battle of cologne world war 2 tank battle

Those killed in battle aren’t just faceless soldiers - they’re people with names and history and family waiting back home. Most importantly, 'Spearhead' takes pains to humanize the comrades of Smoyer and Schaefer. While American and German tanks are given due comparison in terms of size, armament, speed, reliability and quirks, it’s soldiers, civilians and their encounters who rightfully take center stage here. It’s hard not to be fascinated with these multi-ton war vehicles, but Makos wisely avoids focusing solely on the machines. He and Smoyer will meet in Cologne.īy then Smoyer and his crew will have a T26E3 Pershing, a new American “super tank.” The Pershing, with heavier armor and greater firepower, will prove a lethal force against the Germans. His inclusion in the story gives a unique view of what the Germans endured. He and his weary crew are part of Panzer Brigade 106, stationed in Luxembourg City not far from the German border. Smoyer’s Wehrmacht counterpart is Gustav Schaefer, a young tank radioman/bow gunner from Arrenkamp in northern Germany. He and his comrades are moving across France and Belgium into Germany, battling resistance from German forces determined to slow the Allied advance at any cost, even though they realize they’ve already lost the war.Īs one German soldier writes in his diary: “The town is in ruins, but we will defend the ruins.”

Smoyer is part of an M4A1 Sherman tank crew attached to Easy Company, 32nd Armor Regiment. The division is heading to an epic confrontation in Cologne, the “symbolic guardian” of Germany, in the ending months of the war. Makos, author of 'Devotion' and best-selling 'A Higher Call,' turns from air combat to the ground advance of Spearhead, the U.S.

The book, by military writer Adam Makos, is the remarkable story of two tank crewmen, from opposite sides of the conflict, who endure the grisly nature of tank warfare. 'Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II' (★★★★ out of four, Ballantine Books, 416 pp.) is a detailed, gripping account that leaves B-grade images behind. In particular, World War II tank crews risked incineration from enemy shells that could turn their vehicles from protective fortresses into burning prisons. In actual combat, tanks are far more vulnerable than viewers of most black-and-white films may realize. If 60 years of B-grade war movies have taught us anything, it’s that tanks are unstoppable lumbering behemoths with frightening firepower that terrorize a battlefield.īut what’s it really like to climb into a tank and take it into war?

Battle of cologne world war 2 tank battle