- Lid geworden
- 15 sep 2011
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- 441
Background
The US Army considered a British offer to convert some Shermans to the 17 pdr. "Firefly" in the summer and autumn of 1944, but gave up the project for a variety of reasons.
Following the Battle of the Bulge and the continuing complaints of the poor anti-tank performance of the 75mm gun, the plan was revived. A total of 80 M4 and M4A3 tanks were converted in the UK and shipped to the ETO in April-May 1945, with 40 each allotted to US First and Ninth Armies.
Although there is a substantial amount of documentation on the conversion program, no photos of these tanks are known to exist. There was one photo on the cover of AFV News many years ago of a tank yard in England with a few converted M4 with composite hulls, but these were part of a batch of about 20 that were still in the pipeline when the US cancellation order was issued and they were turned over to the British Army even though built to US specs.
There is no information if any of these Fireflies were issued to US units in the ETO after arrival from the UK.
op deze afbeelding staan zelfs de late T81 Tracks sherman tracks afgebeeld ... dus meer dan genoeg info voor een 1/16 US Firefly
aldus missing links
The US Army considered a British offer to convert some Shermans to the 17 pdr. "Firefly" in the summer and autumn of 1944, but gave up the project for a variety of reasons.
Following the Battle of the Bulge and the continuing complaints of the poor anti-tank performance of the 75mm gun, the plan was revived. A total of 80 M4 and M4A3 tanks were converted in the UK and shipped to the ETO in April-May 1945, with 40 each allotted to US First and Ninth Armies.
Although there is a substantial amount of documentation on the conversion program, no photos of these tanks are known to exist. There was one photo on the cover of AFV News many years ago of a tank yard in England with a few converted M4 with composite hulls, but these were part of a batch of about 20 that were still in the pipeline when the US cancellation order was issued and they were turned over to the British Army even though built to US specs.
There is no information if any of these Fireflies were issued to US units in the ETO after arrival from the UK.
op deze afbeelding staan zelfs de late T81 Tracks sherman tracks afgebeeld ... dus meer dan genoeg info voor een 1/16 US Firefly
aldus missing links