Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 266 Pershing Tank
boom! boom! boom!
As a series of explosions rang out, Wang Gensheng also began his charge amidst the blasts.

The dense explosions caused by two hundred grenade launchers completely stunned the US military.

It must be said that this grenade launcher is really useful. Not only is it lightweight, but it is also very easy to carry a large amount of ammunition. The special grenade for a grenade launcher weighs only 800 grams, and the grenade launcher itself weighs only 4.7 kilograms.

Therefore, even without bulletproof equipment, the fire support team could easily carry thirty grenades without any problem.

This is still taking into account the need to carry resources such as food; otherwise, even more could be carried.

Wang Gensheng, the naval commander, was still leading the charge at the forefront. He wanted to stay in the rear and strategize from the front, but the conditions didn't allow it!
The cheat code given to Wang Gensheng only allows him to gain physical enhancement rewards by killing enemies in close combat, and he has to kill them himself; those killed by his subordinates don't count. This clearly shows that Wang Gensheng is meant to be a soldier king charging ahead, rather than a strategist or commander who plans and wins battles from afar.

Holding the M2 heavy machine gun, Wang Gensheng could clearly perceive everything within a 600-meter radius, including those hiding in houses and those who had luckily escaped the bombing in trenches.

Those hiding in the trenches who weren't hit by the bombs were immediately thrown in by Wang Gensheng. As for those hiding in the houses, especially those with wooden frames and earthen walls, Wang Gensheng didn't even bother to go in. He just grabbed his heavy machine gun and started firing.

Under the power of the 12.7mm bullet, these earthen walls were no match for them. The bullet, thicker than a thumb, easily penetrated the earthen walls and blew up the old six-meter soldier who was hiding inside, trying to ambush people.

Led by Wang Gensheng, a super soldier twice as strong as Captain Mi, the outer perimeter of the signal tower was easily breached.

The company commander at the US position naturally couldn't sit still, and he was ordered to send out his ace fighters in an attempt to turn the tide of the battle.

And this trump card is naturally the US military's tanks, specifically heavy tanks, the Pershing tanks. This tank was developed at the end of World War II. Although it did not appear much in World War II, it was heavily used in the Sino-Japanese War.

In the European theater of World War II, the mainstay of the U.S. armored forces was the M4 Sherman medium tank.

This tank became a mainstay of the Allied armored forces due to its excellent reliability and mass production capabilities, but its firepower and protection were often inadequate when facing heavy tanks such as the German Tiger and Panther.

To reverse this situation, the U.S. Army launched the T26 heavy tank development project in 1942, which ultimately led to the M26 "Pershing" heavy tank, which appeared at the end of World War II. This armored vehicle, known as the "Tiger Killer," became a crucial asset for the U.S. Army in its fight against German heavy tanks. The development process of the M26 reflects the shift in the U.S. Army's armored tactics. In September 1942, based on feedback from the North African campaign, the U.S. Army Ordnance Office requested the development of a new tank equipped with a 90mm cannon.

The initial T26E1 design adopted a vertical armor design similar to the M4, but after the painful lessons of the Battle of the Bulge in February 1944, the design team quickly improved it to the T26E3 prototype with sloped armor. This armor layout increased the protection effectiveness by 30% for the same thickness, with the upper glacis armor reaching an equivalent protection of 100 mm. Thus, in January 1945, the improved version was officially designated M26 "Pershing," named after John Pershing's Army, the US Expeditionary Force during World War I.

The most distinctive feature of this tank is its powerful firepower system. The main gun is the M3 90mm tank gun, which was the most advanced anti-tank weapon in the US military at the time, capable of penetrating 122mm of homogeneous steel armor at a range of 1,000 yards.

Equipped with M82 armor-piercing capped rounds with a muzzle velocity of 853 m/s, it could effectively penetrate the frontal armor of German Tiger tanks. Secondary armament included a 12.7 mm roof-mounted machine gun and two 7.62 mm coaxial, co-coordinated machine guns, forming a three-dimensional fire network.

In fact, these two 7.62mm machine guns were the most lethal to infantry. After all, tank guns have a slow rate of fire and slow turning, so they are relatively easy to dodge, but these two machine guns are different.

In terms of protection, the M26 employed an innovative "differentiated sloped armor" design. The upper glacis featured a 102mm/46° sloped armor plate, providing an effective protection of 180mm; the turret's frontal armor was 114mm thick, and its unique "eggshell" shape effectively ricochets bullets. This level of protection was sufficient to withstand attacks from the Panther tank's 75mm gun at conventional engagement ranges. To counter the threat of the German 88mm gun, some frontline units added 38mm of additional armor to the turret, increasing the frontal protection to an effective 200mm. However, its side armor remained relatively weak, with a thickness of only 51-76mm, making it vulnerable to Panzerfaust rocket launchers in urban warfare.

The powertrain was the most controversial part of the M26. Its Ford GAF ​​8-cylinder liquid-cooled gasoline engine produced only 500 horsepower, with a power-to-weight ratio of just 12.5 horsepower per ton, resulting in a top road speed of only 48 kilometers per hour. This aircraft-derived powertrain frequently overheated in the muddy terrain of the Ardennes Forest, with a failure rate as high as 43%. Post-war investigations revealed that over 60% of battlefield breakdowns were due to defects in the gearbox and cooling system. To improve mobility, the M26A1, which went into production in April 1945, was equipped with an improved gearbox and the track ground pressure was reduced from 12.8 psi to 11.6 psi, resulting in a limited improvement in off-road performance.

在四五年二月，首批二十辆M26急运至鸥洲战场，在科隆战役中，M26首次遭遇得军“虎“II坦克并取得击毁记录。最著名的战例发生在3月6日的埃尔登镇，一辆绰号“火球“的M26在800米距离连续击毁两辆“虎“式坦克。据统计，在鲁尔包围战期间，第9集团军的56辆M26共取得击杀德军重型坦克42辆、四号坦克78辆的战绩，自身仅损失19辆。这种1:6.3的交换比远超同期M4坦克的1:1.2，极大提振了盟军士气。

However, the M26 also revealed many design flaws. Its turret hydraulic swivel mechanism had a speed of only 24°/second, far slower than the manual operation of German tanks; the commander lacked a panoramic cupola, limiting battlefield awareness; and the main gun's depression angle was only -10°, making it difficult to utilize terrain in mountainous warfare. These flaws were particularly evident in the Battle of the Harz Mountains in April 1945, where the M26 units of the 2nd Panzer Division suffered heavy losses due to terrain limitations, being ambushed by German Jagdpanzer I tank destroyers.

By the end of the war, the United States had produced 1436 M26 series tanks, of which 246 saw combat. Despite its shortcomings, its emergence marked the official entry of the US armored forces into the "heavy tank era."

Of course, with the outbreak of the Sino-Chaozhou War, these tanks produced during World War II were naturally put to good use and transported to the Sino-Chaozhou battlefield.

However, Wang Gensheng had already sensed the location where the two Pershing tanks were hiding, so when the two Pershing tanks rushed out of the thatched huts where they were hiding, they were met with anti-tank grenades that Wang Gensheng had already prepared.

(End of this chapter)