Remarkable late war US film clip

[Pyth]

I was googling for an image of an AFV rubbling a building and stumbled across this imo rather powerful film clip (under 5 mins) about the US capture of Cologne -- its probably familiar to many of you and I think some of this footage is used pretty often but I'd never seen it in entireity and never with the original period narration... it's March 1945 and the narration reflects that in tone.... That Liberation of Paris feel, that sense , of impending victory.... is replaced here with something like weary contempt... "lets get this pointless slaughter over with...." The disgust is at times palpable. German civillian refugees are described as "poison to us." Malmedy is mentioned. There's footage of what sure looks like a civillian car being shot at by machine gun as it flees....The narration offers no explanation. Extraordinary footage of a Panther crew member attempting to escape the turret hatch as his tank brews up is shown without even a token whisper of human compassion.

I get that fighting WWII didnt leave folks in a good mood with feelings of love for thine enemy.... it's just that Im not used to seeing US material, propaganda material created for the folks back home, having quite this much of an honest sour edge. I dont recall seeing a single US flag waving in it. The clip ends with reflections on the nasty way the medic's red cross symbol can function as a target.

 

[Pyth]

From the clip's notes (none of this mentioned in the clip itself)....
...
German Mark V Panther tank is hit by fire from U.S. Army gunner Corporal Clarence Smoyer in a M-26 series Pershing tank (a T26E3) with a 90mm gun, at position at the An den Dominikanern and Marzellenstraße crossroads. German Army soldiers jump from the Panther tank. The Panther Tank is hit again from the American Pershing tank, and goes up in flames and smoke.

 

[Gordon]

Indeed, see also: http://www.gamesquad.com/forums/index.php?threads/the-touching-story-of-deadeye-smoyer.149248/

 

[Pyth]

Wow! What a story. Incredible. Thanks for pointing that out. If you dont get a little teary reading that, check your pulse you may be dead.

 

[RandyT0001]

... it's March 1945 and the narration reflects that in tone.... That Liberation of Paris feel, that sense , of impending victory.... is replaced here with something like weary contempt... "lets get this pointless slaughter over with...." The disgust is at times palpable. German civillian refugees are described as "poison to us." Malmedy is mentioned. There's footage of what sure looks like a civillian car being shot at by machine gun as it flees....The narration offers no explanation. Extraordinary footage of a Panther crew member attempting to escape the turret hatch as his tank brews up is shown without even a token whisper of human compassion.

I get that fighting WWII didnt leave folks in a good mood with feelings of love for thine enemy.... it's just that Im not used to seeing US material, propaganda material created for the folks back home, having quite this much of an honest sour edge. I dont recall seeing a single US flag waving in it. The clip ends with reflections on the nasty way the medic's red cross symbol can function as a target.

If you want US propaganda, I suggest watching the "Why We Fight" series by Frank Capra.

I think the narration is a result of shattering of the GI's concept of the 'honorable fight' by the conduct of Nazis in the Ardennes offensive. In general, the average US soldier believed that Germany was about to collapse with the Allies on the German border in the west while the Russians were knocking on the door into Germany on the east front. The Germans were fighting the 'total war' as outline by Clausewitz. It was the attitude the US foot soldier embraced in 1945, total war, surrender upon our arrival or face no quarter.

 

[von Marwitz]

From the clip's notes (none of this mentioned in the clip itself)....
...
German Mark V Panther tank is hit by fire from U.S. Army gunner Corporal Clarence Smoyer in a M-26 series Pershing tank (a T26E3) with a 90mm gun, at position at the An den Dominikanern and Marzellenstraße crossroads. German Army soldiers jump from the Panther tank. The Panther Tank is hit again from the American Pershing tank, and goes up in flames and smoke.

See also here:

SP43 Deadeye Smoyer - extremely detailed historical report on website on the Panther / M26 Pershing duel

By chance I have stumbled on an extremely detailed and very interesting report on the situation mirrored in the scenario SP43 Deadeye Smoyer: It happened in the vincinity of the Cologne cathedral on 6. March 1945 describing the duel between a German Panther which had first taken out a US...

www.gamesquad.com

von Marwitz

 

[Pyth]

Well, I managed to stumble into a clip that includes one of the more well-known and picked over pieces war of footage out there. It was the psychology of the narration over all that really interested me (and still does) but it turns out the whole business with the Pershing and the Panther brewing up and the civillian car getting shot at is quite a wormhole... there's a whole documentary on it with German Vets saying the Panther crew survived! And there's the story Gordon linked, about the gunner and his opponent and both of them freaked out about that civillian car and the woman who got killed... it's quite a little window into another time there.

@RandyT -- I think you are right the 'honorable fight' disillusionment in the Ardennes is absolutely part of the psychology -- the narration says as much when it mentions Malmedy, but I think added to that is just the disgust one must feel, by March of '45, when you know this thing is over, and now here you are laying waste to a beautiful old city and going house to house killing and being killed and it's just such a waste, a pointless hopeless deadender waste -- it all has to make you feel bitter... you're in this burning corpse-strewn stinking city and you know its you are your comrades' handiwork -- some part of you doesn't at all like saying "I did this" -- and oddly enough that only makes you that much less compassionate.

 

[Pyth]

@von Marwitz --

Jeez. The tank duel is about as thoroughly researched and documented an engagement as one could hope to find. It seems the Pershing won that fight because it had an excellent head's up crew that made good split second decisions AND critically the unfamiliar non-Sherman flat look of the Pershing bought them just enough time to win the Gun Duel and finally, Smoyer made the shot.

Here's as blow by blow a video breakdown of a fight as you're ever likely to get, with slow motion digital stabilzation and zoom at the end. Some of the camera angles are a little hard to believe! And the pan from the ruined Panther to the spires of the Cathedral overhead is also incredible... who looks up when there's a war on the ground and lucks into that kind of visual poetry? Apparently some German claimed this whole thing was a US con-job to promote the new Pershing, and honestly I can see why. But according to the website you linked to the it-never-happened-it-was-staged theory has been quite debunked.

 

[McFinn]

The book “Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II”by Adam Makos is a good read on the from the perspective an American and German tank gunner near the end of the war an dcovers the events in the film clip. A great read

 

[bendizoid]

Well, I managed to stumble into a clip that includes one of the more well-known and picked over pieces war of footage out there. It was the psychology of the narration over all that really interested me (and still does) but it turns out the whole business with the Pershing and the Panther brewing up and the civillian car getting shot at is quite a wormhole... there's a whole documentary on it with German Vets saying the Panther crew survived! And there's the story Gordon linked, about the gunner and his opponent and both of them freaked out about that civillian car and the woman who got killed... it's quite a little window into another time there.

@RandyT -- I think you are right the 'honorable fight' disillusionment in the Ardennes is absolutely part of the psychology -- the narration says as much when it mentions Malmedy, but I think added to that is just the disgust one must feel, by March of '45, when you know this thing is over, and now here you are laying waste to a beautiful old city and going house to house killing and being killed and it's just such a waste, a pointless hopeless deadender waste -- it all has to make you feel bitter... you're in this burning corpse-strewn stinking city and you know its you are your comrades' handiwork -- some part of you doesn't at all like saying "I did this" -- and oddly enough that only makes you that much less compassionate.

The woman survived, to the American’s relief, years later the German told him when they met.

 

[Vinnie]

One thing that is sometimes forgotten. These films are always shot with commentary added afterwards. They did not have the technologyto shoot and record sound with small equipment then.

 

[Pyth]

One thing that is sometimes forgotten. These films are always shot with commentary added afterwards. They did not have the technologyto shoot and record sound with small equipment then.

Yes true... the early days of portable sound recording are pretty interesting. It's kind of crazy... the movies had perfected putting sound to motion picture film and synching it up long before anyone figured out portable recording... it took the development of magnetic tape recording for portable recording to be practical. There were some rather steampunk "portable" (50lbs+) recorders in the 30s and 40s that recorded (badly) by cutting directly onto vinyl discs. And it also turns out magnetic tape recording technology did exist -- the Germans invented it in the early 30s iirc -- but they kept quiet about it considering it a military secret. I don't recall if magnetic tape recording was developed independently outside Germany in the 40s, or if the German technology was uncovered in the aftermath of the war... I believe it was the latter.

 

[Pyth]

The woman survived, to the American’s relief, years later the German told him when they met.

I don't think she survived. She drove thru US German crossfire and there was some confusion as to which side fired the fatal shot. If I recall correctly the American (Smoyer's) relief came more from learning her identity and sharing his guilt with a German tanker who thought himself the one that fired the fatal bullets and wasn't especially torn up about it. That's what I got... but this event has generated some contradictory accounts so -- I dunno.

 

[bendizoid]

I don't think she survived. She drove thru US German crossfire and there was some confusion as to which side fired the fatal shot. If I recall correctly the American (Smoyer's) relief came more from learning her identity and sharing his guilt with a German tanker who thought himself the one that fired the fatal bullets and wasn't especially torn up about it. That's what I got... but this event has generated some contradictory accounts so -- I dunno.

This is the story :