War Veteran Makes Unlikely Ally While Solving a Mystery

A Young Soldier

On March 6, 1945, Clarence Smoyer was just 19 years old when he was preparing for what would be known as one of the U.S. Army’s biggest fights in Europe in WWII—called “Endkampf”, or final battle, in German.

Clarence was a tank fighter in the Allies’ final push into Nazi Germany. As a gunner in the M26 Pershing tank, he thought he was prepared for what was to come.