Developing the T26 Pershing

quitting's off with the release of spearhead the book about the gunner whose moment of fame was the destruction of a panther to Cologne Cathedral I thought now would be a good time to look over just how was the Clarence's tank came to be much of this has already been put up in written format on the Chieftains hatch on the World of Tanks portal I've got something like eight articles up on the subject but if you're the sort of person who prefers to listen and supposed to read multiple articles scattered around the web well then this video is for you as is well known the u.s. came to World War two with a partial head start they sort of knew what was coming and had enough time to spin up the m3 medium for export and domestic use before switching to the m4 which would see them through at least the first part of the war that said the m4 was fundamentally a very old design it was an outstanding design which is why it was so viable for many years but ordnance branch the folks in charge of developing new equipment felt it was possible to do better these new tanks would incorporate some improvements commensurate with their later design the new 76 millimeter gun would be incorporated from the start and the entire powertrain would beat the rear combined with an intent to only use automotive engines as opposed to aircraft radials this would result in a lower silhouette it was planned that these new tanks would be smaller more mobile and hit about as hard as both the tank destroyers and the upgraded m4 s it will be replacing of course it's very easy for the chap in charge of writing the design requirements to say I want a tank which does everything better give it a metre of armor and gotten twice the size of anything out there make it way less than 30 tons in new forty five miles an hour if it can fly so much the better actually making it happen though can be a rather it had more difficult I have mentioned before I thought it normally takes about two years for a weapons programme to come to fielding at least in a world war ii period things seem to take a bit longer today and Pershing didn't actually fall far short of that you need to cast your mind back to late 1942 the 76 millimeter m4 has just been rejected by armored force for being unusable production of the m10 tank destroyer with a 3-inch gun was in full swing the t67 tank destroyer was just about to be delivered for testing and approval to produce the m6 heavy tank in limited numbers had just been granted for comparison in the rest of the world the British had just finished production of the Crusader 3 with the same 6 pounder gun as Churchill was coming with early Cromwell type prototypes are coming out such as Cavalier and cent or the Germans have been fielding the Panzer 4 with the longer L 43 7.5 for about six months and Tiger 1 had barely entered production the Soviets were still building kV once and t-34 76 --is this is far from the time of the behemoths when often think about in terms of world war ii tank battles during this time ordnance will not want to put all their eggs in one basket a series of vehicles with generally the same layout was produced t23 t20 and t20 to t 23 was perhaps the most ambitious and the darling of the R&D head general gladion barnes what made him especially proud of the vehicle was the potential of the electric drive system such was originally created for the t1 heavy tank this gave the potential of the tank to spin on a dime have great torque travel as fast and reverses forwards and even be completely operated by single crewmen the pilot vehicle came out in January of 1943 it still had the Sherman type vertical volley suspension and track though the somewhat similar t20 tank was ready for testing a few months later although it came with a somewhat more advanced horizontal varley suspension system this big trick was a hydra-matic transmission with simplified driver training requirements the third of the trio to show up was t20 - in June of 43 this was arguably the most conservative of the three and is best described as a redesigned m4a3 by use of the ford engine and place in the manual transmission at the rear the low design was permitted together with the same early hvss system is on the t20 this one had no future right at the gate it has significant powertrain issues and in any case the t20 3 had already been selected for production by them in the end t20 was similarly were taken by events persistent trouble with the torque manic transmission meant that it never got any further than the General Motors proving ground and back to the factory for repairs Aberdeen finally got a hold of theirs in early 1944 by which time there were definitely more promising options again that more promising option was the t23 in April of 43 the brass were given a demonstration of the tanks capability fortunately for ordnance it worked well and the brass were sufficiently impressed especially in contrast with the ill-fated m7 medium tank which was starting its death throes before finally being put the Mersey later that year the all-singing all-dancing t 23 was agreed would start with an initial production run of 250 tanks of course as we now know from history things did not go overly well back on the t20 track in July of 1943 the first t20ii 3 arrived which was a t20 with torsion bar suspension as opposed to bogies logical progression given the experience of the suspension type with a t70 gun motor carriage which we now know is the m18 hellcat this was a suspension which ordnance really wanted to put on the t 23 tank and indeed that the m27 designation was going to be assigned to the torsion bar version of the t 23 however the desire to get the tank in the production sooner was such that there was no time for the t20 III to be tested first plus the t20 threes and production with the late VBSS suspension system which presumably proved to be a bit more reliable than the early hvss fan on t 20 or wouldn't have been used that was only a minor detail however compared to the real problem the electric transmission the theoretical benefits were manifest and barn saw as much potential in the system as his fellow mad scientist over in Germany Ferdinand Porsche did those benefits did not however come without significant snags such as an extra three and a half tons of weight at the rear to tank this was eventually some more counterbalance by increasing the frontal Armour thickness another half inch to three inches but again that didn't make the combat engineers or logisticians who are responsible for getting it where needed to go any happier neither were armored force impressed by the resultant ground pressure but even those issues could perhaps be tolerated if the system were something approaching reliable and if it didn't require highly trained mechanics to repair armored force were to put a plug Li not satisfied in the meantime had a decision to make the next year was shaping up to be the make-or-break year of the war what would be the vehicle that they would choose to be equipped with in sufficient numbers to take the war to Germany on the European continent ordnance was promising that the t20 threes issues would be fixed on the other hand the m4 was doing plenty well enough and needed only tweaks with this decision armored force in particular and army ground forces in general could arguably be gambling over the future of the planet for its various flaws the m4 it would be there really couldn't be any decision other way I mean what if ordnance were wrong about its ability to get the t23 running to standard and that was far from the only matter of course all the current vehicles in development or under serious consideration used a 76 millimeter gun the t20 series he improved them for the m18 tank destroyer that there was the occasional experimental dalliance with the 90 millimeter such as on the m6 heavy tank or the t 53 tank destroyer but none of the using arms wanted it even tank destroyer branch held a position in opposition to the 90 millimeter gun motor carriage team 71 which would be the m36 jackson for most of 1943 together with armored force they believe that the 76 millimeter or 3-inch gun was plenty enough to do the job now one might ask the question well why not just put the bigger gun in anyway just in case you need it and the answer is because it's not that simple a bigger gun comes with liabilities such as a lower rate of fire and more importantly ammunition capacity as late as April of 1944 the European theater of operations was insisting that any vehicles going its direction carried at least 70 rounds of ammunition it was so important to the local commanders and the m4 76 could carry this not least because the high sponsons but the t23 production variant had an ammunition capacity of only 66 rounds which I guess could at least be considered close enough the US had a reliable accurate gun believed granted incorrectly as it turned out to be powerful enough to do the job it can engage multiple targets quickly and have turned out that more punch was deemed necessary and improvement in velocity would do the job hmm oh for whatever reason this latter solution is not implemented until July of 1944 but that's not really a factor in the thinking of the time when the pilot 90 millimeter tank t-26 t1 was produced ammunition capacity for the larger round was and you're not going to like this 42 utterly unacceptable for vehicles supposed to conduct sustained operations and of course there is the matter of what there was to shoot at target 1 have been encountered by US forces about six months earlier definitely something to respect but not unkillable even with 75 millimeter guns although it took a bit of work the three inch 76 millimeter would do better panther had not yet been discovered it had not yet been deployed by the time the US decided just in case to develop a 90 millimeter gun tank this was a modification to the order for the 250 t20 threes as now there would only be 200 t20 threes of the order bills the other 50 of which will be 90 millimeter tanks 40 of them will be t20 3s with the 90 millimeter guns the remaining 10 will be of a heavier type with more armor q the entry of several different designs of this 90 millimeter tank one of the first decisions made was at the t25 and t26 were not going to cut up with the electric motors the tanks were already heavy enough no point in adding to the track ground pressure and transportation tail even if they could be gotten to work well first the t25 a one and t26e1 were the two vehicles which would receive the bulk of the attention filled as ever with utter faith in their ability to produce service of more vehicles by october 43 ordnance were suggesting building 500 each of the t25 and t26 series tanks so that the lines will be set up for mass production not surprisingly this was shot down the US had spent too much capital and effort setting up four armored vehicles which turned out to be red herrings the m7 medium was a perfect case in point besides the whole point of building both the t25 and t26 was to see which was better why builds production lines for two vehicles when one of the two would do something of a four side the battle then started between the proponents and the objectors to the t25 and t26 series tanks these sides are army ground forces including armored board those two organizations eventually settle their differences in 1943 and as armored board was subordinate to a GF they provided basically a unified front to everybody else commander European theater or operations who was now general Devers formally the chief of armor commander North African theater of operations Eisenhower an ordnance branch despite originally being somewhat against it he 26 Devers changed his tune by November of 43 asking for 250 the 90 millimeter tanks the idea basically been to issue one T 26 for every five M force ordinance of course gave this request wholehearted approval but instead of taking what they had they went for overreach and also recommended while we're at it let's build a thousand t20 threes army ground forces weren't so sure about this but they sent the request around for opinions two results came back firstly from grand requirements saying hang on we haven't even built one for testing yet we don't know for the work ordering 250 is rather putting the cart before the horse similarly the Corps of Engineers came back saying we don't have enough bridges which will take the weight of this new thing we won't guarantee you'll be able to get the tank where you wanted to go Eisenhower chipped in as well and unlike Devers he was the one actually engaged in fighting the Germans at the time he did not want the 40 plus stun beasts he thought they were too heavy and sacrificed too much mobility McNair looked at the evidence in front of them his procurement guys were recommending against building untested equipment his engineers were recommending against building equipment that they couldn't guarantee would be worth knee to be his transatlantic combat commander was recommending against sending the proposed equipment and of course the guys in the Pacific had no problems with the m4 at all the equipment that they had in the field seemed to be doing well enough against the Germans in Italy and the new variant m4 with the wider tracks and high-velocity gun would remedy the obvious limitations of the tank and they knew it worked and the engineers could handle it on the other hand the guy not actively involved in fighting yet wanted the bigger tank and those snake oil salesmen over in ordnance who are pushing anything at all that was new and shiny McNair has gotten a lot of flack over the succeeding years for his decision to not immediately proceed with full production of the t26 given the available information though that he had what rational reason would ever be did to decide otherwise he did however recommend continuing the t25 and t26 programs as a developmental type this situation lasted about a month two things happen in December firstly deborah's again repeated his request for the 90 millimeter tanks secondly army service forces the department under which ordnance fell took this opportunity to go over McNair's head and made their case to the War Department the War Department authorized production of 250 t26e1 tanks as a result this was not communicated directed army ground forces and when general Dean the head of requirements division discovered this he was a bit put out and asked McNair to fight it listening out the large litany of exceptions that he took to the proposal McNair refused saying that the arguments had been made before the decision had been made by higher authority and he would send Evers his 250 tanks so in January of 1944 it was committed that mass production of the t26 series of tanks would start this is something of a gamble as the prototype had not yet been delivered the schedule was drawn up and it would be that the last of the 250 would roll off the production line in April of 45 the schedule proved to be more or less by way of comparison one can look at the turnaround time for the 76 millimeter and for once the decision to build the tank can be made in September 1943 physical production would have started in mid-january of 44 and the tanks actually started arriving in UK in early May so decision to in the field is about eight months and this is what a tank which was really just modification of something already in service in which it completed testing to apply the same timeline to Pershing too soon as this could that possibly happen will be August maybe June if the original date from Devers is used and this was of a tank which are not yet being tested surely after this decision was made the first two t25 series actually showed up the first was a t25 he one built the specification the second was quite literally at t 23 modified with a night of millimetre gun and horizontal body suspension system Confed weary the first t26e1 start arriving they start arriving and there was something of a litany of problems the official position of armoured force is that the vehicle was not battle worthy there were repeated pressings by ordnance branch to send the vehicles to italy or europe for field testing but army ground forces was having none of it their combat soldiers would not be guinea pigs for untested equipment and the combat zone was not to their mind and approved testing agency initially army ground forces prefer the t25 indeed not only did they prefer the t25 they wanted to give it a t26 is wider tracks and again drop it down to the 76 millimeter gun this they thought would provide the best overall mix of improved capability due to its new design and technologies whilst retaining the advantages of mobility gun handling an ammunition capacity of the lighter tank with the smaller gun however ordnance felt that it didn't have the manpower available to devote to this third option and eventually opinions started to come back from Europe that if the new tanks were gonna go dueling German vehicles they probably needed more armor anyway so the t25 started to fall by the wayside not that always great for the t26 some changes were obscured but still important changing the steering ratio it was too tight resulting in reliability and power issues others were very obvious such as cooling issues and problems with the powertrain falling apart the original wet stowage with which the vehicles came had to be dispensed with if they wanted to carry a reasonable amount of ammunition well their safety equipment had to go so too did the turret basket in the opinion of ordnance the required 70 or maybe even 71 rounds could be obtained if all other requirements were subordinated to it stowage would have to be sacrificed or moved the turret will become crowded and access to the drivers position from the turret was limited 18 rounds could have been placed if the bow gunner were removed but the eto was having none of that they wanted the bow machine-gun ordnance would have rather dispensed with him and the weak point in the bow armor but customer is always right and considering I didn't actually find Pershing to be too bad inside in my inside video ordnance actually did make a fairly reasonable job of it of course ordnance looked at the list of problems with the tank that have been sent back to them and started coming up with their solutions this would require sufficient change that the new model would be redesignated as a t26e3 the e2 was a variant with a 105 millimeter howitzer later built as iam 45 to test these new solutions out they took a spare t25 u1 they had lying around and converted it by this point we're talking about the summer of 1944 and in addition to the conversion they still had to test it conversion made and testing completed the changes were approved for the production line and t26e3 entered full rate initial production in November 1944 after several more attempts by ordnance to get the vehicle tested in the field a position I can't seem to recall was held with any other major end item they finally got approval on the 24th of November to send 20 vehicles overseas from the first production batch again army ground forces weren't thrilled but were overruled the so was that are the first 40 vehicles off the line 20 was sent to Aberdeen Fort Knox for testing and at the same time 20 were sent for Europe eventually arriving in Amsterdam the second week of February some tank transporters had to be modified carry the tanks and then they were sent to action for issuance Bradley had decided for whatever reason that the 3rd and 9th armored divisions would get 10 tanks each it was to local discretion how they would be split up so 14th tank battalion decided to put all five of its tanks into a single platoon they got involved in a maghen fight although they were left behind for a few days due to being too heavy to get across the bridge 19th tank battalion gave there's one to a company to each to be in see over in 3rd armored they split the love-30 3rd armored regiment had one each sent to de F H and I companies whilst Clarence's 32nd put one each into deg h and i companies they didn't take long to get into the fight ready for service by the 20th february the first loss came on the 26th when a tiger won put three rounds into a Pershing named fireball the town of Elle's Dorf was one of the rare occasions that the US Army in Western Europe actually met at Tiger 1 the tiger then turned it into a Pyrrhic victory when during its escape afterwards he got himself stuck and had to be abandoned two days later another person killed the tiger in two pounds of force another Pershing ended up knocked out after taking two rounds from artillery it was a repairable but it took several weeks to do it adding to the woes within two weeks two tanks lost their engines and somehow a third tank had a connecting rod go through astray in the crankcase of its auxilary motor another person was knocked out by nation' resulting in an ammunition blow it was not deemed worth repairing the super Pershing showed up in mid-march the gunsight couldn't be found and neither could the ammunition it turned out that the experimental ammunition had accidentally been sent to the 6th 35th tank destroyer battalion who were trying to figure out why the 90 millimeter ammunition did not fit in their towed 90 millimeter guns at this point production taps had been turned on and the next 40 t26 is arrived in late March going to 2nd and 5th armored the new crews got all of 45 minutes of instruction before being sent forward no practical exercise in total some 200 t-26s were issued to tank crews by war's end with varying degrees of success and familiarity there is a side note as 12 Pershing's were sent to the Pacific Theater there were a number of delays not least because who was discovered after they got the theater that most of the LC T's couldn't take the tank the war ended before they could see combat of course there was only the beginning of the m26 story it continued through until the Korean War before they improved m 46 with the new continental v12 across drive transmission which remedied much at the end 26 is failings showed up so there you go this is basically the story of how Clarence's m26 showed up for him to use in action see you next time

Channel: The_Chieftain

Views: 145,429

Rating: 4.9571457 out of 5

Keywords: M26

Id: dxizAK7s8P8

Length: 23min 11sec (1391 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 17 2019