And it would force him to deal with another question that may not be limited to war veterans: How do you atone for a terrible deed when you’re not sure you’ve committed it? It would force him to reach out to an unlikely ally. Smoyer’s question would force him to return to Cologne 68 years later. Smoyer’s adrenalin turned to horror: Did I just shoot a woman? The car’s passenger door swung open and a person with a light-colored sweater embroidered with flowers crumpled to the street. The car crashed into the sidewalk, and then Smoyer saw something that made the pit of his stomach fall out. Bullets and tracers from Smoyer’s gun smashed into the car ordnance from another source also flew through the intersection. With orders to shoot anything that moved, Smoyer pressed the trigger. “Staff car!” someone yelled over the radio.Ī black Opel streaked into the intersection. Smoyer searched for it, scanning a hellish urban landscape of rubble, sagging streetcar cables and collapsed buildings. But then the enemy tank ducked behind a building. His M26 Pershing tank had just been engaged in a shootout with a German tank at a sprawling intersection in the town’s center. He gained a reputation for deadly accuracy as a tank gunner. Please note these video contains spoilers. She was describing the legs of the dead German soldier.ĭiscrepancies aside, for anyone seeking to explore the battle for Cologne further, Hermann's work is available for rent/purchase here. You can see this in the film.įollowing the battle and after Kathi’s body was removed, an elderly German woman reported that Kathi-who had been lying beside her car-was gone and she had been run over by a tank! Her proof? There was just a pair of legs laying in the street nearby, still wearing boots. In regards to Kathi, even before Delling’s car drove into the crossfire, there was a second German car wrecked in the intersection and laying nearby were the legs of a dead German soldier-upper torso missing-and still wearing boots. Notably, we reject the theory of a "trojan tank" and the theory that Kathi Esser was run over by an American tank. There are some discrepancies between our research and the stories presented in these films. He’s produced a series of documentaries about the battle for Cologne that showcase some stunning footage. What happens next will haunt Clarence into modern day, drawing him back to Cologne to do the unthinkable: to face his enemy, one last time.Ĭologne journalist Hermann Rheindorf first discovered the identity of Kathi Esser and introduced Clarence to Gustav Schaefer and Kathi's family. As Clarence and Gustav trade fire down a long boulevard, they are taken by surprise by a tragic mistake of war. ![]() And he will square off with Gustav Schaefer, a teenager behind the trigger in a Panzer IV tank, whose crew has been sent on a suicide mission to stop the Americans. Battling through the ruins, Clarence will engage the fearsome Panther in a duel immortalized by an army cameraman. Army into its largest urban battle of the European war, the fight for Cologne, the “Fortress City” of Germany. That’s how Clarence, the corporal from coal country, finds himself leading the U.S. But with it came a harrowing new responsibility: Now they will spearhead every attack. After Clarence sees his friends cut down breaching the West Wall and holding the line in the Battle of the Bulge, he and his crew are given a weapon with the power to avenge their fallen brothers: the Pershing, a state-of-the-art “super tank,” one of twenty in the European theater. Soon a pattern emerged: The lead tank always gets hit. Then they met the German Panther, with a gun so murderous it could shoot through one Sherman and into the next. At first, Clarence and his fellow crews in the legendary 3rd Armored Division-“Spearhead”-thought their tanks were invincible. When Clarence Smoyer is assigned to the gunner’s seat of his Sherman tank, his crewmates discover that the gentle giant from Pennsylvania has a hidden talent: He’s a natural born shooter.
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