Sign-In
Cart
Pershing Tank: The M26 Pershing, American Heavy-Tank Development, World War II Combat, Korea, and the Road to the Patton
Paperback
Series: Armored Legends Field Guide
General Military HistoryKorean War
Currently unavailable to order
Please enter your email and a message will be sent to you when this product becomes available on our website.
Publisher: Independently Published
Pages: 98
Weight: 0.31
Height: 0.20 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Some tanks define an era through sheer numbers. Others reveal the moment an army begins to rethink what comes next. The M26 Pershing belongs to the second category: a vehicle shaped by wartime urgency, institutional debate, hard-earned battlefield lessons, and the need for greater firepower and protection as American armored warfare moved toward a new generation.
Pershing Tank follows the complete story of the M26 from the experimental T20, T22, T23, T25, and T26 programs through production, European combat, Korea, specialist developments, and the transition toward the M46 Patton.
Written in the established Armored Legends Field Guide style, this volume combines development history, combat evidence, crew experience, production realities, technical explanation, and historical interpretation in one focused narrative. Every design feature is connected to its real consequence: why it was adopted, how crews experienced it, how it affected reliability and battlefield employment, and what the U.S. Army ultimately learned from it.
Inside, you will discover:
- Why the Pershing took so long to reach combat, including the competing views of Ordnance, Army Ground Forces, and the changing requirement for a 90 mm-armed tank.
- How the T20-series experiments became the T26E3 and M26, with the important design decisions, production changes, identification details, and lesser-known development paths that shaped the final vehicle.
- What happened when Pershings finally went to war, from Zebra Mission and the famous fighting around Cologne to the Super Pershing, Korea, and encounters with the T-34-85.
- How crews actually lived with the M26, including visibility, ammunition handling, maintenance, recovery, mobility, reliability, and the lessons that led directly toward the Patton generation.
Along the way, the book examines overlooked prototypes, unusual field modifications, production decisions, mechanical compromises, and combat episodes that rarely receive more than a passing mention.
By the final chapter, the Pershing becomes more than a late-war American tank. The reader can see how it connected two periods of U.S. armored development: the mass-production warfare of the Sherman era and the increasingly powerful, heavily armed tanks of the early Cold War.
A compact, carefully researched field guide for military-history readers, tank enthusiasts, modelers, collectors, and anyone who wants to understand the Pershing beyond its specifications.
Also from
Grant, Kurt
Tiger I Heavy Tank: Development, Battlefield Role, Variants, Armor, Markings & Modeling Reference
Grant, Kurt
Paperback
Panther Tank: Battlefield Role, Variants, Armor, Camouflage & Modeling Reference
Grant, Kurt
Paperback
Jagdpanther Tank Destroyer: Development, Battlefield Role, Variants, Armor, Camouflage & Modeling Reference
Grant, Kurt
Paperback
Also in
General Military History
Viking Warrior Operations Manual: The Life, Equipment, Weapons and Fighting Tactics of the Vikings
Konstam, Angus
Hardcover
Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill
Candice Millard
Hardcover
The Last Full Measure: An American Family and How the United States Brought Home the Dead of World War II
Clarke, Kim
Hardcover
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780
Atkinson, Rick
Hardcover
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
Larson, Erik
Hardcover
The Two Swords of Christ: Five Centuries of War Between Islam and the Warrior Monks of Christendom
Ibrahim, Raymond
Hardcover
Band on the Run: Xenophon and the First Great Mercenary Army's Epic Escape from Persia
O'Connell, Robert L.
Hardcover
From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition.....
Maier, Pauline
Paperback
The Old Breed... the Complete Story Revealed: A Father, a Son, and How WWII in the Pacific Shaped Their Lives
Sledge, W. Henry
Hardcover
While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East
Katz, Yaakov
Bohbot, Amir
Hardcover
Two World Wars and Hitler: Who Was Responsible?: Anglo-American Money, Foreign Agents and Geopolitics
MacGregor, Jim
O'Dowd, John
Paperback
American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed Into the Lands and Imaginations of America
Whittock, Martyn
Hardcover
KJV, Pew Bible, Large Print, Hardcover, Burgundy, Red Letter Edition (Large Print Edition)
Thomas Nelson
Hardcover
NKJV, Value Thinline Bible, Large Print, Imitation Leather, Burgundy, Red Letter Edition (Large Print Edition)
Thomas Nelson
Hardcover
Wrecked: The Edmund Fitzgerald and the Sinking of the American Economy
Nelson, Thomas M.
Podair, Jerald
Paperback
Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great
Kousser, Rachel
Paperback
Targeted: Beirut: The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror
Carr, Jack
Scott, James M.
Paperback
The Shortest History of War: From Hunter-Gatherers to Nuclear Superpowers - A Retelling for Our Times
Dyer, Gwynne
Paperback
The Men Who Lost America: British Command during the Revolutionary War and the Preservation of the Empire
O'Shaughnessy, Andrew J.
Paperback
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
Singh, Simon
Paperback
The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade
Bauer, Susan Wise
Hardcover
Navy SEAL's Guide to Surviving Invasions, Civil War, and World War III
Emerson, Clint
Melton, H. Keith
Paperback
The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, and the Making of American Independence
Duval, Lauren
Hardcover
Targeted: Beirut: The 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing and the Untold Origin Story of the War on Terror
Scott, James M.
Carr, Jack
Hardcover
A Brief History of China: Dynasty, Revolution and Transformation: From the Middle Kingdom to the People's Republic
Clements, Jonathan
Paperback
The Histories (Royal Collector's Edition) (Annotated) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
Herodotus
Hardcover
KJV, Pew Bible, Large Print, Hardcover, Blue, Red Letter Edition (Large Print Edition)
Thomas Nelson
Hardcover
American Biography: A History of the United States as Told Through the Lives of Ninety-Four Americans
Schweikart, Larry
Paperback
Toward Combined Arms Warfare: A Survey of 20th-Century Tactics, Doctrine, and Organization
House, Jonathan M.
Paperback
Scapegoats of the Empire: The True Story of Breaker Morant's Bushveldt Carbineers
Witton, Edward
Paperback
Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War
Platt, Stephen R.
Paperback
The Birth of the Anglo-Saxons: Three Kings and a History of Britain at the Dawn of the Viking Age
Adams, Max
Hardcover
The Ghost Army of World War II: How One Top-Secret Unit Deceived the Enemy with Inflatable Tanks, Sound Effects, and Other Audacious Fakery (Updated E
Sayles, Elizabeth
Beyer, Rick
Hardcover
Insignia of the Waffen-SS: Cuff Titles, Collar Tabs, Shoulder Boards & Badges
Michaelis, Rolf
Hardcover
Beirut Rules: The Murder of a CIA Station Chief and Hezbollah's War Against America
Burton, Fred
Katz, Samuel M.
Paperback
By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire
Worthington, Ian
Paperback
Érase Una Vez Tenochtitlán: Entre Dioses Y Tlatoanis / Once Upon a Time in Tenochtitlán: Among Gods and Tlatoanis
Rosas, Alejandro
Paperback
Black Soldiers, White Laws: The Tragedy of the 24th Infantry in 1917 Houston
Haymond, John A.
Hardcover
American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed Into the Lands and Imaginations of America
Whittock, Martyn
Paperback
Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples Since 1500
Wilson, Peter H.
Paperback
Il Fior di Battaglia by Fiore dei Liberi Facsimile: With translation by Guy Windsor
Windsor, Guy
Hardcover
The Prince (Royal Collector's Edition) (Annotated) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
Machiavelli, Niccolò
Hardcover
The Sacred Band: Three Hundred Theban Lovers and the Last Days of Greek Freedom
Romm, James
Paperback
Map Reading And Land Navigation - FM 3-25.26 US Army Field Manual FM 21-26 (2001 Civilian Reference Edition): Unabridged Manual On Map Use, ... Releas
Us Department of the Army
Paperback
The Other Trench: The WW1 Diary and Photos of a German Officer
Pfeifer, Alexander
Cross, Philipp
Paperback
Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great
Kousser, Rachel
Hardcover
The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - From Ancient Greece to Iraq
Hanson, Victor Davis
Paperback
John Stark of Rogers' Rangers: a Famous Ranger and His Associates During the French & Indian War: The Life of General John Stark of New Hampshire by H
Moore, Howard Parker
Stark, Caleb
Paperback