I am tring to find out if there ways any other tanks besides the M4 Sherman tanks being used; I know they were the ones mostly used.

I need to know what the Heavy Armoured units used during WW 2. I know of one and it was the M26/M46 Pershing Tank I think or it was a medium one.

What was used for WW 2 like the M1 Abrams is today; and it's not the M4 Sherman.

I want to do a Dragon Wagon dio pulling a Tank onto the trailer but I want to have the biggest one that was being used in WW 2.


Happy Modeling
(++) 1:35

The proto type Pershing, T26E3, was the heaviest tank the US fielded in battle during WW2. We did have heavies in development, but the Pershing was the only one deployed. It was considered a heavy tank at the time of development.

The Pershing was too heavy for the normal M15 Dragon Wagon trailer so the improved M15A1 was created to handle the larger size tank.

The uparmored M4A3E2 Jumbo was used, but it was not considered a "heavy tank".

US did not have anything heavier as a tank than the M4 until the M26 came along in 1945. That is why we had tand destroyers with bigger guns than the M4. The theory was that the M4 was an Infantry support tank and not meant to go head on with other tanks. This proved to be totally false, as we all know. The tank destroyers were designed to fight other tanks. Primary US tank destroyers were the M10 and M36.

Rob is right on about the Dragon Wagon trailer: the Tamiya kit portrays an M15 trailer, which was rated for the Sherman series although in a pinch it was used to haul something heavier (like captured Panthers).

Also, "Heavy" Armored divisions (2AD and 3AD) were beefed up not by the addition of heavy tanks (M26) but by a higher percentage of M4 Mediums relative to their light tank (M5) units.

Here's a little story of a "Super Pershing" T26E4-1 vs. a Tiger II..."WWII's two most powerful tanks meet in a historic encounter"...
http://www.3ad.com/history/news/super.pershing.1.htm



"Top Photo: The "Super Pershing" T26E4-1 (originally designated T26E1-1) is shown at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, in early 1945, shortly before being shipped to the 3rd Armored Division inside Germany via England. Additional armor plating and other modifications were made in Germany. Bottom Photo: German King Tiger, or Tiger II."

Here's how it starts out...

"Only three days before the 3rd Armored Division's final combat action of WWII, a Super Pershing of the 33rd Armored Regiment met and defeated the most powerful and most heavily armored German tank of the war - the legendary 77-ton King Tiger, also known as the Tiger II or Tiger Royal. It would be the first and only meeting between a King Tiger and the Super Pershing, a modified standard M26 Pershing weighing 53 tons - an almost "secret" tank that, to this day, remains largely an enigma to military historians."

Not entirely correct, the US standardisd the M6 Heavy tank in 1942?43? and made a number of them (200ish springs to mind, but I don't ahve references handy). They were not used in combat and didn't leave the USA.



Again, close, but not quite right. The tank destroyers were not supposed to fight with enemy tanks, but to "aggressively" kill them without going "toe-to-toe". The TDs never had the armour to stand up to even light tanks. They were supposed to maneuver as large batallion, or even brigade-sized ,units to the flanks of enemy armour breakthroughs and kill the enemy tanks from enfilade positions. I'm pretty sure that this was never ever actually done in the field as the conditions never presented themselves as the creaters of the doctrine had imagined. TDs were certainly never employed as battalion sized units in their intended role.

Paul

Paul's right. I knew there was a heavy companion to the M3 Lee/Grant, but didn't remember its nomenclature. That's why I used terms like "heaviest fielded in battle" and "only one deployed".

Here's more info on the M6 heavy tank: http://www.wwiivehicles.com/usa/tanks_heavy/m6_heavy.html