Book helps honor 96-year-old WWII vet as Bronze Star hero

A Sherman tank will be on full display on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday morning to honor 96-year-old Clarence Smoyer, who is the country’s newest Bronze Star hero for his role as a gunner in a 1945 tank battle.

His exploits were chronicled by author Adam Makos in the bestselling book “Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II,” which hit in February. It has gone on to sell more than 100,000 copies and has gone back to press five times.

During the waning days of the war, a German Panther tank had already knocked out two American tanks and killed three GIs in Cologne, Germany. Smoyer, a gunner in a brand new Pershing tank managed to knock out the German tank with three quick blasts from a 90mm gun.

Days later, in the city’s ruins, Smoyer encountered German children who tugged at his sleeves, begging for bubblegum. Smoyer was searching his pockets for gum when MPs turned the corner and wrote him up for fraternizing with the enemy. It cost him his nomination for a Bronze Star at the time.

While researching the book, Makos discovered that Smoyer’s tank commander got a Bronze Star for the duel, as did the cameraman who filmed it. Makos gathered witnesses to Smoyer’s heroism and won the Army’s support to award Bronze Stars to Smoyer and posthumously to three crew members.

“He’d go on to knock out five German tanks during the war,” said Makos. “He was one of the most acclaimed tank gunners in the war.”

Smoyer said his friends and family had managed to keep the news of the award from him until Wednesday, when he was surprised during a tour of the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC.

“I’m wearing this for all the guys who never came back,” Smoyer told Media Ink.