From there the book interweaves the separate accounts of Smoyer and the German gunner, Gustav Schaefer, until their paths met in Cologne and then follows Smoyer to the war’s end. It picks up his story in September 1944 near Mons, Belgium, where his 32 nd Armored Regiment’s Sherman tanks violently engaged German troops fleeing from Normandy. The book is named for the Third Armored (Spearhead) Division, in which Smoyer served.
Makos found other surviving veterans from that tank unit and its supporting infantrymen and in 2013 took one (the American tank gunner, Clarence Smoyer) to the scene at the Cologne cathedral, and introduced him to a German gunner who had witnessed the event from another tank. The author learned about that “duel” some 60 years later from a teen’s interviews of veterans for an Eagle Scout project. It tells of an epic confrontation in Cologne between a classic German Panther Panzer V tank and the new American Pershing, M26 tank, filmed by a combat photographer (stunning stills from which are included). First off, the story of how this story came to be told is remarkable. Makos has written a number of accounts of veterans’ experiences in World War II. But those who want a dramatic – and true – story about the tankers of both sides, blended with much of the tactical and technical background, should read Spearhead. The best guide to the detailed history of armor combat on the Western front in 1944-45 may be the various books by Steven Zaloga, while you get the visceral feel of intense tank combat by watching Brad Pitt in Fury (2014 ), or playing the World of Tanks video game. Illus., maps, diagr., notes, biblio., index. New York: Random House Ballantine Books, 2019.
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