-94).
Best hour I've spent in a long time. I smiled the whole time. Thanks.
What a great smile. What a great guy.
Great interview!! Wish you'd do more like that!
What a wonderful generation of people. I love hearing about their experiences during the war.
A great vid for Veterans Day. Couldn't have enjoyed anything more. Cheers!!
what a delightful man! this video is a real treasure. a priceless primary source for the serious student of history
My WW1 grandfather said just the same. "if you have an education you don't need a suitcase to put it in". Words of wisdom.
A perfect video for Remembrance/Veterans Day! Thanks Cheiftain o7
A real gem of the internet! Such a human nice guy! The best feature I have ever seen from the chieftain
What a nice man . These are the men who are the real Americans : soldiers, Dad's , who came home and built the country that sadly is decaying around us . Remember them and honor them by standing up for the values which are incompatible with the forces of evil !
The not lighting more than two smokes from a match dates back to the first world war. Lighting up three smokes off the one match would give a sniper the chance to draw a bead on you . I heard this from a WW I veteran of western front when I was a child and it is something I have never forgotten . It was a practice that I observed during the many years that I smoked , not that there was much danger of snipers in peacetime rural Australia , out of respect for my countrymen who never made it home.
I love these interviews. I just wish there were video cameras back throughout history. American Civil and revolutionary wars, roman massacre of teutoburg forest... I guess there weren't any survivors to interview on that one lol. Could have interviewed the Germans that did most of the killing. But all those stories, all that history and individual perspectives gone forever. I'm so grateful people took the time to do this.
Thank you for your service MR Sator.
Easy going hero...matter-of-fact description of loading those 7 rounds that killed a German- marked Sherman by direct fire was unique and thrilling.
I'm proud of him and his fellow soldiers, those who returned and those who did not.Thank you Sgt. Sator.
Great interview, please make more!
Hail to legends like him, so few live today, and, they are more and more few each day. bless the soldier lord, and collect them to your arms.
Absolutely great thanks so much for posting this
LOL...they were talking Bavarian...and no body can understand that!
HOW TRUE!!!
Nick, You sound so far away from him, like you are 100 yards away.
Please, get closer, bear in mind these guys are older, but its also a bit more personal when your chair is closer to the guy you are interviewing.
Just watch 60minutes, they are not more than 10ft away.
I love the fact you are doing this and there are so many veterans, keep going, for all their flags!
You know, he probably doesn't have a microphone on.
Thank you .
He is a joy of live.. honest and straightforward..... respect....
Wow! Man, this is awesome!
I love it when he explains how much he loved the Sherman even though it didn't have the best of guns. He perfectly explains why a gun on a tank is far from everything.
The memory on this fantastic old man is remarkable! This must be the best video Ive seen in a long, long time! Thank you so much! :)
Charming man. In his 90s'? Astonishing.
Awesome video and awesome man!!
Thanks to this Old Breed who laid it on the line for all of us! A Child of the great depression! ENOUGH SAID!
"Never light three guys on a match"
"I've never heard that one"
Odd, I've never served in the military & I've heard that one. It's from the allied trenches in WWI.
The story goes that the German snipers were very good. They'd see the match light & by the time the match got to the third guy the sniper was well aimed. Apparently the third guy often got knocked. At least, that's how I heard it anyway.
My Uncle Oscar told me that one, he was a Combat Engineer in the south pacific during WWII and he said that was some of the things they talked about right before landing. Another was how they filled buckets with sand and stuck beers / soda's in them then filled em with gas. overnight would chill the bottles down. Never tried it myself.
true story.
paspax I think he'd never heard of it as a tank tradition
When you're inside a tank it doesn't matter how many light a cigarette off a match...
It works. We did it in the USMC in the early 80's @ Camp Lejeune/New River AS.
What a great guy
Your story is very fascinating Mr. Sator! I could not encourage you enough to write or have a ghost writer put your story to written word from your birth to your days spent now. That would be a book I would love to read and reread. The part were you talk about meeting a young german girl and falling in love even with your predisposition of feelings towards germans. The storys coming out of Hollywood were never so romantic. You are the Real Deal in my book Mr. Sator I would love the opportunity to read yours. You are my mother and father's and my uncles and aunts generation and anything of me that makes me proud I learned from them. I try everyday to impart the value's they taught me to my children and share with them the contribution your generation made to the world every single chance I get. Please sir, your story has value more than even you may appreciate. Do not for a moment longer debate whether or not it would be treasured, it would. Your story will remain relevant and will enrich the lives of those who read about it for generations to come.
Tom's opinion of Fury matches my own.
Really interesting interview. The elephant in the room: what happened in the bazooka incident?
this is now my favorite video.
wow. what a gentleman.
Always worth listening to someone with hands on experience . . . which includes you, too.
I hope you don't mind if I talk armor here for a moment, though I'm a Navy man:
In 1974 I visited APG Maryland with fellow armor enthusiast (and, later, M60A3 Driver) DLH. During our photo session there, I fell in with a white haired gentleman of short stature (just thought I'd rub it in a bit) who had a delightfully Austrian English lilt to his speech. Being young, dumb, and upward thumb, I engaged this gentleman in trivial conversation, but, to my utter privilege and pleasure, he began to relate his wartime experiences to me.
He was a StuG crewmember-commander-and here's the salient point he made sure to imprint upon me, and which I hope you will not mind me sharing with yourself and the WoT audience (and I paraphrase here):
"You know why you won? It was the tracks. Ours were good for 500 kilometers. Yours lasted three thousand kilometers. We simply could not get enough replacements, what with the bombing and all."
For want of a nail . . .
* I quite appreciate his natural bias, toward his vehicle and toward the ability of his service to win the war on other fronts-the technical, ELINT, Tactical and Operational Commands, Logistical, and, of course, the constant battle of industries between his people and ours . . . still, I bet his point has intrinsic value and is worth relating.
And to all USA Tankers and Tankees who went and saw the elephant:
Thanks for holding the line.
Great interview. Thanks for sharing.
Watched it twice, second time with subtitles. Thought it might help. It doesn’t. In fact made me laugh at google’s attempt. A bit like when Mr Sator tried to translate Bavarian accent and couldn’t.
Wonderful to hear the attitudes and the thoughts of someone who was actually there, using the equipment and dealing with the problems. Interesting comments on the optics the Sherman had in comparison with the German optics. It seems the Sherman's were designed for naval guns. Does anyone know of any other evidence of this?
Really an ingradable interview.
Hearing this really made me realize just how much I missed from not having my grandfathers around as they died when I was very young. While neither were tankmen nor do I think that they had as interesting a story as Sator, nonetheless they were undoubtedly a fountain of wisdom and had great stories to tell.
My favorite part was about how he became a citizen. Not only was the fact that it looked like he was gonna get whacked by the mob hilarious only for it to be one of the most wholesome ways of giving this man citizenship, it also was the most beautiful type of citizenships. I have no doubt that Mr. Sator had a great appreciation for this country. While our grandfathers may have fought for it, most were already citizens. Mr. Sator's citizenship was secured through his service to the country.
One of the things that I wish was discussed was the Holocaust. Sator was not only Jew but also a Hungarian one at that. Needless to say, this probably hit very close to home for him and I would have liked to have heard if he stumbled across one of the camps or something. I can't even imagine what that would have been like. However perhaps some things should not be asked.
Anyway, great interview and Sator seems like he was a really stand up guy. God rest his soul.
Audio is too low. Thanks for sharing.
Man, I wish this guy was my grandpa
Me too.
LOVED his story about his citizenship swearing-in!
Thanks, Manic.
Be nice if the volume was high enough!
The interview is more thang good but don't understand why was the interviewer so far from the person he's interviewing. So weird when he's asking question. Why can't he just sit beside the man?
Somebody make a movie out of this story, please
Why are you interviewing him from another room? Down the hall. Over speaker phone. :-)
Yeah, a lot of these interviews are hard to hear because they don't do mic checks or sound balance. Nicholas should know better.
The parts about the creature comforts LMAO
Interesting story. I recognize that accent. A Hungarian, like both my parents were. They however were still young kids in a fascist government when WWII was happening. They didn't get to come to the USA until after the 1956 revolution, after many years of living under communism. My father became a US citizen when he enlisted in the US Army after wandering around Italy for a while. I don't know the whole story about that but that's what he told me.
Salute!
Love the stove story.
Please can we get subtitles of the interviewer's speech? His voice is difficult to hear & the closed captions are a joke.
A wise man in so many ways!
How about using a microphone so we can hear the questions? Just a thought.
He was so cold his balls were rattling lol awesome interview. Thank you sir
hey chieftain can I maybe get his contact my grandfather worked in counter intelligence in Germany at this time as an officer after his time in the cavalry and I'm thinking he may have know my grandfather as he was also a working in the OSS for awhile after the war?
my grandfather's name was Morris Grossman and he was with the 11th cavalry before he was put into the OSS and did alot of work for them and after the war at the Nuremberg trials and later in Japan and Korea under general MacArthur
Hey Major! Where's that sweet funky background music at?
Anyone else catch the punch? I was a big shot.... you were A TANK!!!!
Man I would have loved to have shook this man's hand.trully the greatest generation
Very interesting man.
Rip Cow
So that's why you asked if anyone had apricots when you were recording sound.
Whose the guy hes talking about at 14:00?
if possible can you do a in side the hach on the m4a3e8 sherman plz :)
great
This guy is witty
Answers a question with a question...Lovely old Jewish chap.Full of humour
shame some of the questions were so poor - it would be better to just let the chap talk
My father was in the Battle Bulge 4th and 11th drove Tanks he told me after the war the Russians were on one side of the river and US on the other The Russians wanted to buy his uniform there's was rough in texture .
I was a babe in arms in Suhl, Germany, when US tankers rolled in. I wonder if it might have been his outfit.
Until about a month before he Died we had lunch together almost every Wednesday warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/wwii/the-face-of-battle/
Sound level is crap
3 On a match came from WW1. At night, the time it took to light 3 cigarettes gave German snipers time to line up on the glow of the match and shoot.
And how has this got 14 dislikes ??
14 snowflakes who are offended by freedom and the American flag.
He doesn't look like 93
Why you NEVER volunteer for ANYTHING
Back then no one had to volunteer for anything. Man volunteered and earned his American citizenship. Kudos SGT Sator.
"The Sherman was a very impressive piece of equipment".
I can only imagine what it would feel like to be a tanker in one of the massive German behemoths of late WWII. Like the Panther, the Tiger I or the Königstiger.
The volune is to low
Volume level poor... thumbs down!
20:588 you know .. i'll bet that all the us tanks that got hit had ....k rations....maybe its the k rations that are bad luck lol
Its a funny thing that the gentleman from Hungary does not pronounce Budapset correctly, not to be picky...great interview however...I'm happy he came out of the war in good order mentally unlike my Dad...
first
L