![]() Earley and his crew had been among those chosen and re-trained. The experimental Pershing, by contrast, boasted a lower profile, 105mm of frontal armor, and a massive 90 mm gun.įrustrated, Eisenhower authorised “Zebra Mission,” an unusual combat test that sent 20 Pershings to the ETO (European Theater of Operations), dividing them among veteran crews in the 3 rd and 9 th Armored Divisions. But by 1944, it was clear German tanks outclassed the fast but lightly-armored Sherman. Army needed a heavy tank - or could make do with Shermans and tank destroyers. ![]() The Pershing was controversial, the subject of a three-year bureaucratic feud over whether the U.S. It was, after all, what Earley’s tank had been built to do - for he commanded a T26E3 Pershing, the Army’s experimental answer to German heavy armor. Earley and his crew were to advance and destroy it. A radioed order came in - there was a Panther guarding the cathedral plaza. ![]() Robert Earley and his crew heard an explosion and saw smoke drifting over the rooftops. He’d been there to see the Sherman commander die because the media jeeps were riding up front with the spearhead. Rising over the city were the undamaged spires of Cologne Cathedral, that formed an exotic, almost romantic backdrop to the fighting.Įvery cameraman wanted to be the first to capture images of American troops occupying the Cathedral, and the light German resistance had made Bates reckless. ![]() Visibility was good and the terrain aesthetically interesting. Troops of the 3 rd Armored Division and 104 th Infantry were fighting street-by-street in the bombed ruins of the old city. ![]() Cologne provided exciting conditions for a combat photographer. ![]()
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