 First edition | |
| Author | Adam Makos |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
Publication date | February 19, 2019 |
| Pages | 446 |
| ISBN | 1782395806 |
Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II is a war biography by the author Adam Makos. [1] Published on February 19, 2019, the book reached number 3 on The New York Times Best Seller list on February 27, 2019. [2] [3]
The novel honors an unsung hero, Clarence Smoyer, who despite his hatred for violence, becomes the gunner of one of the first Pershing tanks in the European Theatre. Smoyer and his tank crew lead the American invasion of Nazi Germany. Smoyer, whose tank crew is instrumental to the Battle of Cologne, recounts his step-by-step moves in the battle, particularly, shooting a car which unbeknown to him is carrying civilians. At the same time, the car is being shot by a German tank whose gunner is named Gustav Schaefer. Schaefer and Smoyer shoot each other for a few seconds. It ends when Smoyer's crew shoot down a nearby building which disables Shaefer's tank, but leave the Germans inside the tank unharmed. Schaefer and one of his friends escape while the rest of the crew decides to stand and fight. Schaefer credits Smoyer for saving him and his friend. [8] [9]
The biography comes to an end with the meeting of Smoyer and Schaefer in Cologne, sharing their war stories and getting up to date since the war.
The book has received generally positive reviews. As of 18 April 2019 [update] , it had a 4.61/5 community rating on Goodreads. [10]
It was listed on The New York Times Best Seller list on 26 February 2019. [11]
On September 18, 2019, Makos presided over a ceremony at the National World War II Memorial in which Smoyer and the other members of the Pershing tank crew were awarded Bronze Star medals with "V" device for valor. Smoyer attended the ceremony in person while the families of the other crewmembers, who have passed away, received the medals on their behalf. [12]
The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank introduced in 1940. Its 76.2 mm (3 in) tank gun was more powerful than its contemporaries while its 60 degree sloped armour provided good protection against anti-tank weapons. The Christie suspension was inherited from the design of American J. Walter Christie's M1928 tank, versions of which were sold turret-less to the Red Army and documented as "farm tractors", after being rejected by the U.S. Army. The T-34 had a profound effect on the conflict on the Eastern Front in the Second World War, and had a lasting impact on tank design. After the Germans encountered the tank in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa, German general Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist called it "the finest tank in the world" and Heinz Guderian affirmed the T-34's "vast superiority" over German tanks. Alfred Jodl, chief of operations staff of the German armed forces noted in his war diary "the surprise at this new and thus unknown wunder-armament being unleashed against the German assault divisions," although its armour and armament were surpassed later in the war.
The M26 Pershing was a heavy tank/medium tank of the United States Army. The tank was named after General of the Armies John J. Pershing, who led the American Expeditionary Force in Europe in World War I. It was used in the last months of World War II during the Invasion of Germany and extensively during the Korean War.
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The M46 Patton was an American medium tank designed to replace the M26 Pershing and M4 Sherman. It was one of the U.S Army's principal medium tanks of the early Cold War, with models in service from 1949 until the mid-1950s. It was not widely used by U.S. Cold War allies, being exported only to Belgium, and only in small numbers to train crews on the upcoming M47 Patton.
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Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor is a real time strategy video game stand-alone expansion pack to Company of Heroes. It was released on April 9, 2009.
Albert Adolph Taubert was a member of the United States Marine Corps who received the Navy Cross and Distinguished Service Cross for his actions during the Battle of Soissons in World War I. He was also awarded the French Military Medal for participation in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, as well as the Italian War Merit Cross. Later, he received a second Navy Cross during the United States occupation of Haiti, during which he participated in killing the Caco leader Benoît Batraville.
The Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler incident occurred on 20 December 1943, when, after a successful bomb run on Bremen, 2nd Lt. Charles "Charlie" Brown's B-17 Flying Fortress of the USAAF was severely damaged by German fighters. Luftwaffe pilot Franz Stigler had the opportunity to shoot down the crippled bomber but did not do so, and instead escorted it over and past German-occupied territory so as to protect it. After an extensive search by Brown, the two pilots met each other 50 years later and developed a friendship that lasted until Stigler's death in March 2008. Brown died only a few months later, in November of the same year.
Fury is a 2014 American war film written and directed by David Ayer, and starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs and Scott Eastwood. The film portrays US tank crews fighting in Germany during the final weeks of the European theater of World War II. Ayer was influenced by the service of veterans in his family and by reading books such as Belton Y. Cooper's Death Traps, about American armored units in World War II and the high casualty rates suffered by tank crews in Europe.
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Adam Makos is an American writer, editor, historian and publisher. He specializes in war novels and biographies, appearing on the New York Times Best Seller list twice for his works Spearhead and A Higher Call. While in high school Makos was one of the founding members of Valor, a magazine depicting veterans stories ranging from World War I to the Iraq War.
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