Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II

Name: Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II
SKU: 58254
Availability: InStock

4.8 | 4,370 ratings

Price: 18.78

Last update: 05-25-2024

About this item

The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today Best Seller

“A band of brothers in an American tank...Makos drops the reader back into the Pershing’s turret and dials up a battle scene to rival the peak moments of Fury.” (The Wall Street Journal)

From the author of the international best seller A Higher Call comes the riveting World War II story of an American tank gunner’s journey into the heart of the Third Reich, where he will meet destiny in an iconic armor duel - and forge an enduring bond with his enemy.

When Clarence Smoyer is assigned to the gunner’s seat of his Sherman tank, his crewmates discover that the gentle giant from Pennsylvania has a hidden talent: He’s a natural-born shooter.

At first, Clarence and his fellow crews in the legendary 3rd Armored Division - “Spearhead” - thought their tanks were invincible. Then they met the German Panther, with a gun so murderous it could shoot through one Sherman and into the next. Soon a pattern emerged: The lead tank always gets hit.

After Clarence sees his friends cut down breaching the West Wall and holding the line in the Battle of the Bulge, he and his crew are given a weapon with the power to avenge their fallen brothers: the Pershing, a state-of-the-art “super tank”, one of 20 in the European theater.

But with it comes a harrowing new responsibility: Now they will spearhead every attack. That’s how Clarence, the corporal from coal country, finds himself leading the US Army into its largest urban battle of the European war, the fight for Cologne, the “Fortress City” of Germany.

Battling through the ruins, Clarence will engage the fearsome Panther in a duel immortalized by an army cameraman. And he will square off with Gustav Schaefer, a teenager behind the trigger in a Panzer IV tank, whose crew has been sent on a suicide mission to stop the Americans.

As Clarence and Gustav trade fire down a long boulevard, they are taken by surprise by a tragic mistake of war. What happens next will haunt Clarence to the modern day, drawing him back to Cologne to do the unthinkable: to face his enemy, one last time.

“A detailed, gripping account...the remarkable story of two tank crewmen, from opposite sides of the conflict, who endure the grisly nature of tank warfare.” (USA Today, four out of four stars)

Bill Benson

Excellent Read. Story of post D-Day US WW2 Armored Div in the ETO

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2024

The book is based on the author's direct conversations with US Army veterans involved in US tank operations in western Europe during World War 2.

Adam Makos has authored an excellent account of the operations of the 3rd Armored Division, aka Spearhead Division. One of the primary sources is an enlisted tank gunner named Sgt. Clarence Smoyer who served in Sherman Tanks and then in the Pershing tank near war's end.

I had seen some information regarding Sgt. Smoyer and it lead me to Makos book which is a brilliant and well written. As a retired Navy veteran (1st Gulf War), and son of a WW2 (Pacific) Army veteran, I have an appreciation of the sacrifice and demands of military service. 3rd Armor took on some of the best of what Nazi Germany's army had and beat them, beating them a great cost in American blood and courage. What I really appreciated was the intimacy of the personal accounts. This isn't a book about what the division did so much as it is a book what normal everyday people, who became soldiers did. How they strived, and often died, and in some cases survived.

I didn't know that much about tank operations and this book provided an eye-opening account from the men who survived it, and an appreciation for the men who didn't. Looking forward to reading more well researched, well organized, and well written historical accounts from Adam Makos. Excellent Author.

Retired Prof

A Great Story, Superbly Told

Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2019

Subtitled An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II, this is the true story of one tank gunner (Clarence Smoyer), his crew mates, and their fellow tankers in the 3rd (“Spearhead”) Armored Division from September 2, 1944 to their last major battle on April 1, 1945. Along the way there is a major street battle in Cologne, the most dramatic (in several ways I won’t reveal here) fight, but not as climactic as the final battle at Paderborn in Germany, a Wehrmacht tank training center.

This is Adam Makos’ third book, all on the U.S. Military. He knows how to capture in print the vivid experiences about which he writes, including pee-in-your pants battles as well as bored-out-of-your skull idle times. Being a tanker meant being dirty, sweaty, grimy, and smelly, confined in what could well be your steel coffin, particularly as American Sherman tanks (later infrequently replaced by the more powerful Pershing) were outgunned by German Panthers, their major rivals in the battles described in the book. Tankers did not often die from bullets. More commonly, death came from being torn apart or burned alive from an enemy shell that pierced the armor of the tank and passed through to the innards. Not pretty, not pretty at all.

If you are interested in what it was like to be a tanker in WW II, this could well be your book. But wait, there’s more, much more. Spearhead isn’t just about machines, it is very much about real people. It is Clarence Smoyer’s story from beginning to end—not just the end of the war, but the end of his quest to find peace after an incident in the tank fight in Cologne that literally haunted him for much of his post-war life. Just how he found peace is so unlikely, it would not pass muster as believable fiction. But it happened, and the author was actually a witness.

Although Clarence’s experiences as the gunner are front and center, his tank mates are also well-described. They are, after all, his “family,” living and fighting together from Belgium into Germany. The story also includes one of his German adversaries, Gustav, who faced Clarence and his tank mates in his Panther in Cologne. There are other Germans, too, including a tank commander who saved the lives of several captured Americans, assigned to literally dig their own graves before they were to be shot by their German captors.

There is a very human story here, in Spearhead, not just military history, and it is told well. When I read such “war stories” I am amazed that everyday folks turned soldiers can endure the horrors that comprise warfare, that they can choose to face what may well be almost certain death, and do so more than once. True, some soldiers broke and some fled, but the average soldier fought again and again. These are heroes in every sense, and some of their stories are in this book.

Interested? Then let the author have the last words:

Is the world ready for a book about tanks?
There’s one way to find out.
Shut the hatches.
Tighten your chin strap.
It’s time to roll out.

Amazon Customer

Outstanding

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2024

Maybe the best book I have ever read .

Ernest Ohlmeyer

Gripping Story of Tank Combat

Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2019

This was an exciting and fast-paced story about a crew of American tank men in WW II and their odyssey from shortly after D-Day to the German surrender. The combat scenes are vivid and describe tank-on-tank duels between the collapsing German forces and the American juggernaut. The general inferiority of the US Sherman tank to the German Panzer and Tiger are described in detail. The advent late in the war of the US Pershing tank was a great equalizer, but there were far too few of them. The crew in our story is awarded a Pershing based on their outstanding gunnery record. The book describes the men's stories and is told in a very personal way. Although the men see much violence, they don't appear to be turned into hardened monsters as a result. The story has the flavor of Tom Brokaw's Greatest Generation, fighting for a noble cause without loosing their humanity. It was interesting to contrast this with the movie Fury, which depicted similar tank warfare in a much bloodier, violent setting, and showed the American tankers as becoming hardened killers by war's end, with special brutality directed toward the Nazi SS troops (which was perhaps deserved). Never having experienced war, I have to think the truth lies somewhere in between.

Andy J-L

Excellent. Couldn't put it down.

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2020

My passion for WW2 history is mainly focused on "The Mighty Eighth" USAAF. I loved Makos' book "A Higher Call" (when are they going to make the movie?!), so I was intrigued about "Spearhead". I really enjoy Fury, so I thought I would check out this book to learn more about tanks. So glad I did. Really couldn't put it down. Makos' has a skill in writing in history with heart, letting really get to know the people. He writes in such vivid detail, and it is so heavily researched, you really do feel like you were there. I know, cliche, but it's true. I also greatly appreciate how he incorporated the story of an enemy tanker. Again, letting you get to know him. They were all just kids. And like kids, some are good, and some are not too good. Makos treats them all fairly and accurately according to who they really are. Spearhead follows a similar formula to A Higher Call. Background, battle, aftermath and today. A formula I love. The today segments of both Spearhead and Call had me getting seriously choked up. Action, Terror, Humanity, and Heart. If you have a passion around WW2 and the European Theater, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. And it's another one begging to be a movie...

Kindle Customer

Great story.

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2024

Love our brave men.

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