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A DEADLY DUEL
BY DAVID KINDY
I was 19 when I was called up, so leaving home for the first time was so we knew its crew was good. Our tank com-
all part of a grand adventure. I knew what I was getting into and mander, Sergeant Bob Earley, went on foot to
wanted to serve my country. As we moved through training and reconnoiter—a really gutsy move—and sure
learned more about the horrors of war, any feelings of adventure enough he spotted the tank and we had a good
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chance to hit it broadside. But in the time between when he saw it and
when he got back to us, that Panther turned its gun and was ready for us.
“I kept yelling for armor-
When we roared into the intersection to shoot, instead of seeing the
flank of the Panther in my periscope sight, I could see the muzzle of
piercing rounds and hit
that big gun looking right at me. I snapped off a quick shot and hit him him again and again.”
first. I kept yelling for AP [armor-piercing] rounds and hit him again
and again ’til he caught fire. I could hardly breathe as we backed out of
there. People always ask why I fired three times, not giving the German What did firing those big guns
crew a chance to flee. Well, that was the rule. Any crewman still alive feel like?
in that Panther could have pulled the trigger and with that powerful It shakes you up, inside and out. The recoil of
gun pointing at us, we would all be dead and not here to tell the tale. the gun rattles you to your bones. You’re vibrat-
ing from it. Fumes from the fired shells build
You were in a new Pershing heavy tank then, but you up and sting the eyes. Dust and debris flies
started in a Sherman. How did the Pershing’s 90mm everywhere from the ferocious muzzle blast
gun compare to the Sherman’s 75mm weapon? and it takes forever to settle, which makes you
Well, the 90mm had far more firepower than the 75mm gun, so it’s even more stressed. Everyone is just a bundle
really no comparison at all. The 90mm shell was about twice the size of nerves. It was a shoot-first-ask-questions-
of a 75mm shell and weighed twice as much—40 pounds, in fact. The later situation. Survival is all it was.
big deal, though, was the velocity, which gave the 90 its striking
power: some 2,800 feet per second with our AP round. With that gun Your division helped stop the
we had something that could penetrate the thick frontal armor of the German breakthrough at Bastogne
JAMES KEGLEY PHOTOGRAPHY
German tanks. Before that, our best hope was for a side or rear shot. during the Battle of the Bulge, where
The 75mm shell would bounce off the front armor of the heavy Ger- temperatures were well below
man tanks, especially the Panther. The big 90mm gave us a fighting freezing. How did you stay warm?
chance even though our armor in the Pershing wasn’t much better I was in a Sherman then, which had no heater
than that in the Sherman. and—worse—any engine heat was drawn out of
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Smoyer (center, helmetless) appears with
the crew of the T26E3 Pershing, “Eagle 7,”
shortly after the March 6, 1945, tank duel.
tower, somehow still standing after that city arina, too. We became like comrades in our three days together, even
had taken 262 airstrikes by the time we got though we fought on different sides. I never thought this sort of thing
there. Then it clicked in me: “Forget it! A could happen but it did and I’m grateful. When he and I were ready
German observer could be up there!” So I to leave Cologne, he told me: “I’ll see you again, in heaven!” +
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