it's 1945 and the second world war is drawing to a close despite this the flow of American
armor continues to stream into the European theater among these are a small number of the
newest American weapons of war these machines known as the M26 Pershing hoped to level the
playing field by giving the us forces a tank equal to the tigers and panthers they faced
however the emerging threat posed by the new tiger ii would bring a modification to these Pershings
to match the firepower of the long 88 this tank would become known as the T26E4 or Super Pershing
throughout history there have been countless tanks all designed to kill but not all have been
a success what happened to the ones that never made it and why did they fail my name is ConeOfArc
join me as we journey through time uncovering failed projects and forgotten creations in
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video when someone mentions the Super Pershing likely the first image that pops into your head
is this tank however although this is a Super Pershing the field modifications it received
hide what the original tank beneath was to fully understand the concept behind this upgrade we need
to first look at the 90 millimeter the original Pershing was armed with the 90 millimeter M3 was a
gun capable of matching the 88 found on the first tigers the feared king tiger though mounted a much
stronger 88 which easily outmatched anything he could face this made the need for a better
cannon which could match the long 88 paramount this need for a gun eventually led to the 90
millimeter T15 or as the early production units were designated the T15E1 the gun proved capable
against the German armor being able to penetrate a Panther's upper plate at a range of 2600 yards
obviously with this success came the idea to find some way to mount this gun into an armored vehicle
eyes fell on the shiny new M26 being the most likely candidate and so the testing began
just days after the first Pershings were arriving in Europe a T15E1 cannon was mounted in the turret
of the first t26 e1 prototype subsequent firing trials however revealed a problem
due to the long 50 inch shells the cannon fired reloading was extremely tricky and stowage of
the ammo was problematic as well to resolve this the cannon was redesigned to use a two-piece style
ammunition like that of the is-2 with this change the cannon was re-designated as T15E2
tests of this new cannon were conducted using a second prototype tank this time a t26 e3 one of
the easiest ways to spot one of these early Super Pershings are the large springs on the turret roof
due to the increased length and weight of the gun barrel these were necessary to allow the gun to
elevate in the early photos you can clearly see the exposed springs before metal shielding was
placed over them other modifications the tank received included upgrades to the elevating
mechanism as well as the cradle lock for the gun a large counterweight was also attached to the rear
of the turret to account for the increased weight with these upgrades completed the first tank was
shipped to Europe for field trials the tank scent was the first prototype meaning it still housed
the T15E1 with its one piece ammunition with its arrival in march of 1945 it received its official
designation as T26E4 as well as a production order of 1000 vehicles before we talk about the limited
production however we need to take a look at the sole example of the tank to be shipped overseas
and see any combat upon arrival the tank was given to the third armored division this being
the only Super Pershing on the continent Major Harrington who was the chief of the tank repair
service for the division wanted to ensure that the tank was not lost in combat to prevent this
he enlisted a lieutenant by the name of Belton Cooper who would go on to write the famous book
death traps after the war to accomplish this some extremely wacky field modifications which
wouldn't look out of place in a mad max movie were attached to the exterior using whatever he
could find his team set to work adding two layers of 38 millimeter boilerplate to the whole front
despite this steel not being as strong as true armor plating the angling and effective
thickness was good enough that they theorized it would cause ricochets the turret front on the
Pershing was weak enough to be outmatched by the tiger and panther let alone the tiger ii so the
upgrades to the turret were much more significant cutting torches at the ready they descended on
a destroyed panther slicing a piece of its 80 millimeter frontal plate off and creating holes
for the Pershing's main gun coaxial machine gun and sight before attaching it to the turret face
however this increased armor obviously increased the weight as well with all this armor being
placed on the front which was already heavier due to the gun barrel the suspension suffered severely
this caused the nose of the tank to dip downwards meaning the elevation angles of the tank were
completely thrown off to counteract this tilt more weight was added to the counterweight on
the turret eventually leveling off the tank to an acceptable degree two more pieces of steel were
also welded off the sides of the stolen panther armor to shield the turret cheeks and possibly
to partially act as more weight to counter the gun all told these modifications increased the weight
by upwards of 5 tons all this work would come to be unnecessary however as the tank would only see
combat on two occasions this was partly due to logistical issues that plagued did upon arrival
by mistake the ammunition for the 90 millimeter gun was sent to the 635th tank destroyer battalion
this mistake was later discovered when the 635th found the shells were 12 and a half inches too
long for their guns not only was the ammunition misplaced but the specialized site given to
the Super Pershing which was calibrated to the increased velocity of the cannon had been removed
prior to leaving the united states to remedy this the standard M71C sight from the 90 millimeter
M3 was put in its place although this required working out a full range sheet for the gun the
first use of this tank in combat was reportedly between Weser and Nordheim where it destroyed an
unidentified armored target the second use is also a very controversial one on the 21st of April 1945
in the city of Dessau the tank engaged in combat with what Gunner Corporal J. Erwin claimed to be
a tiger ii the enemy tank hit the Super Pershing but ricocheted off the armor upon returning fire
the Super Pershing punched through the lower plate of the tank detonating its ammo rack and blowing
the turret off this supposed engagement has been scrutinized over the years however with quite a
bit of evidence disproving the likelihood that it was a legendary king tiger on the receiving end
that day although it is entirely possible for the Super Pershing to destroy one had they encountered
each other the nearest German panzer battalion with tiger 2's was reportedly 70 miles away from
the duel this leads most to believe it was more likely something like a panther or even panzer
iv which was either mistaken for the bigger cat or possibly even exaggerated after the fact
regardless this would be the last time the tank saw combat with it ending up in a tank dump
after the war where it was photographed before disappearing forever this wasn't the end of the
T26E4 program though even as the Frankenstein's monster of a Pershing was being created in Europe
work was still being done on a production version of the tank in total 25 of these would be built
instead of the original 1000 order the only major difference between these and the second prototype
vehicle would be an internal hydropneumatic equilibrator which replaced the exterior springs
these tanks were further tested until 1947 but the issues caused by the two-part ammo eventually saw
the program be shelved and most of the tanks used as range targets the technology developed with the
T26E4 would be carried on by the later M26E1 this tank used a new variant of the 90 millimeter known
as the T54 this tank was essentially the same as the T26E4 with the only main changes to it being
a new recoil system and a .50 cal in place of the original coaxial .30 cal to solve the reloading
problems the new gun also used a shorter fatter round which permitted it to maintain the ballistic
capabilities of the original T15E2 two prototypes were built and tested and their performance was
quite good but due to budget restrictions in the years after the war it never saw full-scale
production in the end the T26E4 Super Pershing could have been a very powerful weapon for
the allied forces like the standard Pershing however the war was nearly over and the much
more plentiful tanks used by the allies stole the day the fact that even just one of these machines
actually reached Europe is quite an achievement in itself since the US had largely avoided
allowing field testing of any new equipment although extremely promising the American king
tiger killers would never truly be used for their intended role one solitary Super Pershing remains
today on display at the first division museum in Illinois I want to take a second now to thank you
all so much for voting on this topic if you want to learn a little more about some of the nitty
gritty details regarding this tank I encourage you to check out the video the Chieftain made
about it I'll include a link down below and at the end of the video as always a special thanks to all
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