![]() ![]() ![]() Smoyer used the tank's sighting mechanism to draw a bead on an abandoned farmhouse in a village more than a half-mile away. Smoyer felt lucky to serve under such a fearless and beloved commander in the outfit Rose had dubbed "Spearhead" - so named for its habit of leading the American assault. Barely more than a kid from a Pennsylvania steel town, he had never fired the new tank's cannon, and here he was about to perform before a general whose legend grew by the day. ![]() Remove the spaces after ".com" to watch as embedding is disabled.The young gunner, 21-year-old Clarence Smoyer, fidgeted. ![]() Bates won a Bronze Star that day for his photography, based primarily on this remarkable movie sequence. As a result, a number of frames suffered from blurring or mis-aiming, which is understandable in a combat situation. Shot at the standard 24 frames per second with relatively grainy, b&w, 16mm film, the image quality was susceptible to any jarring, hand movement, or subject movement. Minutes before this encounter, the Panther had destroyed a 3AD Sherman tank, killing three of its five crewmen.īates was positioned on the mezzanine of a bombed out office building about 100 yards from the Panther as events unfolded. The Panther was struck by three 90mm rounds from an M-26 Pershing tank of E Co, 32nd Armored Regiment, 3AD. Jim Bates, a First Army Signal Corps photographer attached to the 3AD, shot a now-famous 48 seconds of 16mm footage showing the destruction of a German Mark V Panther tank in the cathedral square of downtown Cologne. ![]()
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