New Tank

The War Department, which has stoutly defended its tanks against all criticisms, last week unveiled the General Pershing (T-26)--the "answer," Under Secretary of War Patterson proclaimed, to the German Tiger.

Whether it was or not, combat experience will have to prove. The T-26s arrived in Europe only last month, could scarcely have had a real workout. On the basis of specifications, the Germans' biggest Royal Tiger still holds a margin of power.

The T26 weighs 45 tons, mounts a 90-mm. gun. The Royal Tiger is some 30 tons heavier (which means thicker armor), and mounts the vicious, high-velocity 88-mm. gun.

The T26 is a compromise between the lighter, nimbler General Sherman (M4) and the demand for a weapon which could stand up to the Germans' heaviest. Toe-to-toe, the Shermans never could. They had to count on getting around on the Tigers' flanks, where the Germans are more vulnerable. In the kind of confined infighting the U.S. Army ran into four months ago, end runs were seldom possible. The smaller Shermans were badly battered.

For the T-26, which looked like a good weapon, the Army could take a late bow. But one point still bothered critics: where was the T26 when it was most needed?

Any soldier in the field would hazard one answer: it takes too long for criticisms of weapons to get up through the chain of commands, where criticisms are often taken skeptically, checked in a time-wasting, cumbersome procedure.

The Germans, who have their own red tape, are faster in the adoption of new weapons, as U.S. soldiers have often sadly found.

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