The T26 tank was the best tank we had during the war. Apparently none of them survived the ordeal. A letter I received from another soldier who looked through one of the shell holes said he saw one burned to death inside the tank. A documentary film about the life of Jim Bates, the Army photographer who took the famous Cologne footage, revealed that three of the crew died outside of the tank. The two side hits went completely through and out the other side.Īs for the German tank crew, I spent many years wondering if they survived. All three of our shells penetrated, one under the gun shield and two on the side. Then we stopped and I fired two more shells to make sure they wouldn't fire at our side. our driver drove into the middle of the intersection so we wouldn't be a sitting target. The following description is based on a meantime outdated thesis from cameraman Jim Bates, that no German soldier survived the tank duel: Pershing gunner Clarence Smoyer described the event several times. According the records another soldier was found dead in the Panther the next day. Loader: rear turret hatch / loader's hatch (yellow)Īnother shell is on the way to the German tankįollowing the film made by Jim Bates four crew members are able to escape, one of them dies in a hospital a short time later.
Radio operator: radio operators's hatch (green)Ĭommander / gunner: upper turret hatch (blue) The nearest or the fastest achievable emergency exits of the crew are visible on the graph below Gruber, from the book "Panzer V Panther" by Spielberger/Doyle, with friendly permission by Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2010 This and following graph created from two graphs by F. The gun and the turret pointed toward the Pershing and the intersection An den Dominikanern / Marzellenstrasse The following graph shows the positions of the Panther crew in the second, the Pershing shell had hit the Panther.
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