If you've seen the movie Fury, you'll remember Sherman's life-and-death duel with the Tiger in the movie, where Pete plays the captain who goes through a lot of hardships to get around and take out the Tiger tank. In fact, there is also a tank duel in World War II that is also very famous, this duel that took place in Cologne Cathedral became the only tank battle in World War II that was completely recorded by camera.
The U.S. tank was the T26E3, which was an experimental version of the T26 medium tank at the time, and later became the famous M26 "Pershing". The Eagle 7 belonged to the 3rd Armored Division of the U.S. Army, which had just entered the German city of Cologne on March 6, 1945. By this time, German sappers had blown up the Hohenzollern Bridge over the Rhine in Cologne, which divided the city into east and west, and on this side of Cologne Cathedral was the west bank, and most of the German troops had withdrawn.
Just as American soldiers were advancing along Cologne Cathedral, a Panther tank ambushed and destroyed an M4 Sherman tank at the intersection, and the U.S. military soon called the nearby "Eagle 7" to come to support.
Earley, the commander of the Eagle 7, and the photographer who accompanied the army reconnoitred on foot, and found that the panther was holding three intersections, blocking multiple directions while making it an excellent target, so they decided to attack the panther from the side. Just as Eagle 7 was about to reach the intersection, the Panthers seemed to have a "spider sense" and turned the turret to the intersection where they were about to appear. This scene happened to be captured by the photographer, but he was unable to inform the commander.
However, at that time, the German armored corps had a rule that they should not open fire without confirming that the opposing tank was an enemy army. The "Eagle 7", which was a "Pershing" test vehicle, was a new model that the German army had not seen at that time, and the German army also had precedents such as letting the Panther tank "cosplay" the US military's M10 for camouflage operations, so the German army did not start it for the sake of safety.
This gave the Eagle 7 a chance, and the crew opened fire first, and a shell came down and hit the side of the Panther's hull. The T33 armor-piercing bullet easily pierced the Panther's side armor as if it were butter. Then they immediately came a second shot, this one hitting the cannon shield. The crew members of the Black Panther hurriedly jumped out of the car to escape, and the 4 crew members successfully escaped.
Just in case, the Eagle 7 also fired a third shell that successfully ignited the Panther. The battle was recorded in its entirety by the army's photographer Bates, who lasted 120 seconds, and he was awarded a Bronze Star for filming the famous battle. This tank battle, which took place in front of Cologne Cathedral, became one of the most famous tank battles of World War II because of the complete video record, which is enough to let future generations know the cruelty of tank battles.
Previously, World of Tanks players filmed a beautiful 4K short film in the game, using the powerful graphics of the game "World of Tanks" to recreate the battle of Cologne Cathedral in a simulated way.
Although this battle has long been sealed in history, whether it is the video footage left behind or the restoration of realistic battle scenes in the game, they all tell us the fragility of life under the collision of steel monsters. However, the wrecked panther became a tourist attraction in the future, silently telling the people who came and went to tell all kinds of stories that had happened here.