Customer Reviews

M26/M46 Pershing Tank 1943-53 (New Vanguard)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

How frustrating it is to find facts. So much is lost in translations, in disorganization, and even outright censorship. Even a serious subject such as the Second World War mires in a swamp of misconceptions and misinformation. What a joy it is to find a current book devoted to the M26 Pershing-- the most underrated tank of World War II.

In the M4 Sherman's shadow, the Pershing's very existance was unknown to me. Gradually a reference here or a dismissal there clued me in; mostly histrories written immediately after the war. New Vanguard's *M26/M46 Pershing* is the most detailed of several new books to finally tell this needed tale.

Steven Zaloga's straight-forward and unpretentious writing summarizes the development and use of America's first heavy tank. Along the way he explores the political scandals surrounding its initial neglect by high Army officials. He follows this great weapon into the Korean War and establishes its ancestry of modern armor units. Tony Bryan and Jim Laurier provide several full color plates, including a digitized cut away with nomenclature list. All around this book respects a classic American machine almost nobody knows about.

Because the ressurgance in war lore still rides high, I'd strongly reccomend this book to anyone with an interest in how America actually fought the war. Zaloga smashes the popular concenption that the Sherman was our best tank. He reveals how our own great tank generals were so devoted to dated doctrines, that Patton himself refused to accept the Pershing. Zaloga writes "...the idea that the [Sherman's] 76mm gun was able to deal with the Tiger was widely held in the US Army in 1943, and was quite wrong." Readers may feel angry as I did to discover that it took the deaths of thousands of American and British men to shock the brass out of its complacency. In regards to Normandy, Zaloga tells us "In the first month of fighting, M4 Medium tank casualties were 32 percent of the available strength, more than four times its expected attrition rate of 7 percent." By the time the Pershing with it's 90mm gun and 102mm frontal armor arrived in Europe, the Nazis were already defeated by their own lack of resources.

A lack of good resources almost defeated me, but New Vangaurd's series has arrived just in time. Read along with Belton Y Cooper's *Death Traps-- The Survival of an American Armored Division in World War II*, I have learned everything an amatuer historian needs to know about the M26 and its overlooked role in the fight for freedom.

The M26 Pershing was the US Army's belated answer to the German Panther and Tiger tanks. Until the invasion of France the US thought their "Tank Destroyer" arm would defend against Nazi armor while the obsolescent Sherman tank would be used to exploit breakthroughs. The close fighting in the hedgerow country of Normandy showed the flaws in this policy and urgent requests went out for a better armed and better protected tank. The Ordnance dDepartment's answer was the T26E3 (later M26) which had been in development. The tank, nicknamed "Pershing", was rushed into production and early examples arrived in Europe late in the war. The Pershing also proved to be a powerful asset in Korea when facing the Soviet T34 tanks used by North Korea.

The recent release of a model of America's M26 Pershing tank led to several new books coming out on this little-know armored vehicle. If I have to choose only one of the new crop I would pick this one. Mr. Zaloga is a dedicated researcher and is very knowledgeable on combat vehicles and their histories. In a thumbnail Zaloga traces development of the new tank and then looks at how the Pershing was used in WW2 and Korea.

For a modest price the reader gets a history of the tank and color scheme information. The Osprey Vanguards are not meant to be the "final word" on any vehicle, but serve as modestly priced, readily available references. This is one of the best in that series.

I'm very impressed with the developmental details leading up to the M26 Pershing tank, and the preponderance of incredibly crisp photographs are simply amazing. I recognize many Korean War pictures from Jim Mesko's Armor in Korea, and the clarity of the same photos in Zaloga's book is a night-and-day difference.

Again, plentiful details on World War Two deployment, from Operation Zebra to the close of hostilities. Just a little more detail on the immediate post-war disposition of these tanks would have been appreciated.

After such intricate coverage of the Pershing's development, even including self-propelled artillery derivatives that weren't put into production, the M46 Patton and M26A1 modifications appear rushed and lacking in essential details. I can't blame Zaloga for not including exact production quantities except 360 M46A1s, as other sources can't seem to pin those numbers down either. One thing I definitely would have appreciated was information on which models served with which units with the occupation forces in Germany, and when they were withdrawn.

The Korean War gets multi-page coverage, but outside of initial deployment during 1950 there is insufficient information on units that traded in Chaffees and Shermans for Pershings and Pattons, or specifics on the withdrawal of Pershings other than "the M26 had been declared 'limited standard' before the outbreak of the Korean War and was retired from service shortly after" (p.42). Shortly after the war, or after the outbreak of the war? How many M45 close support howitzer tanks served in that war, and when were they withdrawn? Did the M46 Patton replace both the Sherman and the Pershing, and if so, when? "The M46 and M46A1 were declared obsolete in February 1957 and were retired from service..." does not illustrate the fact that M46s continued to serve in reduced numbers with battle group assault gun platoons after the two remaining divisions in-theater were reorganized to the Pentomic structure in 1957. Of course that's picking nits in a ten dollar book, but these nits prevent me from giving a full five stars to an otherwise excellent book on the development and service of the M26 Pershing and M46 Patton.

it still takes a back-seat to R. P. Hunnicut's exhaustive and complete book, "Pershing: a History of the Medium Tank".

What this slender book does have is some good info (little of which is new) and a lot of excellent, clear pictures. It's an excellent reference on the tank and a worthy addition to the series.

This book has a couple of major mistakes in it. On p. 12 of this book, Zaloga repeats the claim made by Belton Cooper in the book "Death Traps" that Gen. Patton was primarily responsible for delaying the production of the M26. On p. 15, Zaloga states that the only action of the single "Super Pershing" in Europe was to hit an unidentified armored vehicle from long range with its powerful cannon - again repeating what Belton Cooper said in "Death Traps".

The problem is that neither bits of information are correct. Zaloga has since completely revised both of those statements in the book "Armored Thunderbolt", published in 2008, which is a true five star book. Zaloga clearly did a lot more research into original documents than he did for this book on the M26/M46. And in his new book, Zaloga leaves Patton completely out of the story about why the M26 program was delayed. He also fills in much more detail about the "Super Pershing", which was involved in at least two other tank engagements. (John P. Irwin, the tank gunner for the Super Pershing also published his war memoir "Another River, Another Town", in 2002, which also fills in some more detail about that tank). Although "Armored Thunderbolt" is primarily about the M4 Sherman, Zaloga's intent in this book was to address the severe criticisms of the M4 that arose after Belton Cooper's "Death Traps" came out (he states this in the Preface). And as a result, Zaloga digs deep into the details of all the failings of the U.S. tank development process during WWII, including the real story of how production of the M26 was delayed. He also fills in the details of all of the combat actions of the M26 and the "Super Pershing" in WWII. There is in fact more about the story of the M26 during WWII in "Armored Thunderbolt" than there is in this thin little book.

"M26/M46 Pershing Tank 1943-45" is a fairly threadbare book that seems to be mainly a summary of what's in Hunnicutt's "Pershing" book. Hunnicutt, however, does not mention Patton in his take on how the M26 got delayed. As Zaloga discovered later in "Armored Thunderbolt", the chief culprit was Army Ground Forces and its head, Gen. Lesley McNair.

Both "Armored Thunderbolt" and "Pershing" are excellent books. Get those two books if you want to learn some real facts. Get this book only if you can't afford anything better.

This book has very detailed technical specs and performance data which is complete. Unfortunately the photographs fall short in the detail department (especially close-ups of the
attachments/mounting points, external details) which are useful for anyone doing a replica, which is 90% of the reason for purchase.The side profiles are basic line drawings without the overhead, left,right,front and rear views that provide needed details.
But for the price you get general info that is available for free on the internet as well as B/W photos(that could be enhanced for better clarity) and 3-5 artist renderings(very excellent). Over all a good value for the price.

This book fills in a lot of the growth of the Army's Tank Corps.The growth,setbacks,politcs,and combat problems are covered very well. Any one interested in how we ended with the best Tank's in the world will enjoy this book.I would recommend this book to any and all.

This tank could have made a great diferens in een early ending of the war. This book makes this statement.
The pictures are of an high detail.