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tank duel sightseeing tour (2) Deutsche Version
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We now cross the street to the other side of Komödienstrasse the next crosswalk.
6
Arriving at the other street side, look back towards the cathedral. It's approximately the place where Fred Ramage took the famous photo with the two Sherman tanks.


Original photo by Fred Ramage/Getty Images
Then and now in one photo, the same position.


b/w-excerpt: "After the Battle #104"
Tank Commander Kellner was treated in a bomb funnel after the hit, which lay about 10 - 15 meters back from the tank. Taking into account the course of the old road at that time, the bomb funnel was located in the spot marked in red in the photo. Yellow spot was the Sherman position.

Now we got to street corner Tunisstrasse / Komödienstrasse.
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Another view back towards the cathedral will remember us that at this place the American Sherman tank crew was advancing to the cathedral not knowing that their fate was sealed already

Around the corner we follow the street Tunisstrasse to the next intersection Tunisstrasse / Unter Sachsenhausen. The Tunisstrasse was built up after the war as part of the "Nord-Süd-Fahrt", a wide street through the city from the northern parts to the southern parts, in March 1945 it did not exist in this form.
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At this intersection, we turn our attention first to the left, there are the streets (first) Unter Sachsenhausen followed by Gereonstrasse (with church St. Gereon) then Christopstrasse and after crossing the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring the Gladbacher Strasse. Over these roads Company 'E' advanced to the Cologne city on March 06, 1945. Many film sequences were taken there, below for example a photo showing Gereonstrasse and St. Gereon

We now look to the right. There we see streets Unter Sachsenhausen (at the beginning) and An den Dominikanern (in the further course). In background left we can see again the ancient house of the German Labor Front from where Bates was filming the Panther sequence
.

This street is still as wide as it was in 1945 and there are a few old buildings which were not destroyed during the war. In this street the US cameramen Bates and Rosenmann took several film scenes, in particular the shooting Pershing in front of the house of the German Labor Front

Let's go ahead on the right side of the road, about 50 meters further.
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There we find a house on the right side, from whose entrance out the cameramen filmed the Pershing shooting with his guns. This house was the building of the Reichsbank in Cologne. On the other side of the street we can see another house which stood already there in 1945

Let's go. 20 meters further, on the right side there's a building, the Deutsche Bank built up after the war.
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In front of the old and during the war destroyed building at this place they filmed the triumphant images of the Pershing crew

Directly opposite on the other side of the road there was the post office building in 1945. In the movie we can see a German soldier capitulating in front of this building

The post building survived the war, but in the late 90s it was replaced by the modern construction of a senior residence.

Let's go to the intersection Marzellenstrasse / An den Dominikanern and watch the house on the other side, the former house of the German Labor Front, which today hosts the social court.
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Out of the following windows cameramen were filming or took photos

Bates and Rosenmann were Army cameramen and filmed the Panther scenes, Himes was an Army photographer. One photo was taken by an unknown photographer and can be found in the NARA archives.

Now look around the corner, at the end of the street there's the place where the Pershing hit the Panther

View today


View 1945, out of the house of the German Labor Front out. The buildings on the left side are still standing today.

End of the tour.

 

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