Battle for Cologne: American Shermans Faced Nazi Tigers in This Epic Tank Battle
The U.S. Army’s M26 Pershing tank arrived on the Western Front in the closing months of World War II to take on the German Tiger and other formidable panzers.
Here s What You Need to Know: Cologne s urban rubble offered superb defensive positions to the German panzers.
Sergeant Nicholas Mashlonik watched closely as the Panzerkampfwagen (PzKpfw) VI Tiger heavy tank rampaged through the village of Elsdorf in the Rhineland-Westphalia region of Germany on February 27, 1945. The 57-ton steel monster sported a long 88mm cannon that extended from a massive turret atop the blocky, angular mass of its hull.