T26E1-1

T26E1-1

T26E5

T34

T26E1-1

T26E5

T34

USA

IV Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
6.7	6.7	6.7

Class:

Heavy tank

Research:31 000

Purchase:200 000

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Description

The Heavy Tank T26E1-1 "Super Pershing" is a rank IV American heavy tank with a battle rating of 6.7 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.57 "Battle March". The tank takes the basis of a normal M26 Pershing, then increases its armour with welded-on metal slabs and up-guns it with a T15E1 cannon, which is nearly identical to the one in the T32. This gives the tank a much appreciated armour protection and firepower for the battle rating and is comparable with the premium M26E1.

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour type:

• Cast homogeneous armour (Front, Turret)
• Rolled homogeneous armour (Side, Rear, Roof, Turret appliqué armour)
• Structural steel (Hull appliqué armour, Rear turret counterweight)

Armour	Front (Slope angle)	Sides	Rear	Roof
Hull	101.6 (42-46°) + 38.1 (47°) + 38.1 mm (57°) Front glacis 162.5 (25-60°) + 38.1 (47°) + 38.1 mm (57°) Upper front glacis 76.2 mm (53°) + 38.1 (41°) + 38.1 mm (48°) Lower glacis	76.2 mm Front 50.8 mm (0-2°) Rear	50.8 mm (4°) Top 22.2 mm (68°) Lower	22.2 mm
Turret	101.6 mm (1-55°) Turret front 114.3 (1-84°) + 80 mm (3°) Gun mantlet	76.2 mm (2-54°)	76.2 (0-79°) + 100 mm (3°)	25.4 mm
Armour	Sides	Roof
Cupola	76.2 mm	25.4 mm

Notes:

• Suspension wheels and tracks are 20 mm thick.
• The left turret side has a few tracks welded on, providing an additional 30 mm of armour where they are.
• The "ear flaps" on the turret provide 38.1 mm of armour. The steel on the gun mantlet gives an additional 80 mm of armour.
• Front glacis have sheets of 38.1 mm armour added on, sloped at varying angles.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	43	14	49.9	646	954	12.95	19.12
Realistic	41	13		442	500	8.86	10.02

Armaments

Main armament

The T26E1-1 utilizes a very powerful 90 mm T15E1 cannon, nearly identical to the gun on the T32. The gun's greatest weakness is its reload time, allowing more than sufficient time for the enemy to move out of their cover, aim, and take a shot. Therefore, staying in cover between shots and near friendlies might be preferable. A mix of T41 APCBC and T44 APCR shells is recommended as a typical load-out.

90 mm T15E1					Turret rotation speed (°/s)					Reloading rate (seconds)
Mode	Capacity	Vertical	Horizontal	Stabilizer	Stock	Upgraded	Full	Expert	Aced	Stock	Full	Expert	Aced
Arcade	42	-10°/+20°	±180°	N/A	22.85	31.63	38.41	42.48	45.19	16.25	14.38	13.25	12.50
Realistic					14.28	16.80	20.40	22.56	24.00

Ammunition

For less mobile tank destroyers usually a mix shells is recommended, with Super Pershing being no different. For Arcade Battles, 15 shells is typically sufficient, with majority being APCBC with roughly 3-5 APCR shells dedicated to the enemies with a better armour. APCBC shell is a good default for a majority of targets, it typically should be loaded when venturing towards unknown.

• T43 shot - AP - Acceptable performance against majority of targets
• T42 shell - HE - Usable nearly exclusively against soft targets. Due to long reload time it's typically safer to use other shells than committing to the HE
• T41 - APCBC - Deadliest round, very wide post-penetration effect.
• T44 shot - APCR - Penetration increased by 1/3, suitable against more armoured targets, however it has the narrowest cone of post-penetration shrapnel.

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
		10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
T43 shot	AP	211	208	193	177	162	148
T42 shell	HE	13	13	13	13	13	13
T41	APCBC	224	221	206	188	172	157
T44 shot	APCR	336	330	304	274	248	223

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
							0%	50%	100%
T43 shot	AP	975	10.90	N/A	N/A	N/A	47°	60°	65°
T42 shell	HE	975	10.60	0.4	0.5	925	79°	80°	81°
T41	APCBC	975	10.94	1.2	14.0	137.2	48°	63°	71°
T44 shot	APCR	1,143	7.60	N/A	N/A	N/A	66°	70°	72°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the T26E1-1

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	5th rack empty	6th rack empty	7th rack empty	8th rack empty	9th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
42	32 (+8)	28 (+14)	24 (+18)	20 (+22)	16 (+26)	12 (+30)	8 (+34)	4 (+38)	0 (+42)	No

Notes:

• Recommended ammo load is 15 to remove most ammo from the hull floor, leaving rack 9 intact.
• Ammo rack 1 is a ready rack, and takes priority in being filled at the beginning of the battle, then fills racks 9 through 2.
• Full reload speed will be realized as long as ammo exists in the ready rack. If the ready racks is empty, a penalty to reload speed will occur.
• Simply not firing when the gun is loaded will load ammo from racks 2-9 into rack 1, as long as there is ammo in racks 2-9. Firing will interrupt the loading of the ready racks.

Machine guns

12.7 mm M2HB
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Pintle	1,000 (200)	577	-10°/+70°	±60°

7.62 mm M1919A4
Mount	Capacity (Belt)	Fire rate	Vertical	Horizontal
Coaxial	4,500 (250)	500	N/A	N/A

Usage in battles

The T26E1-1 is a slow, pretty well-armoured Tank Destroyer, and should be played as such, keeping enemies in front, while friends on flanks. Its frontal protection is not that reliable, especially against long 88's, at the same time its very unconventional, giving a large number of smaller weak spots. Therefore, it's recommended to stay on the move, or even rotating turret left and right to increase chances of deflecting the shot. Unlike with T34 simply staying hull-down is not viable due to weak spots at top of the turret and bottom turret cheeks - it's best to hide an entire body between shots, letting allies lure the attention of the enemy team.

It's also one of the weakest tanks when played solo, owning it to low mobility, very weak side armour and a very long reload time. With 76 mm it can be penetrated by every tank it encounters and a number of anti-aircraft guns. Therefore an additional situational awareness is required to always have allies in proximity, in fact: if need be, tactical retreats might be worth a risk, as if left alone a single hit without mobility kill on a hostile unit can mean a near-certain death.

Modules

Tier	Mobility		Protection	Firepower
I	Tracks		Parts	Horizontal Drive	T41
II	Suspension	Brake System	FPE	Adjustment of Fire
III	Filters		Crew Replenishment	Elevation Mechanism	T44 shot
IV	Transmission	Engine

As with every ground vehicle, Parts and FPE are an absolute top-priority. Following that both types of shells should be researched. Either Adjustment of Fire or Suspension should be researched as the second module in tier II, depending on play-style. If undecided - choose Adjustment of Fire. Mandatory modifications in tier III are T44 shot and Crew Replenishment. After that: Filters -> Engine -> Transmission for improved mobility, in that particular order due to the efficiency in RP/hp increase. Further modifications at will. Generally least important module are Tracks, though again - it might depend on a personal preferences.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• The T26E1-1, or Super Pershing, is an up-gunned M26 Pershing with a lot of spaced armour added to the front of the tank.
• The added spaced armuor makes this tank very resilient to common guns like the Tiger II's 88 mm and even large caliber HE shells.
• Is armed with the same powerful 90 mm gun that is found on both T32 and M26E1 tanks.
• The T41 APCBC shell is comparable to the Tiger II's default APCBC shell. It has high accuracy, velocity, penetration, and damage potential.
• The T44 APCR shell can penetrate up to 336 mm, rivalling or even beating some tier VI APFSDS ammunition.
• Despite all the added armour and new 90 mm gun, the tank still gets an impressive 10 degrees of gun depression.
• The turret armour coupled with the gun depression give this tank great potential when it comes to shooting over hills and prolonged hull down fighting.
• Has a roof mounted .50 cal machine gun.

Cons:

• Despite all the add-on armour, the lower plate is still susceptible to being penetrated by contemporary guns.
• The hull machine gun port is small, but still a weak spot that is easily penetrated.
• The spaced armour doesn't really help against HEAT, APDS, or Russian 122 mm shells.
• All the added armour coupled with the weak engine give this tank terrible acceleration and hill climbing capabilities.
• The vertical aiming drive can be damaged by simply shooting the two springs on the turret roof with mere machine guns.
• The turret spaced armour doesn’t cover the weakly armoured corners of the lower turret. Can be easily penetrated by contemporary guns.
• The 90 mm shells are massive and take up a huge amount of the crew compartment. Any shell that penetrates the hull or left side of the turret housing the 10-rounds first stage ammo rack will likely destroy the vehicle.
• Even with an ace crew, the gun will take 12.5 seconds to reload. Trading shots with a Tiger II is not a good idea.
• While the 90 mm is a good gun, it's frankly inferior to the Tiger II's 88 mm in virtually ever metric other than explosive filler mass.

History

Development

The M26 Pershing helped the American armoured forces by bringing in the heavy 90 mm Gun M3 into service on a tank mount. The gun was similar in performance to the German's Tiger I's 8.8 cm KwK 36 cannon, but Army Ordnance wanted something to match the more powerful 8.8 cm KwK 43 cannon on the Tiger II. The development to match this cannon made the T15 90 mm gun; the gun was 73 calibers long, compared to the 90 mm Gun M3's 53 calibers length. The first produced guns were called the T15E1 and had large, fixed ammunition. To test the gun's viability in the tank, the gun was mounted onto the very first production T26, T26E1 tank serial #1, registration #0103292, with the conversions being done by the Wellman Engineering Company. This upgraded tank was titled the T26E1-1 by means of a painted-on designation on the turret's left side to distinguish the design, although this title was not official, and few if any sources refer to it as such. The extreme length of the T15E1 gun barrel caused the manufacturers to add a very prominent counter balance on the mantlet, which could be seen on the left side of the turret when facing it. The T26E1-1 tank was sent to Aberdeen Proving Grounds on 12 January 1945 for testing purposes.

In March 1945, following the Aberdeen tests, the T26 tanks mounting the T15 gun was officially classified as the T26E4. As such, the mentioned T26E1-1 would be classified as the first of the T26E4 models, with an initial procurement plan for 1,000 more units. The first T26E4 (henceforth referred to as T26E1-1) would be the only M26 model with the T15 gun to see service in Europe. Among the troops, the T26E1-1 in Europe would be known by its eponymous name "Super Pershing" when compared alongside to the normal M26 Pershing.

Combat usage

The T26E1-1 "Super Pershing" was sent to Europe and arrived in 15 March 1945 and assigned to the 3rd Armored Division. In its introduction, the "Super Pershing" was given additional armour by the maintenance crew in hopes to keep it up to date against the heavier German tanks. The front hull had two large pieces of metal welded onto it, each 38 mm in thickness, with a space in between the metal pieces. These metal pieces were sloped more than the hull armour it was over. An additional armour piece was welded on the turret mantlet, the metal was taken from a Panther turret and was about 80 mm thick when welded onto the turret. The T15E1 gun has much promise to the crew when using the tank as the gun could reliably penetrate the frontal hull of a Panther tank, a feat not many other American tank gun could claim at the time.

The T26E1-1's performance in battle is largely written in the accounts of John P. Irwin, who was the tank gunner of the only active "Super Pershing" in the war. He mentions of three prominent combat actions with the T26E1-1, each one destroying the enemy with little difficulty. Records show that the T26E1-1 destroyed a total of three tanks and captured one after an extended firefight that left the opposing tank out of ammunition. Though it was hoped to have the T26E1-1 fight a Tiger II for a rather explosive comparison, the T26E1-1 never saw a Tiger II during its tour in Europe. After the war, the T26E1-1 was most likely scrapped in the post-war demobilization as the final image of the tank was it lying in a vehicle dump in Kassel, Germany.

Legacy and similar vehicles

The T26E1-1 continued as an idea long after the war was over, with the next development arming the long 90 mm cannon in the T26E3 tank models, but the cannons used the new two-piece ammunition gun T15E2 rather than the one-piece one in the T15E1 when it was found that the long 50 inch rounds made loading prohibitive in the M26 turret. 25 of these tanks were built and were designated the T26E4. Another development was to convert normal M26 Pershings to mounting the T54 cannon, another development of the T15E1 which featured shorter ammunition. These tanks were redesignated the M26E1, but work was halted due to issues with the guns and a cut in project funds.

Media

The Shooting Range #35 - Metal Beasts section at 00:27 discusses the T26E1-1.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] T26E1-1 Super Pershing: Under a Panther Mask

References

USA heavy tanks
M4 Jumbo	M4A3E2 · Cobra King · M4A3E2 (76) W
M6	M6A1 · T1E1 · T1E1 (90) · M6A2E1
T26	T26E1-1 · T26E5
T29/30/34	T29 · T30 · T34
T32	T32 · T32E1
M103	M103
Others	T14