The Tank Census of 1949

Pershings, Shermans, and Hanger Queens

An M-26 Pershing Tank of the US Marine Corps in Korea (US National Archives)

In 1949, someone at Headquarters, US Marine Corps, tallied up the main battle tanks in the hands of the US Marine Corps. According to this census, the Second Sea Service possessed:

• 102 M-26 Pershing tanks (with 90^mm guns)

• 224 of the ‘assault gun’ variant of the Sherman tank (with 105^mm howitzers)

• 149 old-school Shermans (with 75^mm guns)

• 39 Shermans furnished with flamethrowers

Nearly all of the Pershings (99 of 102) and most (209 of 224) of Sherman assault guns qualified as ‘serviceable’. At the same time, only 16 of the 149 of the Shermans that carried 75^mm guns convinced inspectors that they were fit for service. Likewise, a little more than a quarter of the flamethrower tanks (11 of 39) were fully able to perform the definitive duties of a pukka Flammpanzer.

Sources

Kenneth W. Estes Marines Under Armor: The Marine Corps and the Armored Fighting Vehicle (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2000) Chapter 6

John J. Sayen Battalion: An Organizational Study of United States Infantry (unpublished manuscript) Appendix 7

For Further Reading

The Binary Tank Battalion