DESCRIPTION

M4 Tank With M26 Tank Tower "Pershing  Plastic Model Kit 

UniModel 382

1:72 Scale

Manufacturer: UniModel

Material: Plastic

Condition: New in original packaging

Historical reference

Like other armies at the time, the U.S. military used tanks for two main purposes: to support infantry and to break through enemy fortifications. From 1942 until the end of World War II, the M4 Sherman tank was used for two purposes, which was more of a "cavalry" tank. Meanwhile, the infantry would prefer to have a tank, more armored and more heavily armed, even by reducing the ride quality. Therefore, in the fall of 1942, the US Army Armament Service began to develop a "infantry-oriented tank" project, the design of which would be more versatile than that of British infantry tanks. The main task of the project was to create a tank with a combat weight not exceeding 32 tons, 75 mm. gun, frontal armor not less than 100 mm and a speed of not less than 40 km / h. Over the next two years, various prototypes were created: T20, T22, T23, T25 and T26. They used various weapons, transmissions and suspensions.

The T23 even tested an electric transmission developed by General Electric. The electrical system was too heavy, so the developers opted for a hydraulic transmission with a torque converter manufactured by General Motors. The creators also experimented with the auto-charging mechanism, but it turned out to be unreliable and had to be abandoned. A new Ford gasoline engine designed specifically for tanks was chosen as the engine. The powerful new engine allowed the latest model to develop a highway speed of 48 km / h. A torsion bar was also used for the new tank. The M26 received six support rollers and five support rollers. Unlike the M24 Chaffi, the M26's drive wheel was located at the rear.

The result of the project was the creation in early 1944 of the T26E1 model. However, by that time the tank no longer fell under the definition of the average. The T26E1 tank had a 90 mm gun, 100 mm frontal armor and a weight of 43.25 tons, which was 8.5 tons more than the M4 tank.

However, under the influence of the initial, relatively successful use of the Sherman tank, the Land Forces Command had the impression that there was no urgent need to develop a new tank. Even with the appearance of heavy tanks "Tiger" and "Panther" in Germany, the opinion of the command did not change, as they believed that the new vehicles would not be found in the army in large numbers. With regard to the Tigers, the command's assumption was correct: on the Western Front, these machines were indeed rare. However, the Panthers, with which the Allies first met at Anzio, began to be produced in large batches. Tanks of this type accounted for half of German tank power in Normandy. In addition, according to the army doctrine of the time, tanks were not created to fight other tanks. Tank fighters were used for this purpose - more mobile armored vehicles, such as the M10 "Wolverine". For all these reasons, the design of the new tank was very slow.

At the time of the Allied invasion of Western Europe during the Normandy landings in July 1944, Sherman tanks made up the vast majority of their tank fleet. It soon became clear that the doctrine of using tank fighters was incorrect and destructive, and that Sherman tanks could not fight the Panthers on an equal footing. Efforts were made to accelerate ongoing development, but the tank, now called Pershing, did not appear on the battlefield until February 1945 (the first battle near the Ruhr River on February 25) and took a relatively modest part in World War II battles. After the baptism of fire, the T26E1 tank was renamed the M26.

"Pershing" was originally created as a medium tank, but in late 1944, to raise the confidence of the crews, it was reclassified as heavy [1]. In May 1946, due to the changed American concept of tank troops, "Pershing" was reclassified as a medium tank. Hence some of its features: compared to the average "Sherman", "Pershing" was a significant step forward, especially in the field of armaments and armor. However, its passability did not match the passability of the average tank, due to the fact that the M26 had the same engine as the M4A3, while the M4A3 was lighter than the "Pershing" by about ten tons. The transmission of the M26 was also not very reliable, this shortcoming was eliminated in 1948 with the advent of a new modification, the M26E2, which used a new power plant. This new modification was named M46 "General Patton". Thus, the M26 was the basis for the creation of a series of Patton tanks, which replaced the Pershing by the early 1950s. The M47 Patton was an M46 tank with a new turret, and the M48 and M60 tanks were already fundamentally new developments.

With love from Ukraine