(May 26, 2011) DETROIT — The General Motors Foundation is pledging $1 million so visitors to the National Museum of the United States Army can learn about the World War II M4 Sherman Tank, the first tank to break into the besieged town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

The gift, in honor of former General Motors director Kent Kresa, continues the company’s longstanding history of supporting the U.S. Army.

The tank, nicknamed Cobra King, was assembled at GM’s Fisher Tank Arsenal and is expected to be a major attraction in the museum’s Saving Democracy: Global War Gallery, where the story of the Army’s role in global conflict and how the retooling of American industry changed the course of the war and defeated the enemies of democracy. 

The National Museum of the United States Army will be built at Fort Belvoir, Va., in 2015.