From the pages of a best-selling book to a soon-to-be-produced motion picture, Clarence Smoyer’s tale of heroism, guilt and redemption continues his extraordinary saga.

Variety Magazine is reporting that Oscar-nominated screenwriters Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson will adapt the book “Spearhead” by Adam Makos into a major motion picture.

Paul Merryman, who produced the movie “The Outpost” about the Afghanistan War, will collaborate with Tamasy and Johnson to create a visual version of the book that chronicles Smoyer’s experiences as a tank gunner during the war and his part in the liberation of Germany from Nazi loyalists after a surrender had been already declared.

The dramatic events in Cologne in 1945 began with what has been called “The greatest tank duel in history,” a standoff between Smoyer’s Pershing Eagle and Gustav Schaefer’s German Panther.

Moments before 21-year-old Smoyer was able to incapacitate the Panther, a car drove into the intersection between the two tanks.

Warned by one of his crew that the vehicle was a German staff car, Smoyer opened machine-gun fire, killing the driver. He then witnessed a young German woman who was a passenger in the car take one breath on the side of the street before she died.

For more than 50 years, Smoyer had frequent nightmares about killing an innocent woman until in 1996 and at the age of 89, he traveled to Cologne to visit her grave and seek forgiveness for what he had done. As he stood before her gravestone, he was unaware that he was to meet someone in a planned reunion. That someone was Gustav Schaefer, who appeared at the gravesite with a translator.

After explaining to Schaefer why he had come back to Cologne, Smoyer was shocked to hear his counterpart tell him that he too had fired his machine gun at the car and that their crossfire had killed both occupants.

Smoyer and Schaefer soon became friends, and upon his return home, letters were exchanged until Schaefer died in 2017.

Smoyer sent flowers to Schaefer’s funeral with the note, “I will never forget you! Your brother in arms, Clarence.”

Smoyer was awarded the Bronze Star for courage and valor in 2019 at the age of 96 - 74 years after the standoff in Cologne.

Known as the Gentle Giant, he was born in Parryville and grew up on Bankway Street in Lehighton. He remained a hometown boy, skating at Graver’s Roller Rink, where he enjoyed the company of his future wife, Melba, who died of Alzheimer’s disease after 71 years of marriage.

Smoyer currently lives in Allentown with his sister and was recently treated to a surprise ride around town in a facsimile of his Pershing Eagle tank.

In a statement about the movie project, Merryman said, “It’s a war story with an X-factor. … “It’s a story people can’t stop talking about.”

“We had to bring this unique story to the big screen,” Tamasy said. “In a time of discord and division, Adam’s book paints a vivid picture and compelling story of forgiveness and healing that sticks with you long after you’ve set it down.”

Makos was delighted when told the film’s production team had chosen his book as the genesis for the motion picture. “Tamasy and Johnson are names synonymous with quality filmmaking,” he said. “They have their pick of stories and I’m honored they chose this one.”

“Spearhead” is not just an account of tactical tank maneuvers. The book highlights the lives of Smoyer and his tank crew who “lived in a sardine can” for several months.

The Gentle Giant, who had never been in a fistfight his entire life, gunned down seven German tanks. His promise to his crew was that they would return home safely. They did.

Only Smoyer survives, and family members of the four-man crew were present during the presentations of the Bronze Stars.