Photograph shows the first <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/M26_Pershing" title="M26 Pershing">M26 Pershing</a> tank (still designated as T26E3) to be knocked out in combat in World War II, which occurred on its second day in action. The hole in the gun mantlet marks the penetration of an 88mm round from a German <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tiger_I" title="Tiger I">Tiger I</a>.  Two crew members were killed.
<p>The action occurred on February 26, 1945.  The T26E3 was knocked out in an ambush at Elsdorf while overwatching a roadblock.  The action was described as follows:
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<blockquote class="templatequote language"><p><i>Fireball</i>, for that was the tank's name, was in a bad position, silhouetted in the darkness by a nearby fire.  A Tiger, concealed behind the corner of a building only about 100 yards away, fired three shots - the first 88 mm projectile entered the turret through the co-axial machine gun port [the M26's gun mantlet], killing both the gunner and the loader instantly.  The second shot hit the muzzle brake and the end of the 90 mm barrel and the resulting shock waves set off the round that was in the chamber.  Even though this round finally cleared the end of the tube, it still caused the barrel to swell about halfway down. The third and final shot glanced off the righthand side of the turret and in doing so took away the upper cupola hatch which had been left open.  But that was the end of the Tiger's run of luck.  Hastily backing, to avoid retaliatory fire, it reversed into a large pile of debris and became so entangled that the crew finally had to abandon it.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup></p></blockquote>
<div class="thumb tleft"><div class="thumbinner" style="width:402px;"><a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M26_Killer.jpg" class="image"><img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/M26_Killer.jpg/400px-M26_Killer.jpg" decoding="async" width="400" height="250" class="thumbimage" srcset="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/M26_Killer.jpg/600px-M26_Killer.jpg 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/M26_Killer.jpg 2x" data-file-width="800" data-file-height="499"></a>  <div class="thumbcaption"><div class="magnify"><a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:M26_Killer.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"></a></div>Tiger I tank that knocked out the M26 tank <i>Fireball</i>. The Tiger then backed into a rubble pile and became stuck.  The crew abandoned the tank.</div></div></div>
Elmer Gray
<p>U.S. Army Photo, taken by then-Major Elmer Gray in his official capacity of documenting the Zebra Mission during World War II.  After the war, the negatives were kept by Lt. Col. Gray and given to R. P. Hunnicutt for his book "Pershing: A History of the Medium Tank T20 Series", first published in 1971 by Feist Publications.   Photographic originals and negatives later donated by R. P. Hunnicutt to the Patton Museum.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup><br></p>
<dl><dt>Notes</dt></dl><div class="reflist references-column-count references-column-count-2" style="-moz-column-count:2;-webkit-column-count:2;column-count:2; list-style-type: decimal;">
<ol class="references"><li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-1">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Forty 1983 p. 138</span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-2">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Scan source:  Hunnicutt 1996, p. 26</span>
</li>
<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><a href="#cite_ref-3">↑</a></span> <span class="reference-text">Source for photograph's history:  Personal Communication, R. P. Hunnicutt, Feb. 28, 2010</span>
</li>
</ol></div>
<dl><dt>References</dt></dl><ul><li>Forty, George - <i>United States Tanks of World War II</i>, 1983, Blandford Press, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-7131-12147" title="Special:BookSources/0-7131-12147">ISBN 0-7131-12147</a> <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="error" style="font-size:88%; white-space:nowrap;">Invalid ISBN</span></li>
<li>Hunnicutt, R. P.  - <i>Pershing, A History of the Medium Tank T20 Series</i>, 1996, Feist Publications, <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-112-95450-3" title="Special:BookSources/1-112-95450-3">ISBN 1-112-95450-3</a>.</li></ul>