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Source:http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/05/30/how-the-super-pershing-got-that-super-to-its-name/
来源↗
Source: http://worldoftanks.ru/ru/news/12/super_pershing_history/
真·来源↗
Author: Andrey Upanov, pictures provided by Pyotr Bityukov
原作者：↗
Hello everyone,
大家嚎，
Russian server had this nice article about the Super Pershing tank and its development by a Russian historian Andrey Upanov. Thought it might be a good idea to actually translate it. By the way, the article is partially based on Belton Cooper’s Death Traps, an infamous book, responsible for several of the nastiest American tank myths (“Shermans burned all the time”, “You needed 5 Shermans to kill one Panther”, “Sherman was a really bad tank” and others), so… I hope the author took this into account.
最近毛服那边发了这篇由俄罗斯历史学家Andrey Upanov所写的关于超潘以及它的开发的文章。我觉得把它翻译一下还是不错的。哦，顺便说一下，这篇文章是基于Belton Cooper所著的Death Traps而写就的。这本书非常的“出名”，原因在于书中含有太多的关于美国坦克的流言蜚语（“谢尔曼老是着火”，“需要五辆谢尔曼才能干掉一辆豹式坦克（国服称黑豹坦克）”，“谢尔曼其实很垃圾”云云）所以……我希望作者考虑到了这一点……
Enjoy!
以下正文。
In December 1942, the Americans, who fought the Afrika Korps in Tunisia, first encountered the new German armored “beast” by the name of Tiger. After examining the holes that the 88mm gun of the German tank left in the Shermans and Stuarts and finding out about the practical effectiveness of such a gun, the Americans requested their command to give them a vehicle with similiar characteristics.
在1942年12月，那些在突尼斯与德意志非洲部队作战的美国人第一次遇到了德国的新的钢铁猛兽，其名为虎式。在对谢尔曼和斯图尔特上由德国人的88mm炮弹孔进行检查并发现这杆炮的实用性后，美国人向指挥部提出说他们也要一辆数据差不多的坦克。
More armor, better gun
更厚的装甲，更好的主炮
Ever since 1942, the American tank designers worked on a line of prospective medium tanks T20, T22 and T23 with a 76mm gun. When they learned about the new German Tigers and Panthers, the designers increased the caliber of the gun and in the beginning of 1944, they released the new tank T26 with a 90mm gun and 102mm thick frontal armor for testing.
从1942年起，美国的坦克设计师们就一直在设计一系列的中坦，栗如用76mm炮的T20，T22以及T23。当他们知道德国人有了虎式以及豹式之后，设计师们加大了主炮的口径，并且在1944年初的时候，他们放出了一辆用90mm炮，正面装甲102mm厚的新坦克，T26。
Even as the T26 development continued, people in the American command structure argued, whether the US Army actually needs such a tank. Some generals, including the outstanding George Patton considered it pointlessly powerful. Their opinion was that tanks do not fight other tanks, that is the task of anti-tank guns and self-propelled guns and in order to fight the lightly armored targets and infantry, the 75mm gun of the Sherman medium tank is sufficient. On the other hand, other high ranking officers, such as general Jacob Devers, believed that the creation of a tank with a powerful gun and thick armor is an important and urgent matter.
在T26的开发依然在进行的情况下，美国指挥部中的人们依然还在争论美国军队到底需不需要这样的一辆坦克。有些将军，包括著名的乔治·巴顿认为这辆坦克厉害的过分了。他们的观点是坦克并不需要正面对抗其他的坦克，那是反坦克炮以及自行火炮的工作，而为了对抗其他轻装甲目标以及步兵，谢尔曼中型坦克的75mm炮就够用了。而另一边，其他高阶军官，栗如Jacob Devers，坚信创造这样一辆主炮强大，装甲厚重的坦克是非常重要，且紧急的。
译注：Jacob Devers，可译作雅各布·德弗斯，美国陆军上将，擅长装甲战。他在伦敦的美军司令部训练处数个美军步兵师，在诺曼底登录时取得胜利。他也是第一名在诺曼底登陆后到达莱茵河的军官。——摘抄自维基百科，此页面。
The arguing about the T26 continued until the 6.6.1944 European D-Day invasion. And here it turned out that the “good old Sherman” is insufficient against the Tigers, Panthers and German AT guns. The work on the T26 tank had to be accelerated. In February 1945, the tank was accepted in service, it was named M26 Pershing and in the same month, first pieces of this vehicle were shipped to Europe.
关于T26的争论一直持续到了1944年6月6日的诺曼底登录战。在这里他们发现“老牌谢尔曼”在对抗虎式，豹式以及德国的反坦克炮的时候不怎么管用。T26的开发进程开始加速进行。在1945年2月，坦克正式服役，它被命名为M26潘兴。同月，第一辆潘兴被运送到了欧洲。
However, the M26, even though it surprassed the Sherman in most characteristics, still did not reach the power of the German tanks. It was needed to create a heavy tank and even in the USA with their vast industrial potential it was not possible to do that quickly. As a compromise, it was decided to upgun the M26 by installing a more powerful 90mm cannon. After the trials at Aberdeen proving grounds, this tank was shipped to Europe and attached to the 3rd Armored Division.
尽管M26在数据方面已经超出谢尔曼一大截了，但是它还是比不上德国坦克的力量。他们需要一辆重型坦克，而就算是在美国这样工业力量巨大的国家也无法在短时间内搞定这个问题。作为一种妥协，他们决定给M26的主炮升级，装上一杆威力更大的90mm炮。 在阿伯丁试验场试验过后，这辆坦克被运到了欧洲，下挂于第三装甲师。
Belton Cooper’s “Super Pershing”
Belton Cooper的“超级潘兴”
In the beginning of 1945, major Harrington, the chief of the tank repair service of the 3rd Armored Division, summoned one of his subordinates – lieutenant Belton Cooper, telling him that he is the only person for such a project and to show him what he can do.
在1945年初，第三装甲师主管坦克修理的哈灵顿少校找来了他的一个下属—Belton Cooper中尉，跟他说他是这个项目的唯一一个成员，并且向他展示了他所能做的。
(SS: there was a direct quote of Belton Cooper from Death Traps, translated into Russian – it would be stupid to translate it back to English and I don’t have the book, so I will transfer the direct speech into indirect by keeping the meaning).
（SS：这里有一句从Death Traps中直接引用的Belton Cooper的话，但是翻译成了毛文—鉴于我没这本书，而且在把这句话翻译回英文是毫无意义的，我会在保留原意的情况下把第一人称发言改写为第三人称发言。）
Harrington definitely did not want to lose the new M26 in first battles. He ordered Lt.Cooper to somehow improve the armor of the tank. The favourite American solution to hang whatever they could get their hands on on the frontal armor and when meeting a Panther and Tiger, to pretend that it’s just a bunch of sandbags didn’t work in this case: the gun was simply too telling. And so Lt. Cooper had to do something else.
哈灵顿并不想在第一场战斗中就失去这些崭新的M26坦克，他就让Cooper中尉想办法加强坦克的装甲。美国人原来那种在遇见虎式和豹式的时候，把所有东西都堆在正面装甲前面，假装它们是一堆沙袋的办法现在不能用了：这竿主炮太招摇了。Cooper中尉就得从别的地方下手。
He recounts that in the well-stocked German repair shops, they found several huge plates of 38mm thick boiler steel and they decided to make the frontal hull armor as multi-layered. They did cut the two boiler plates into the V-shape, resembling the shape of the frontal armor. That’s how the tank was protected not by the basic 102mm cast armor, but also by two 38mm boiler plates with a gap between them. The Americans believed that despite the relative mildness of the boiler steel, the fact the armor is now multilayered and the angle of armor will force the German shells to ricochet.
他说在德国人储备充足的修理站里，他们发现了几块巨大的38mm厚的锅炉钢板，于是他们决定把正面装甲搞成多层的。他们把两块锅炉钢板切成了V字形，就像正面装甲的形状一样。这就是这辆坦克的正面装甲的组成部分了—102mm的浇铸装甲，加上两块38mm的锅炉钢板，中间还留有空隙。美国人相信尽管锅炉钢板的质量很差，但是多层装甲以及装甲板的角度会迫使德国人的炮弹跳弹。
The improved armor added cca 5 tons to the weight of the tank, which wasn’t predicted by the original design. The rugged American torsion bars and roadwheels groaned and squeaked, but they held.
这些额外的装甲使坦克的重量增加了5吨，这在设计初期是没有考虑到的。美国人的耐用的扭杆和负重轮吱呀作响，但是没坏。
Protective “helmet” for the tank
坦克的“保护帽”
But that wasn’t all! In America, they love the sport clashes with a prolonged ball, which they call “football” for some reason. One of the rules of the game is to protect your head by wearing a helmet. However, there were no helmets available to put on a tank turret. On the other hand, the Americans found a damaged Panther along with the aforementioned workshop. Cooper in his book described the modernization of the M26 turret – they did cut out a piece of the 88mm thick frontal armor from the damaged German Panther and they did cut it to the size of 150 x 60 cm. In the center, they made a hole for the gun barrel and two smaller holes next to it for the aiming device and the coaxial machinegun. This plate was then attached to the gun barrel and welded close to the frontal turret armor.
这还没完呢！在美国，他们很喜欢一种撞来撞去的，还有个椭圆形的小球到处乱飞的运动，他们管这个叫“橄榄球”。这个运动的一条规则就是要戴上头盔，保护你的脑袋。然而对于坦克炮塔来说，没有什么头盔可以用。在另一方面，美国人在上面提到的那个维修站中发现了一个损坏了的豹式炮塔。Cooped在他的书中描述了对M26炮塔进行的现代化改造—他们把豹式炮塔上正面的88mm厚的装甲板切了下来，裁到了150x60cm的大小。在板子中间，他们挖了个大洞，留给主炮。在两侧他们挖了两个小洞，留给了瞄准设备以及同轴机枪。这块板子被加装到了炮管上，并且焊在了炮塔正面装甲上。
Now, the M26 was well protected from the German shells in the frontal arc. It’s true that another problem arose: the mechanism, that was supposed to elevate and depress the gun barrel was not designed to move additional 650 kg of armor. As a result, only a memory remained of the elevation angle after installing this ad hoc spaced armor. The tank could drive and shoot, but only the ground in front of it.
现在这辆M26可以抵抗德国人正面袭来的炮弹了。但是同时又有了另外一个问题：用于抬高和压低炮管的机械装置一开始可没设计成能抬动一块650kg装甲板的。所以在装上这块临时的间隙装甲之后，仰角就成为了历史。这辆坦克能开，能打， 但是只能打到它正面的地上。
Belton Cooper remembers how they fixed this issue as well by balancing the gun by cutting a pair of counterweights from the 38mm boiler plate. This was not sufficient, additional counterweight was needed, so they did cut more 30 x 60 cm plates from the boiler steel and kept attaching them to the rear of the counterweight with clamps. By using trial and error method, they thus managed to balance the gun.
Belton Cooper还记得他们是怎样通过切割38mm锅炉钢板来造出一堆配重物来平衡这杆炮的。这样做的效果不大，他们需要更多的配重。所以他们继续从锅炉钢板上切割30x60cm的钢板，不停的用钳子把他们夹在配重的后边。通过反复的尝试，他们终于平衡了这杆炮。
As a result of these “fixes”, the weight of the vehicle was increased by 7 tons and the return wheels sunk 5 centimeters in comparison to the regular vehicle. It was obvious that the new vehicle wouldn’t have good dynamics. But at least the American tankers were happy that they finally recieved a tank with a powerful gun (even though it had a slow two-piece reloading process) and with good frontal protection.
作为“修复”的代价，这辆车的重量增加了7吨，负重轮相对于常规车辆来说下沉了5厘米。很显然，这辆新车的机动性不会很好了。但是至少这些美国坦克手很高兴，因为他们终于收到了一辆主炮强力（尽管它的装填要分两步进行，而且很慢）的坦克，正面防护也不错。
In the 3rd Armored Division, they called the improved tank the “Super Pershing”. According to Belton Cooper, this tank fought twice. For the first time, it was in the beginning of 1945 in Germany between Weser and Nordheim. The tank destroyed an unidentified armored target with its gun. In the second battle, the Super Pershing allegedly destroyed a King Tiger by hitting its bottom and causing an ammo rack explosion.
在第三装甲师中，他们管这辆改进过的坦克叫做“超级潘兴”。根据Belton Cooper所说，这辆坦克一共战斗过两次。第一次是在1945年初，在德国的诺德海姆以及威悉河中间。这辆坦克通过主炮摧毁了一辆不可辨认的装甲目标。在第二次战斗中，这辆超级潘兴据说通过命中底盘并造成弹药架殉爆摧毁了一辆虎王。
Did you know that…
你知道吗……
– M26 was developed by the Americans as a vehicle equal to the German King Tiger
美国人开发M26的目的原来是造出一辆能和虎王抗衡的坦克
– there was a plan to produce 1000 Super Pershings, but in the end only 25 were produced
原来是要造出1000辆超潘的，但是最后只造了25辆
– the vehicle recieved its official designation T26E4 in March 1945
在1945年三月，这辆车正式被命名为T26E4
– the thickness of the frontal armor without the additional spaced armor was 102mm, which was twice as much than the one of the Sherman, the most numerous tank of the Allies
在没有附加的间隙装甲的情况下，这辆车的正面装甲厚度是102mm，是盟军数量最多的坦克谢尔曼的装甲厚度的两倍。
– the 90mm T15E1 gun was so powerful that during the testing, its shell penetrated the German Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyer from the front, went right through it, penetrated the rear and exited the vehicle, ending in the ground
90mm T15E1主炮威力过于强大，以至于在测试中，它的炮弹正面击穿了德国的四号歼击车，穿过车身，击穿了背面，落在了地上。
Photos
图片
