WWII Veteran Returns to Germany to Find Answers to a Memory That Has Been Haunting Him for Decades

Clarence Smoyer served in the US Army during WWII as a tank gunman. On one particular day, the tank was driving through the streets of Cologne, Germany, with relentless German gunfire. Suddenly, a black car speeds down the streets and Clarence was commanded to shoot anything that moved.

Fast forward 70 years and Clarence finds himself with one of the German soldiers that was there that day but on the opposing side. Clarence thought he moved on from the war, having started a family and with all the decades that passed. But the second part of his saga just began.

The Day Was March 6, 1945

The M26 Pershing tank that Clarence Smoyer was in smelled of sweat and blood. The tank was known as the “Crematorium on Wheels.” On March 6, 1945, his tank crew crept through crawled through the city of Cologne.

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Source: CBS News

They were about to hit an intersection, but they stopped. The boys were silent, hardly breathing. Fatigued and wearing the same uniform for a week, they were anything but ready for what was to happen.

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