I thought the movie was pretty dismal to be honest. The Germans seemed hopelessly incompetent in every scene. I'll preface by saying I have zero military experience, so the below are just observations I'm making based on having studied all things military in university and just generally having an unhealthy interest in military affairs. I'd be interested in getting opinions from people here who have more firsthand knowledge. At first glance, the movie seemed like a crock to me at least.
In the first part of the movie, Fury and a few other tanks accompanied by infantry move through a town. At one point, a bunch of German infantry armed with rifles open up from the second floor of a house about 30m directly on front of Fury, which is in the lead. Of course they're immediately wiped out. Why wouldn't they have waited until the tanks were immediately below? The Shermans wouldn't have been able to engage with their main guns so for a few moments at least it would have been a straight infantry fight. I know that there were plenty of poorly trained conscripts at this point, but it still seemed like an overly dumb move.
In the same town a few moments later, Fury rounds a corner and about 20m away is a German AT gun (it looked like a 75 but it was hard to tell). The Germans hit Fury almost right away(though not quickly enough , and then gun crew seems to be frantically adjusting their aim despite the fact that the target is 20 yards away and clearly about to hit them with HE and MG. A good crew would be able to get another round off in just a few seconds (though I suppose it's possible they were trying to hit a more vulnerable part of the tank). Also, even a 50mm round at that close range would have a great chance at penetrating the frontal armour of a Sherman, even the late models.
The final crossroads scene was ridiculous. The approaching SS battalion are clearly seen with numerous Panzerfausts on their shoulders, and yet when they're engaged by Fury it takes quite awhile (hard to tell with the time scale of the movie as it's almost immediatly dark in the next scene, but probably 10 minutes) to get any of them in the fight. Fury is hit with a couple at close range, and one crew member is killed. The Germans then resort to human wave style attacks at night, against an unsupported immobile tank and somehow they can't kill it. Predictably, we're treated to 10 minutes of hapless Germans being machine gunned as they insist on running back and forth across the road right on front of Fury. At one point, Brad Pitt tosses smoke out of the tank so he can grab extra ammo from the .30 on the top of the tank. He's basically obscured his own crew's fields of fire, and somehow the "crack" SS aren't able to take advantage of this. At this point not a single German has even attempted to go around behind the tank and hit it with a Panzerfaust. There are hedgerows on both sides, and still the Germans insist on charging head on into MG fire. Then there's an intrepid German sniper who starts low crawling to within 30m of the tank despite the fact that he could probably hit anyone sticking their head out of the hatch at far further distances
