Chapter 913 Heavy Tank
Although the United States produced nearly 50,000 M4 Sherman medium tanks during World War II and swept across the entire European battlefield, the United States also had heavy tanks.
The Americans were not willing to accept the technical disadvantages of tanks, and produced the first heavy tank T1E2 in 1942, and later developed it into the M6 heavy tank based on this tank. However, the US Army believed that the M6 was too heavy, and whether entering or exiting the battlefield, it would require much more manpower than the M3 and M4 tanks, and the manpower invested was not proportional to its combat effectiveness. Therefore, the US armored forces did not intend to equip it in large quantities. In this way, the M6 heavy tank was declared dead and the entire project was abolished. Only 40 tanks of this model were produced, and they never left the United States, so they had no chance to fight on the front line of World War II.
In order to change the disadvantages of the M6 heavy tank, the weapons research and development department developed two tanks, one is T25 and the other is T26. Both tanks use the new T7 90mm gun. Among them, the T26 was given priority development, and its experimental models included three models: T26E1, T26E2 and T26E3. Among them, the T26E1 was an experimental model; the T26E2 was equipped with a 105mm howitzer, and later developed into the M45 medium tank; the T26E3 passed the test of actual combat in Europe, and was finalized and produced in January 1945, called the M26 heavy tank, named after the famous American general "Hammer" John Joseph Pershing.
At the same time, in order to resist the mysterious "King Tiger" heavy tank of the German army, the T26E4 "Super Pershing" with a long barrel 90mm gun (the new T15E1 90mm gun, the barrel caliber reached 73 times the caliber (some also said it was 70 times the caliber), both the accuracy and the muzzle velocity were improved) was hurriedly trial-produced on the basis of the T26E3, and was put into actual combat in March 1945. Compared with the tall M4 medium tank series, its low and well-bulletproof shape is more modern, and its main gun power and armor thickness have been greatly improved compared with all previous American tanks. The muzzle velocity can reach 1140M/S, which can penetrate the front armor of the German Panther tank at a distance of 2400 meters. This power is comparable to the 88mm tank gun equipped on the King Tiger tank at that time.
After the Super Pershing tank was put into service, it first participated in an action between Weser and Nordheim in 1945. The Super Pershing tank destroyed an unidentified German armored target at 1400 meters. There were also a small number of achievements in subsequent operations, but it was never able to fight against the King Tiger tank. Then, with the defeat of Germany in World War II, the Super Pershing tank completely lost the opportunity to fight against the opponent King Tiger tank, and the only Super Pershing tank sent by the United States to Europe was also abandoned on the European battlefield. In the end, this most powerful tank in the United States in World War II ended its career in abandonment.
In addition to the T26E4 "Super Pershing", the Americans also developed several other heavy tanks to fight against the German Tiger King tank.
For example, the T29 heavy tank is considered to be a wider version of the T26E3 tank with thicker armor. It has a high-power Ford GAC engine that can provide about 770 horsepower and is equipped with a high-rate 105mm T5 gun. However, the development of this tank began in March 1944 and was not put into war in time. It provided post-war engineers with an opportunity to test artillery engineering theories and some parts.
Another heavy tank, the T30, has almost no difference in structure from the T29, but the gun has been replaced with a 40-caliber T7 155mm anti-tank gun, and a more powerful engine (Continental's AV-1790-3 V-12 air-cooled gasoline engine, 525 kW and 810 hp at 2800 rpm), and is equipped with a semi-automatic loader (the T7 gun uses a high-explosive grenade with a warhead weight of about 43 kg, and uses split ammunition, with a propellant weight of 41 kg. These two amazing data basically mean that the loader must carry 41 kg of weight for each artillery strike. Obviously, this gun, which is at the same level as the light cruiser's naval gun, cannot be loaded manually), but this loader is relatively primitive and not very reliable, and the heavy operation and split ammunition result in a firing rate of only 6 rounds per minute.
In addition, there is another improved version of the M26 "Pershing" tank, the T32 tank; the T34 heavy tank, which changed the 120mm anti-aircraft gun to a tank gun (T53 tank gun). This T34 heavy tank has nothing to do with the Soviet T-34 medium tank. Its appearance is similar to the T29 and T30, but because the barrel is too long, a 100mm thick steel plate is welded at the rear of the turret for balancing. At that time, the Ordnance Bureau required that the armor-piercing capability of this tank gun must be stronger than the 105mm T5E1 or 155mm T7 tank gun. When firing ordinary shells, the muzzle velocity must reach 966 meters/second, and when firing high-speed armor-piercing shells, it must reach 1258 meters/second.
However, the T34 heavy tank was not mass-produced in the end, and there was no record of participating in the war. It was more of a verification vehicle in service at the Aberdeen and Fort Knox test sites.
After hearing MacArthur's words, Marshall continued. "The 90mm tank guns we can use now are 50 caliber and 73 caliber." Both of these are the transformation products of the US M1/90mm caliber anti-aircraft guns, which is similar to the development ideas of German tank guns. The reason is nothing more than that the anti-aircraft guns have the same high initial velocity characteristics as tank guns. When using ordinary armor-piercing shells, the armor penetration thickness of the 50-caliber tank gun at a distance of 914m is 122mm, and the armor penetration thickness at a distance of 1829m is 106mm. The armor penetration thickness of tungsten core armor-piercing shells at a distance of 914m is 156mm. "In addition, we are stepping up the development of 105mm tank guns and 120mm tank guns."
Vice President Truman asked in confusion. "Only tank guns but no tanks?"
Marshall shook his head. "Mr. Vice President, we have tanks, of course. Several prototypes of the latest M26 heavy tank have been produced. As long as some minor problems are improved, they can be put into mass production. The performance of this tank crushes the German Jackal tank and is enough to rival the Leopard tank." In fact, he didn't have much confidence when he said this, because the last time the Germans said at the military parade that their Jackal tanks were equipped with 75mm kwk40L/48 tank guns that could easily penetrate 170mm frontal armor at a distance of 1,000 meters. The 88mm KWK 36L/56 tank gun equipped with the Leopard tank can penetrate 180mm frontal armor at a distance of 2,000 meters.
The thickest front upper armor plate of the M26 heavy tank is only 120mm. Although this thickness has exceeded the thickness of all existing US tank armor, once it encounters a German tank, it will probably be hit by a single shot.
"That's great!" Vice President Truman didn't think so much. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he heard that his side finally had weapons that could fight against German tank armor. “We need to put it into mass production as soon as possible.”