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An M26 Pershing T26E3 of A Company, 14th Tank Battalion, is transported aboard a pontoon ferry built by the First Engineer Heavy Pontoon Battalion across the Rhine on 12 March 1945. On the same day, another T26E3 was knocked out in the town of Niehl near Cologne, by a rarely-seen Nashorn 88 mm tank destroyer , at a range of under 300 yd (270 m ...
Eagle 7 was an M26 Pershing tank used by the American Army's 3rd Armored Division near the end of World War II, notable for a tank battle in front of the Cologne Cathedral and the belated award of the Bronze Star to its crew.
As a tank gun it was the main weapon of the M36 tank destroyer and M26 Pershing tank, as well as a number of post-war tanks like the M56 Scorpion. It was also briefly deployed from 1943–1946 as a coast defense weapon with the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Each gun cost roughly $50,000 to make in 1940 and utilized up to 30 separate ...
The battalion was briefly inactivated following World War II in 1946 before being reformed as a heavy tank battalion, and in 1949 was renumbered the 73rd Heavy Tank Battalion, under which name it served in the Korean War, with M4 Sherman and M26 Pershing tanks.
The M26 at best could hold its own against the Panther and Tiger tanks. As demonstrated by the photo of the knocked out M26 Fireball versus the video of the Cologne Panther getting brewed up by an M26, it just all depended on who shot first and who shot the most accurately. The tactical situation most often dictated the outcome of a tank battle ...
The mobility of the M26 Pershing was deemed unsatisfactory for a medium tank, as it used the same engine that powered the much lighter M4 Sherman. Work began in 1948 on replacing the power plant in the M26 Pershing. Modifications continued to accumulate, and eventually the Bureau of Ordnance decided that the tank needed its own unique designation.
A nearby Pershing tank, informally known as Eagle 7, was sent to take out the Panther. The two tanks were in each other's sights, but the German tank commander believed it to be a German tank and told his gunner to hold fire, as he had never seen a Pershing. Finally the Panther tank was taken out by the advancing Pershing.
The Pershing heavy tank (named after General Pershing) was the only heavy tank used in combat by the US armed forces during World War II. An earlier design, the Heavy Tank M6 , was not accepted for large scale production and only 40 were produced.