On March 6, 1945, Sgt. Jim Bates, a First Army Signal Corps photographer attached to the 3AD, shot a now-famous 48 seconds of 16mm footage showing the destruction of a German Mark V Panther tank in the cathedral square of downtown Cologne. The Panther was struck by three 90mm rounds from an M-26 Pershing tank of E Co, 32nd Armored Regiment, 3AD. Minutes before this encounter, the Panther had destroyed a 3AD Sherman tank, killing three of its five crewmen.
Bates was positioned on the mezzanine of a bombed out office building about 100 yards from the Panther as events unfolded. Shot at the standard 24 frames per second with relatively grainy, b&w, 16mm film, the image quality was susceptible to any jarring, hand movement, or subject movement. As a result, a number of frames suffered from blurring or mis-aiming, which is understandable in a combat situation. Bates won a Bronze Star that day for his photography, based primarily on this remarkable movie sequence.
http://www.3ad.com/history/wwll/feature.pages/bates.index.htm
Video
Remove the spaces after ".com" to watch as embedding is disabled.
www.youtube.com /watch?v=1qfHgoSTm48
Bates was positioned on the mezzanine of a bombed out office building about 100 yards from the Panther as events unfolded. Shot at the standard 24 frames per second with relatively grainy, b&w, 16mm film, the image quality was susceptible to any jarring, hand movement, or subject movement. As a result, a number of frames suffered from blurring or mis-aiming, which is understandable in a combat situation. Bates won a Bronze Star that day for his photography, based primarily on this remarkable movie sequence.
http://www.3ad.com/history/wwll/feature.pages/bates.index.htm
Video
Remove the spaces after ".com" to watch as embedding is disabled.
www.youtube.com /watch?v=1qfHgoSTm48
Last edited: