Note: My previous post with the Pershing involving the video can be found here, this is actual footage shot of one engaging and destroying a Panther! http://www.bungie.net/7_World-War-2-Facts-Tank-showdown-at-Cologne-M-26-Pe/en/Forum/Post?id=61386117#referred-Worldwar2 The American M-26 Pershing was a medium/heavy tank, what this means is when it was first built it was classified as a heavy, but as it was used it became to be known as a medium tank, it was named after U.S. General John J. Pershing (Like most American tanks, it was named after American generals) The Pershing was equipped with a 90mm High velocity cannon capable of destroying all but the toughest German tanks from the front (such as the Elephant and Tiger 2, Panthers and Tigers however didn't stand much of a chance of surviving a hit), and armor that was a bit better than the Sherman but still had trouble with the bigger German guns, this cannon and armor finally gave the Americans the edge they needed to once and for all defeat the Panzers. The Pershing came about very late in the war, past the Bulge even. American planners/builders/leaders decided that it wasn't worth switching over to the Pershing on production lines, and decided the Sherman was adequate enough to last until the end of the war. If they had decided to to do it, Normandy would have been the Pershings first introduction, but instead the Shermans were forced to duke it out with technologically superior tanks in the battlefields of France. However the bocage of Normandy rather became a game of who shot first because of the distances involved, numerically though the Americans had the complete advantage, not even the fact they barely faced any German tanks to begin with. Instead the British bore the front of the German counter attack by crack SS divisions, they were able to do this because of the Sherman Firefly's (Sherman firefly picture [url] astounding 17 pounder gun, which made mince meat out of the German kitties. At the time of the collapse of the Falaise pocket (The majority of the German army group B that was involved in the Normandy fighting got stuck in it, picture- http://www.battleofnormandytours.com/uploads/2/5/1/7/2517577/6248868_orig.jpg?130) the Americans thought that they had virtually destroyed Germany's armored force, and still continued to hold off Pershing production, ( under the estimation of the Germans cost the Allies a lot of lives in the long run, it really is a shame). Finally when the German panzers attacked again in the Ardennes at the shocked Americans, it was decided the U.S. needed the Pershing to finally deal with the German tanks in a better way. The first Pershings arrived at the U.S. 3rd Armored division in early 1945, there the crews got acquainted with there new equipment. In its first combat engagement on February 25th along the Roer river, a Pershing nicknamed (Thunderbolt) was knocked out by a Tiger 1 tank with three penetrating hits (Picture of Thunderbolt after being knocked out- http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/M26_Fireball.jpg. Shortly after another Pershing managed to knock out a Tiger 1 and two panzer 4's from almost a kilometer away, a far cry from what the Sherman was capable of. From that point onward the Pershing was seen as the right weapon for the job. There is one more part to the Pershing story, and that involves what became to be known as "The Super Pershing", one experimental Pershing was sent to the 3rd armored for testing very late in the war (around April I believe), it was decided that they needed to up armor it to allow it to withstand hits against German tanks which could still penetrate. Ironically 3rd Armored engineers and ordinace department officials were camped out in an old German panzer factory that made armor plate. The engineers got to work immediately reverse engineering the German parts and strapping it on to the front of the tank, pieces of Panther and boiler plate were welded on to the front to create better armor. The Super Pershing was merely a test for a better 90mm cannon that used different ammunition, but became super with its application of better armor as well, it never saw combat (Super Pershing picture- http://api.ning.com/files/IrUOmpZSBqdlkvzT907bBuoODTot*TiWKJalBn6pz8mVgBsC82yU4z50ZvLuUqahTJMITvC42Wml18kUOH3Z6Nz76kk6SseE/T26E4SuperPershing.jpg The tube looking thing on the turret was a counter weight for the barrel so it could be calibrated and aimed properly, as you can see it has armor strapped onto most of the turret and front hull sections). Another model of Pershing that never saw combat was one equipped with 40 rockets attached to its turret in pods, picture here- [url]http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/4300/m26183vq.jpg[/url]. The Pershing went on to serve in Korea, where once again Shermans were completely ineffective against North Korean T-34-85 tanks, and was used throughout it with great success against them. The Pershing arrived late to the party, but aided the already battered and tired American armored divisions with the last push against Germany. Top picture- Two American M-26 Pershings roll through a battered German city in 1945 (Possibly Cologne). Thanks for reading and as always if you like this stuff feel free to follow me to keep up to date! If you would like to see a wide variety of other World War 2 posts by me, please search under the #Worldwar2 tag, there you will find almost two pages worth of my posts!