Lehighton native Clarence Smoyer will have a book signing and meet-and-greet from 6 to 7:30 tonight at the Lehighton Area Elementary Center cafeteria.

In his book, “Spearhead,” a biographical account of Smoyer’s life, author Adam Makos talks about Smoyer’s time in World War II.

One of World War II’s most legendary tank gunners, Smoyer, of Lehighton, enlisted in the U.S. Army in February 1943, according to Makos,

After training at Fort Indiantown Gap, he was assigned to the 3rd Armored Division, one of America’s two heavy armored divisions, later known by the nom de guerre: “The Spearhead Division.”

Smoyer came ashore three weeks after D-Day and served as a loader and later, gunner, on a Sherman tank.

On Sept. 2, 1944, he knocked-out a Panzer IV tank that had infiltrated American lines at Mons, Belgium, the first of five tanks that he would be responsible for disabling or destroying. Having been assigned to one of twenty top-secret Pershing tanks rushed to the European Theatre, Smoyer earned a notable place in history during the battle for Cologne, Germany, where he fought a dramatic duel with a German Panther tank at the city’s cathedral.

An army cameraman filmed this engagement and the resulting footage appeared in newsreels worldwide. Smoyer would go on to fight with the Spearhead Division until the end of the war in Europe. In civilian life, he married his sweetheart, Melba, had three children, and worked his way into a supervisor’s position at an industrial plant.