The M26 Pershing was supposed to be America’s answer to the heavily armored German Tigers and Panthers, but by the time it saw combat, World War II was nearly over.

Clarence Smoyer, 95, of Allentown, Pa., was a 19-year-old gunner on an American Pershing tank during WWII. He made an appearance at a bookstore in Harrisburg, Pa. along with a WWII Sherman tank.

A fully restored, M26 Pershing tank has been on display in the museum's vehicle park for only a short while. The M26 was used extensively in Korea and saw action briefly at the end of World War Two.

From April 1942 to May 1945, 11,385 General Sherman tanks were built at the facility and about 1,190 Pershing tanks from Nov. 1944 to June 1945, according to GM and Flint Journal archives.