I think he means the alot of people think that the Pershing is =/> then any heavy tank the germans had, like its the American equivalent of a tigerII.
That's a misunderstood statement just like the Me-410 was. When people looked at the gun package they assumed it would beat a Thunderbolt in a dive, out turn a spitfire, when in fact it was simply an overweight buff killer.
The germans attempted to field most if not all Medium Tank Platoons in Normandy with Panthers, the early Pershings were actually to field 76mm guns. One of the reasons was Patton who actually knew NOTHING about tanks at thie time, his technical judgement was quite poor, in fact he wanted nothing
to do with the pershing since "Shermans" were adaquate for the job. Other generals played ball with their ideas, one suggested the 76mm being it was enough to take down Panzer 4s since "Tigers and Panthers are non-existant" you have to look at pre-normandy invasion for this, Italy for example.
Eventually the 90mm gun was used, due to its "similar" hitting power of the German 8.8cm L/56 of the Tiger tank, however certain rounds played a role in this as well.
Many ideas were thrown around over the years, my argument has always been if the Americans appreciated the intelligence of the status of Panther Tanks deployed in France in 1944, then the Americans might of accelerated research on such things as a 90mm gun on the Sherman or producing quite a few more 76mm HVAP ammo.
The first M26 could of reached combat in June 1944 if certain generals had their way, but influenced generals like Patton really killed this, the first prototype came about around Feb of 1944.
The Pershing was not a "Tiger killer" or King Tiger killer, as this argument has played out so many times on this BBS, however German units were routinely operating at minimal strength - with most the armor units fighting in the East.
US and Brit tanks were simply no match for german tanks period, if it wasn't for the limited German units, the Pershing would of probably been ramped into production majorly, instead barely 40 or so were completed before 1944 came to an end.
On a fun note - a Panzer 4 was knocked out at 1,200 yards in Feb 1945 by a M26, beyond operating range of US tanks.
The First M26 was knocked out by 2 direct hits from a 150mm Howitzer, disabling its turret and tracks, the tank was repaired and brought back into service.
The most famous engagement by a groupd called Zebra mission (to evaluate the M26) was on March 6, 1945 - when a Panther tank from 9th Panzer division stationed in a courtyard in front of the cathedral at Cologne, ambushed an M4 sherman, blowing it up, however an T26E3 was sent into to deal with the Panther and slammed 3 rounds into it blowing the tank up, which was actually caught on camera by signal corps. You can see this film on youtube actually.
