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- "I want to win so we can prove that Miho's way of Sensha-dō is not flawed"
- ―Hana Isuzu
Episode 11 "It's a Fierce Battle!" "Gekisen desu!" (激戦です ! ); English dub: "The Battle Gets Fierce!" is the eleventh episode of Girls und Panzer. It originally aired on March 18th, 2013.
Plot[]
Following the ambush and the loss of Anteater Team, Ooarai's forces regroup on the go and retreat toward Hill 207 under the cover of a smokescreen. Kuromorimine pursues, confident that Ooarai will not be able to get away due to the weak engine of the Tiger (P) slowing them down ascending the hill. However, Ooarai maintains speed while going uphill by having their other tanks tow the Porsche Tiger and throws off Kuromorimine's aim by use of a second smokescreen. Having split off from the main force under cover of the smokescreen, Turtle Team ambushes the Kuromorimine force, blowing the tracks off a Jagdpanther and a Panther before withdrawing, slowing the Kuromorimine attack long enough for Ooarai to adopt defensive positions atop a hill.
Kuromorimine launches a frontal assault on the Ooarai position. Although Ooarai's forces immobilize a Panther and Jagdpanzer IV, their firepower is insufficient to overcome the fearsome armor of the Jagdtiger. Just as Kuromorimine closes on the Ooarai tanks, Turtle Team approaches from behind and drives their Hetzer into the very midst of the Kuromorimine lines, causing chaos as Kuromorimine's forces try to react to the close range threat. Ooarai's takes advantage of the confusion to eliminate another tank, then charges through Kuromorimine's lines as the formation falls apart. Erika gives chase alone, and lines up a clear shot as Anglerfish Team use their tank to shield the automobile club members, who are performing repairs on their engine. However, the heavy Tiger II is unsuited to high-speed cross-country driving and the tracks snap, costing Erika the shot.
Kuromorimine press the attack
Ooarai makes their retreat as Kuromorimine regroups, but are blocked by a river. Whilst crossing in line-abreast, the M3 Lee's engine fails, leaving Rabbit Team stranded in the water, at the mercy of the current. Terrified of a repeat of the previous year's scenario, Miho is at first paralyzed by indecision, but encouraged by her friends, she goes to the rescue of the first years. Leaping from one tank to the next, she takes a tow cable to the stricken M3 as the other tanks provide covering fire. Neither the covering fire nor a harassment attempt by the student council delays the Kuromorimine advance, but Miho successfully gets the tow cable hooked onto the M3 Lee and the disabled tank is towed to safety. Rabbit Team successfully restarts the engine once out of the water, and Ooarai escapes just as Kuromorimine shells rain down on the riverbank.
Shadowed by only a single Panzer III scout, Ooarai retreats towards a town. En route, they cross a bridge, and Leopon Team puts their 60-ton tank into a wheelie, slamming back down on the bridge and demolishing it, so that the main Kuromorimine forces are forced to take the long way around.
The PzKpfw. VIII Maus
Entering the urban area, Miho spots the Panzer III, which flees. Ooarai chase after the supposedly isolated scout tank. Just when they catch up to it, what appears to be an automated wall blocks their line of fire. It turns out to be Kuromorimine's trump card: the Pz. VIII Maus, the largest super-heavy tank ever built. Impervious to Ooarai's weapons, even those of the StuG III and Tiger (P), the Maus advances on the Ooarai vehicles, quickly taking out Mallard Team and Hippo Team.
As Ooarai scramble to fall back, the scene cuts to the rest of the Kuromorimine tanks closing in on the town. Erika Itsumi grins upon hearing that the Maus has entered the battle.
| Previous episode: | Next episode: |
| Episode 10.5
"Allow Me to Introduce You 2!" |
Episode 12
"We Can't Back Down From This Battle!" |
Characters Introduced[]
Tanks Appearing[]
- Panzer IV
- Hetzer
- Type 89B
- StuG III
- M3 Lee
- Char B1 bis
- VK 4501 Porsche Tiger
- Type 3 Chi-Nu
- PzKpfw VI Ausf.E Tiger I
- PzKpfw V Ausf.G Panther
- PzKpfw VI Ausf.B Tiger II
- SdKfz 162/1 Jagdpanzer IV/70 'Lang'
- SdKfz 173 Jagdpanzer V 'Jagdpanther'
- SdKfz 184 (Panzerjäger Tiger (P) 'Ferdinand')/'Elefant'
- SdKfz 186 (Panzerjäger Tiger Ausf.B) Jagdpanzer VI 'Jagdtiger'
- PzKpfw. III Ausf.G
- PzKpfw. VIII (VK100.01/V2) Maus
Main Events[]
- Ooarai uses smokescreens to escape from the Kuromorimine ambush. ("Operation Smokey" and "Operation Biker Gang")
- Ooarai makes a stand atop a hill.
- Kuromorimine assaults the hill. Three of their tanks are immobilised in the ensuing battle.
- Using the Hetzer to harrass the enemy and sow confusion, Ooarai breaks out and escapes. ("Operation Tease")
- Whilst crossing a river, the M3 Lee breaks down.
- Miho Nishizumi risks the match to save Rabbit Team and wins further admiration from her team.
- Ooarai successfully escapes without losses.
- Entering an urban area, Ooarai is lured into a trap by a Panzer III.
- The super-heavy Maus tank appears. It immobilises the Renault B1 bis and the StuG III.
Trivia[]
- The Bridge that Ooarai cross (and then demolish) is called the Reimangen Bridge. This could be a reference to the Battle of Remagen, when the Ludenorff Bridge, a bridge across the Rhine, was captured by US forces. The initial explosives set by the Germans to scuttle the bridge failed to detonate, and in the ensuing battle the Americans managed to protect the bridge against German attempts to destroy it.
- The close range harassment of Turtle Team in "Operation Tease" is cited by Anzu Kadotani as the 'safest' way to charge in, according to a tank magazine she read. Although counter-intuitive, she is proved correct, as the Kuromorimine tanks are rendered unable to fire at the Hetzer due to the risk of hitting each other.
- Turtle Team destroys the tracks of the same Jagdpanther twice at this stage in the match. The Jagdpanther Commander expresses anger and frustration at having to repair her tracks twice (likely also because her turret-less tank never has a chance to retaliate). In the Spin-off manga Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu! she is shown to have developed a furious grudge against the crew of the Hetzer thanks to this incident.
- Turtle Team also drives right alongside a Panther tank to begin their disruption of the Kuromorimine formation. Although the Hetzer never fires during this operation, the Panther Commander is also mentally scarred by this incident, and harbours a similar hate for the Hetzer.
- Whilst not certain, it is possible that this Panther was the same tank that also took a hit to the tracks when the Hetzer made its first ambush.
- Erika Itsumi fires her tank's machine gun into the Ooarai smokescreen in frustration. However, the controls of the co-axial machine gun are in the hands of the vehicle's gunner, so it is not clear how she accomplishes this display.
- The action of Miho Nishizumi jumping across the backs of multiple tanks is a reference to the animated film "Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro" by Hayao Miyazaki.
- Whilst Miho is saving Rabbit Team, Yukari Akiyama uses a German EmR1m coincidence rangefinder to coordinate covering fire against Kuromorimine.
- The Maus was possibly deployed for the first time during this match. Miho Nishizumi did not mention it in her tactical analysis of the Kuromorimine formation in Episode 10, suggesting either that she was not aware that Kuromorimine operated one, or that she did not anticipate its use in this match.
- From their surprise and shock when seeing the Maus, Darjeeling and Katyusha were similarly either unaware of its existence or did not anticipate its use in this match. Katyusha's comment in particular lends credence to the latter explanation.
- That Miho needs quite some time to figure out a way to disable the Maus can, again, be viewed as her either never having encountered it before, or, since she would have known of it while a student at Kuromorimine, having never before needed to consider how to counter it. That she knows the Maus well enough to devise a plan solely from a chance comment by Saori might imply the latter.
- The Maus commander also demonstrates some inexperience with the dimensions of her tank, at one time underestimating the length of the Maus' cannon when turning the turret. Nevertheless, the Maus destroys two tanks (StuG III and Char B1 bis) in the first encounter and forces the rest of Ooarai's tanks to withdraw.
- In the previous episode, before the start of the final match, when the giant audience viewing screens are showing the opposing forces, it is possible to count 20 tanks in Kuromorimine's array of tanks. This adds further confusion to Darjeeling and Katyusha's surprise at the later arrival of the Maus, since if they were in the audience, they would probably have seen the Maus on the viewing screen.
- The Maus has a different colour scheme to the rest of the Kuromorimine tanks. Ironically, the camouflage patterns on the Maus would be more suited to a rural environment, yet it was deployed in the city.
- The ending sequence features Anglerfish Team in their new PzKpfw. IV Ausf.H.
Gallery[]
| Girls und Panzer Anime | |
|---|---|
| First Anime Season Episodes | Episode 1 ♦ Episode 2 ♦ Episode 3 ♦ Episode 4 ♦ Episode 5 ♦ Episode 6 ♦ Episode 7 ♦ Episode 8 ♦ Episode 9 ♦ Episode 10 ♦ Episode 11 ♦ Episode 12 |
| Recap Episodes | Episode 5.5 ♦ Episode 10.5 |
| OVA Episodes | OVA 1 ♦ OVA 2 ♦ OVA 3 ♦ OVA 4 ♦ OVA 5 ♦ OVA 6 ♦ OVA 7 ♦ OVA 8 ♦ OVA 9 ♦ OVA 10 |
| Animated Movie | Girls und Panzer der Film |
| Final Chapter | Part 1 ♦ Part 2 ♦ Part 3 ♦ Part 4 ♦ Part 5 ♦ Part 6 |