MISSION STATEMENT

This website is to serve as a catalog of historical information for various tanks, across various stages of development, created for use by the United States from Pre-WWII through to the 1970s. However, the primary purpose for this website is to illustrate a proposal for what an "endgame" could look like for the US tech tree in the game, World Of Tanks, and to show that there's still plenty of life left to breathed into this game.

My aim is to see as many tanks in the game about tanks as possible, and I hope to show that in a way that respects both the historicity of the tanks shown and the balance of the game overall. As such, I will not be going into great detail on individual statistics. Rather, I will only be showing the possible modules for each tank, changes that could be made to make it more historically authentic, a historical overview, and how the tank's playstyle may be represented in-game. I will also attempt to future-proof this by including alternate hulls, half-tracks, and wheeled vehicles.

This is certainly not perfect and everything is subject to change. This is still a work in progress, and updates are frequent if not daily. This is a fan project and a labor of love. Do enjoy.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

M26E2

M26E2 pilot.
After WWII, there were various attempts made to upgrade the M26 Pershing. The first, the M26E1, was armed with the 90 mm T54 gun, a weapon designed to use one-piece ammunition while still retaining the ballistic capabilities of the 90 mm T15E2. The T54 was also had a shorter chamber, allowing for more room inside the turret for the crew to handle the ammunition and gun. Its performance was very similar to the German 8,8 cm KwK 43. Testing from 1947 to 1949 praised its reliability and accuracy. The weapon was considered superior to all other US tank guns tested up until this point.

M26E1 pilot. Note the long barrel of the T54 gun.

In 1948, it was formally arranged to modernize the M26, giving way to the M26E2, which sported a powerful new engine capable of putting out 810 hp compared to the 500 hp engines of older Pershing variants. It was intended for the M26E2 to mount the same 90 mm T54 being tested on the M26E1, however, it was decided the weapon’s high velocity was too much and work should be put instead on improving the standard 90 mm M3. These efforts would create the 90 mm M3A1, which would first be installed on the T40, and later standardized on the M46.
I gave this M26E2 the T54 gun, as it was meant to be installed on the tank. Combined with the engine upgrade, this gives us a tank that is very comparable to the old Tier VIII Pershing in its top configuration. Compared to the newer Tier VII Pershing I proposed, this tank has a much better power-to-weight ratio and a more accurate, faster firing gun. This should be considered to be the best version of the M26 Pershing ever built.


Guns: 90 mm Gun T54

Engines: Continental AV-1790-3 (810 hp)

Turrets (Turret Armor (mm)): M26E2 (102/76/76)

Suspensions/Alternate Hulls, Total Weight (metric tons): T26E4 Improved (42.64)

Hull Armor (mm): 102/76/51

Top Speed: 40 km/h

Crew: 5 (Driver; Gunner; Loader; Commander; Radio)

See Also: M26 Pershing, M26E1

 Sources:
Hunnicutt, R. P. Pershing, 2015 
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