The American Super Tank that Wrecked the Chinese Army

the town of qinju in south korea was almost deserted when the improvised platoon of three american tanks arrived during the day the vehicles adopted a defensive position and calmly awaited the upcoming enemies and the hostile chinese forces showed up they charged with all they had they were confident that their soviet-made t-34 tanks would be enough to get rid of the us tanks without major problems but as the enemy approached the 30 and 50 caliber gunners from the american tanks opened fire with lethal accuracy to the chinese dismay one of their rounds simply bounced off the us vehicle it was then that they realized they were not fighting the usual m24 chaffee tank but a 46 ton m26 pershing armed with a powerful 90 millimeter gun the chinese didn't stand a chance m4 sherman replacement following the introduction of the panther and tiger tanks in 1943 the us army took notice of their impressive armor and firepower consequently the army ordinance department prioritized developing an m4 replacement that could fight toe-to-toe against these german vehicles at the time the army was already experimenting with the t20 t22 and t23 tank prototypes aiming to develop a successor to the sherman however sometime during development the army began working on two new heavy tank prototypes the t25 and t26 which completely wiped off the sherman's basic design the t26 design featured a powerful 90 millimeter gun and was heavier than the m4 weighing 46 tons besides its powerful gun the t26 was also armed with three machine guns one 30 caliber mg was coaxially mounted while a 50 caliber was mounted on the turret roof for anti-aircraft fire and another in the tank's bow in addition the five-man crew could easily drive the t-26 at over 30 miles per hour still the most noteworthy feature of the new model was its armor the t26 carried 4.53 inches of armor on the gun mantlet 3.94 inches on the front hull and 2.99 inches on the sides of the turret the armor was powerful enough to resist the impact of the punzer tank but it varied according to the range and angle of attack the war department approved the tank's production in the autumn of 1943 and named it m-26 pershing in honor of the man who had led the american expeditionary force during world war 1. however general leslie j mcnair and other officers from the army ground forces opposed the production of the new heavy tank claiming that the pershing's unique chassis would become an obstacle to the steady output of the m4 it was not until november of 1944 that the production of the first 20 persons began but the model was modified after more intelligence was gathered on its german counterparts late to the party the officers from the army ground forces were not willing to delay the production of the m4 sherman tanks and disrupt the effective supply line of the tank if the m26 was not battle proven before consequently only 20 m26 pershing tanks were developed and they were swiftly sent to the port of antver belgium in january of 1945. the persons were then split between the third and ninth armored divisions of the first army before the push towards german soil to accelerate the combat tests and observe their performance major general gladian m barnes the head of the army's ordinance department research and development service created the zebra technical mission on february 9 1945. zebra comprised highly trained specialists whose only task was to analyze the performance of the persons in different combat scenarios following an intense meeting with supreme allied commander general dwight the eisenhower major barnes's petition to send the m26 tanks into action as soon as possible was approved on february 17th the tanks and their crews were sent to a training facility in akka in germany for a brief but intense instruction one week later the men and their pershings were eager for combat [Music] first encounter the tank's baptism of fire came on february 26th when the american infantry secured a bridgehead on the east bank of the rohra river near the towns of eulek and durin and the third armored division rushed to neutralize approaching german armor also known as the spearhead division and led by major general maurice rose the objective of the third was to clear the area west of the roar and all the way to the rhine on its way to colonia and the rhine task force welborn from the third came by the town of elsdorf which had been reinforced by the germans to push back the attackers the day was cold and a gentle rain fell from the sky as a pershing tank dubbed fireball took the formation's lead and approached the quiet town the pershing stopped in front of a barricade close to the steinstross road and the pines or grenadiers were consumed by fear at the sight of the unknown american tank moving away immediately fireball's crew felt encouraged and began crossing a log barricade to find the enemy but they did not notice that three tiger one tanks from the ninth panzer division spotted them and moved through the village's western portion to counter-attack as the person attempted to make its way through the roadblock a friendly sermon approached to lend support seconds later a sound of thunder struck and the m4 exploded illuminating the rainy night with fire it was one of the tigers and fireball was now fully visible before the crew could react one of the tiger ones fired three rapid rounds at about a hundred yards the first round went through the gunman instantly getting rid of the gunner and loader another projectile then hit the gun barrel while the third glanced off the turret and took the upper couple a hatch in seconds fireball became the first pershing casualty of the western front the fight goes on despite the unexpected loss of the most potent american tank ever fielded to date the u.s forces kept pushing towards the rhine and attacked elsdorf the next day during a german counter-attack to retake the town person number 40 from task force love lady managed to destroy a dug-in tiger while on the move the tank quickly fired four high-velocity armor-piercing rounds that left the tiger in flames but there was no rest for the victor the pershing under orders from sergeant nick mashlenick went straight for the other three german pines or fours that were escaping from the battlefield the m26 waited until the vehicle's rear ends were fully exposed before shooting when they were perfectly aligned sergeant maslinek gave the order to fire one after another the pines are fours erupted in flames besides fireball the other two persons had to be repaired after being disabled by german fire tank battle at colonia on march 6th a person from the third armored regiment was lost in colonia after being knocked out by the lethal 88 millimeter round fired from an ashorn tank destroyer at some 300 yards a brief but ferocious tank skirmish took place one block away from the colonia cathedral during the same day a defiant panther tank and its crew decided to make their last stand when their once beautiful city was almost rubble footage taken from this legendary tank battle shows how the panther took out a sherman by surprise while the panthers stood firm a pershing race down a corner and rapidly fired three rounds penetrating the enemy's armor the crew then hoped the panther would not hit them but it never fired as the german crew was probably confused and unaware of the persian tank one of the pershing shells made contact under the panthers gun while the other two hit the side and went out from the opposite side several crew members managed to get out last world war ii confrontations while the persons from the third armored division fought their way into colonia the 9th armored division was capturing ludendorff bridge as part of the battle of ramagana several pershings helped the infantry capture the town before setting out to secure the bridge and reused to spearhead the assault and diminished german anti-tank resistance however their relentless advance was brought to a stop after they were not authorized to cross the bridge as they were deemed too heavy a month later on april 21 1945 a unique super ponzer and king tiger battle took place near the city of dasau while fighting on the streets an m26 pershing approached the ambush zone of a lone king tiger tank the germans fired from 600 yards and failed to score a hit persian crew reacted immediately and fired an accurate shot but bounced off the king tiger and exploded in the air both tanks then began to advance toward each other for a frontal clash and the king tiger exposed its underbelly as it began to move over the rubble the move did not go unnoticed by the american crew and they fired an accurate 90 millimeter round that hit near the tiger's ammunition resulting in a large explosion it was the last registered combat encounter of an m26 pershing before the end of the war over a dozen persons were shipped to okinawa in may of 1945 to help the marines and army conquer the island still they arrived in august once the battle had ended fighting in korea when the korean war broke out in june of 1950 the south korean and american militaries were caught off guard by the communist forces the four us divisions sent from okinawa lacked proper armor and only had a few m24 chaffey light tanks to fight against the superior soviet t-34 t-85 tanks the first weeks against the chinese communist forces resulted in an utter defeat and three poorly conditioned m26 pershing stationed in tokyo were quickly given service and sent to the korean peninsula to protect critical locations under the command of lieutenant samuel fowler the three persons became a tank platoon and were sent to the town of qinju to defend it the tanks got the job done against the advancing enemies but had to be abandoned after their cooling fans stopped working the men under fowler's command decimated the communist forces with the ammunition they still had on the 30 and 50 caliber machine guns and then proceeded to get rid of the retreating hostile troops on foot by the end of the year some 300 pershings had arrived in south korea ready to fight off the waves of communist tanks they excelled in combat swiftly destroying the chinese t-34s with their powerful guns overall the enemy forces had a tough time penetrating the m26 pershings an army survey from 1957 concluded that from the more than 120 registered tank versus tank encounters of the war more than 97 enemy tanks were knocked out of these almost 40 percent were attributed to the m26 pershing after the korean war most of the m26 persons stationed in europe released to the belgian army as part of the mutual defense assistance program france and italy followed and kept them operational until the early 1960s but most of the tanks were slowly phased out in favor of the more powerful m47 patent still although the person did not see much action outside of the korean war it became the base design leading to a new generation of powerful american heavy tanks thank you for watching our video please like and subscribe to our dark documentaries channels to find more exciting historical content and don't forget to hit the bell icon to be notified of our newest videos also let us know what you think of the pershing tank and it's 90 millimeter cannon in the comment section below and stay tuned for more

Channel: Dark Docs

Views: 1,130,850

Keywords: history, history channel, military, military history, dark docs, education, documentary, tank, pershing, korea, korean war, us army, army, m26, china, chinese, history documentary, history education, north korea, tanks, short documentary, factual, documentaries, war, world history, south korea, educational, us military, edutainment, documentary history, summary, usa, us, m26 pershing, explainer

Id: bIU90ZTd6sM

Length: 12min 14sec (734 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 06 2022