10/13/2023 0 Comments Tank battle cologne, germany, 1945![]() Clarence Smoyer of Forest Inn is having his told before a national television audience. ![]() We kept it till the end of the war however, we were hit twice with panzerfausts at Paderborn and had to have repairs done.Įvery veteran who served during wartime has a unique story to tell. The M 26 Perishing Tank with the 90 mm gun was the best tank we had during the war. Apparently none of them survived the ordeal. A letter from another soldier who looked through one of the shell holes said he saw one burned to death inside the tank. The tape revealed that three died outside of the tank. Only recently, after receiving the Bates' tape, did I find the answer. The two side hits went completely through and out the other side.Īs for the German tank crew, I spent many years wondering if they survived. ![]() All three of our shells penetrated, one under the gun shield and two on the side. Then we stopped and I fired two more shells to make sure they wouldn't fire at our side. When I turned our turret, I was looking into the Mark V gun tube so instead of stopping to fire, our driver drove into the middle of the intersection so we wouldn't be a sitting target. However, as we entered the intersection, our driver had his periscope turned toward the Germans and saw their gun turning to meet us. We were told to just move into the intersection far enough to fire into the side of the enemy tank, which had their gun facing up the other street. When this happened, our crew was ordered to go down the adjacent street and destroy the German tank. Sherman M-4 tanks approaching the center square, was knocked out by a German Mark V Panther, killing three of the crew. We had been on a drive to capture Cologne and we were near the center of the square in front of the Cathedral when one of our We were fortunate to have our M-4 Sherman replaced with the M 26 Pershing Tank with the ninety mm gun.
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