U.S. 3rd Armored Division in Cologne, World War II

Action by the Spearhead Division during the capture of Cologne in March, 1945, the first major German city to fall to Allied troops. Includes scenes of the fiery destruction of a German Mark V Panther tank by a 3rd Armored T26 Pershing tank in which gunner Clarence Smoyer of Pennsylvania scored three hits in rapid sucession. The original YouTube posting of this video achieved over 100,000 views during 2007-2009, before being replaced by this higher resolution version with improved soundtrack. (Army Signal Corps film research by Dan Fong of 3AD.com staff; and with editing, film restoration [where possible], and soundtrack by Vic Damon of 3AD.com staff.)

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Köln
• Koeln
• 3d
• Third
• USA
• Army
• World
• War
• Two
• combat
• tanks
• armor
• panzer
• France
• Belgium
• Germany

[dark297]

Even more intense is the German tank crew escaping their wreck at 3:10, it's actually kind of hard to notice at first unless you're looking hard enough.

[Dragonteuthis]

A chillingly fantastic video. The music it is set to adds a great deal to the mood. What is that score?

[kane101nod]

a superb film, but also terribly sad, especially considering how little of the war was left, yet how much more suffering still was to be had

[heikozzz]

It is incredible how our parents rebuild our country after that bomber holocaust came over our nation...

[manylegsproduction]

im living here in Köln( Cologne) and is vry hard to think about scenes like that.

all that scenes is vry sad, i cant imagine how many ppls have died here on my street and how many dreams have been broked

(sry about my poor english)

[Funzebub]

Wow. I live near Cologne and it's kinda strange to see all these buildings. Some of them are even still there nowadays, like the Citadel or parts of the "Altstadt"(old parts of Cologne).