Features accounts of the T-26 Pershing tank and its first use in
combat.
The Third Armored Division, famously known as the "Spearhead Division,"
had an illustrious combat career in WW2. One of only two "heavy armored"
divisions of the war, the 3rd Armored joined the battle in the ETO in
late June of 1944, was bloodied almost immediately and was at the front
of the American advance through the hedgerows of Normandy and the rapid
advance through France into Belgium by September 1944. The 3rd was one
of the first units to breach the vaunted Siegfried Line and then fought
a series of back and forth battles with the German army in the Autumn of
1944 as the weather conditions and determined tenacity of the German
defenders produced an Autumn stalemate.
The 3rd was rushed to the Ardennes front in December of 1944 in response
to Hitler's winter offensive and they famously fought battles at the
defense of Hotton, Grandmenil and then pushed the Germans back to the
border after vicious battles in places like Ottre, Lierneux, Cherain and
Sterpigny. The early days of the Bulge battles would find the lost unit
of Col Samuel Hogan's 400 men who were surrounded for days and fought
their way back to friendly lines. After a brief rest and being outfitted
with 10 of the T-26 Pershing tanks, the 3rd was at the spearhead of the
1st Army advance into Germany, across the Rhine and into the Harz
mountains and the liberation of the Nordhausen concentration camp. This
final campaign would see the highpoint of the famous Cologne tank duel
between a Pershing and German panther, made famous by the recent book
Spearhead by Adam Makos. Then, just a few weeks later the beloved
commander of the division, Major General Maurice Rose, was tragically
shot by a German tank commander when trying to surrender Paderborn,
Germany. The 3rd would end the war at the tip of the American advance
into Germany before the war ended.
