M26 Heavy Tank (later medium)
M26 Pershing
Direct ancestor of the M46/M47/M48 Patton family.
Specifications
- Crew
- 5
- Combat weight
- 41.7 t
- Engine
- 500 hp
- hp / tonne
- 12.0
- Road speed
- 40 km/h
- Range
- 160 km
- Main gun
- 90 mm M3
- In service
- 1945–1951
Ford GAF V8, 500 hp — same family as the Sherman, now overworked
Armor: Cast/welded, 102 mm glacis, 114 mm turret front
Secondary: .50 cal AA, 2× .30 cal
Briefing scores
Relative 1–10 for teaching, not a wargame rating.
- Firepower
- 7/10
- Protection
- 7/10
- Mobility
- 4/10
- Awareness
- 5/10
- Logistics
- 6/10
Ammunition natures
History
Ordnance wanted a 90 mm tank in 1942; Army Ground Forces delayed it, betting on Shermans plus tank destroyers. Twenty T26E3s reached the 3rd Armored and 9th Armored in February 1945. At Dessau and Cologne they finally met Tigers on even terms. Korea proved the 90 mm still mattered.
Doctrine
A late admission that exploitation tanks also had to kill other tanks. The Pershing arrived as a heavy, was reclassified a medium, and became the parent of the Patton line.
Strengths
- 90 mm could kill Tigers frontally with HVAP
- Much better protection than Sherman
Limits
- Underpowered
- Too late for most of the ETO
- Wide for some bridges
Related hulls
3 of 25 in the atlas