M26 Pershing

You can't spell "perish" without "Pershing"

This article is fucking 'Murican. Expect copious amounts of Freedom with an infrequent side of Awesome.

"We came American. We shall remain American and go into battle with Old Glory over our heads."

– John J. Pershing

The M26 Pershing was a medium/heavy tank in the arsenal of the United States during WW2. The Pershing, though behind the Tiger II in areas of firepower and armor, was more than capable of slugging it out with any of the lesser tanks of the Germans and come out on top. Intended to replace the M4 Sherman, the long development process of the Pershing meant only a relative few made it to Europe and fewer still saw combat. However, the Pershing provided a strong base for the further development of tanks, such as the M46 and the Patton series including the M60 Patton.

Late War

The stats.

IRL

The Development of the M26 was so delayed by a variety of factors. One was logistics, in that the Pershing was a new chassis that cargo ships would have to make room for, which sat unwell with logistics planners. The second deciding factor was that the Shermans in service were performing perfectly fine, and could easily be upgraded to 76mm cannons that made them more than a match for anything on the field at the time. The third that it was seen as an unneeded investment due to US tank destroyer doctrine, which to make a long story short means that US tanks would push with the infantry and give them firepower, and when a heavier enemy tank was spotted, the light and powerful US tank destroyers would quickly respond and send the Fascist scum straight to hell. Thus the project was delayed right up until the end of the war until the increasing number of Panther and Tiger tanks caused these commanders to collectively shit bricks, after which they relented and limited numbers were sent.

Long development aside, the ultimate conclusion of the T20 series of experimental tanks to replace the Sherman, the M26 was equipped with a 90mm M3 cannon, about 2mm larger than on the Tiger tanks, as well a hull mounted BMG, coaxial BMG, and a .50 cal pintle mounted BMG for shredding infantry and shooing away aircraft.

The tank was a decent design but ran into some of the same problems the German heavy tanks of the war: It was slow, tended to be mechanically unreliable, and its greatest enemy was slopes (it used the same engine as the Sherman, but weighed more than ten tons more. This problem would be fixed by the later M46 Patton). In spite of this, the Pershing proved perfectly capable of taking on the Tiger and Panther tanks it encountered. It was later used in Korea, but withdrawn as the issues with climbing hills made it pretty much useless, even though it could roflstomp most of the Communist tanks during that war.

The most notable variant of the Pershing was the "Super Pershing", an experimental version that put an even higher velocity gun on the thing along with some additional armor. It never saw combat, but one model was shipped to Europe. The Pershing series served as a baseline for later tanks such as the M46s and M60s introduced during the cold war.