![]() ![]() As before, please feel free to offer improvements to the translation. Hopefully, I didn't bungle too much of the rest of the translation. I have finally gotten the larger news article translated (thanks to Skipper who helped out on a few of the more difficult portions). In 1945 they fought against each other, now they shared the sacrifices: Clarence Smoyer (right) and Gustav Schäfer. Scenes from the documentary material that Hermann Rheindorf has edited in his documentation "Cologne 1945 - Close-up", can be viewed on the Internet. Gereon, where the former opponents Smoyer and Schäfer now laid their flowers. Katharina Esser and other dead of the battle were buried in the cemetery at St. Schäfer was taken prisoner, while the Americans were advancing to the cathedral. The fight came to an end only when Smoyer's tank with a grenade brought down a house wall that buried the German tank underneath and blocked the turret. She and her companion Hans Delling were not the only ones who died at St. According to witnesses the just rescued was overrun during the further advance of the American tanks. The late Anna Lettau recognized her lost sister Katharina Esser again. When the documentary film scene became known in 2007, the "Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger" called on its readers to help identify the unknown young girl. Schäfer, too, can not forget: "I hope it was not me who hit her, but I have to accept it soon, and when I took my finger off the trigger it was probably too late." "I've often seen the scene in my dreams, I do not know if I hit the girl, probably yes," says Smoyer. Later, the American film shows how a young woman is still pulled out of the car alive.īoth tank gunners have noticed the incident. The material discovered by the filmmaker Hermann Rheindorf also shows how a private car, coming from Hansaring, turns into the Christophstraße and is riddled by machine gun fire. The episode might be forgotten if the Americans had not kept the invasion of Cologne in the film. In a Pershing tank of the "Third Armored Division" the 19-year-old Clarence Smoyer sits at the gun, on the other side the 18-year-old Schäfer. Just before the crossing of the Christophstrasse with the ring, the three German tanks meet with the American troops. "As soon as we had arrived on the left bank of the Rhine, have blown up the bridge - our own people," Schäfer says. On the withdrawal of the Americans he had already reached the saving right bank of the Rhine in March, when he was ordered again to advance to the attack on the invading Americans over the Hohenzollern Bridge. At 17 he had volunteered for the Wehrmacht, a year later he fought in Luxembourg and France. And Schäfer concluded: "Hopefully this madness will never happen again."Īs a youth he had seen it differently. "Now we're friends, even though we almost killed each other back then," says Smoyer. 68 years later they face each other eye-to-eye for the first time and can hardly restrain the tears. ![]() The two were enemies and on March 6, 1945, when the Americans invaded Cologne, they delivered a fierce tank battle in the Christophstrasse. They have just set laid flowers together. Behind Clarence Smoyer (87) stands Gustav Schäfer (86) in the small cemetery of St. “Give me a few more minutes”, says the older gentleman in the Army Blouse and looks quietly at the wooden cross with the inscription "The Unknown Dead". “At that time we had nearly killed ourselves”Ĭommemorating American and German soldier set laid flowers for the victims of their battle in the Christophstrasse I used Translate to come up with the following transcription, so any assistance to improve the translation will be most welcome.
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