Sherman Firefly
| Sherman Firefly | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Medium tank |
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 36 tons (33 tonnes) |
| Length | 19 ft 4 in (5.89 m) |
| Width | 9 ft (2.75 m) |
| Height | 8 ft 7 in (2.62 m) |
| Crew | 4 (Commander, gunner, loader, driver) |
| Armour | 89 mm (turret front) |
Main armament | OQF 17 pdr (76 mm) gun |
Secondary armament | Flexible .50 Browning M2 machine gun (12.7 mm) Coaxial .30 Browning M1919 machine gun (7.62 mm) |
| Engine | Chrysler Multibank (5 x inline-6) petrol 425 hp |
| Power/weight | 11.8 hp/ton |
| Suspension | Coil spring |
Operational range | 120 miles (193 km) |
| Maximum speed | 25 mph (40 km/h) |
The Sherman Firefly was a World War II British variation of the American Sherman tank, fitted with the powerful British 17 pounder (17-pdr) anti-tank gun as its main weapon. Originally conceived as a stop gap tank until future British tank designs with the 17 Pounder came into service, the Sherman Firefly in fact became the most common British tank fielded during World War II armed with the 17 Pounder as its main armament, with a production run of some 2,100 Fireflies being built or converted.
Origins
The concept of fitting a 17 pounder gun into a Sherman tank had initially been rejected by the Ministry of Supply's Tank Decision as being impractical. This was primarily due to the large recoil cylinders located above and below the barrel of 17 pounder gun that made it too tall to be mounted in the short turret of the Sherman. At the same time the British were already building and testing a 17 pounder armed tank based on the Cromwell tank called the Challenger, and it was still expected that the Vickers High Velocity 75mm gun (later modified to become the 76 mm HV) would be the main armament of the Cromwell tank, so there was little pressing need to mount a 17 pounder into the Sherman tank.
However, Lt-Col George Witheridge of the Royal Tank Regiment, on his arrival at Lulworth Armored Fighting School in 1943, became interested in mounting a 17 pounder in the Sherman Tank after having seen the A30 Challenger and found it wanting. Others at Lulworth had also been investigating mounting a 17 pounder on a Sherman chassis with mixed outcomes. Lt-Col George Witheridge and a small team started to attempt to fit a 17 pounder into the turret of a Sherman. Despite warning to abandon the project, Witheridge, with support from Maj-Gen Raymod Briggs, Director Royal Armoured Corps (DRAC) and Claude Gibb of the Ministry of Supply, proved that a modified 17 pounder gun could be successfully fitted into the turret of a Sherman. Other changes included a new gun mantle being fitted to accommodate the 17 pounder and the elimination of the hull mounted machine gun to allow for more ammunition to be stored within the tank. As a result of the elimination of the hull gunner who also doubled as the radio operator, an armored box was attached to the back of the Sherman turret to house the radio so the loader could double as the radio operator.
By October and November of 1943, enthusiasm began to grow for the project. The 21st Army Group was informed of the new tank in October 1943. Even before final testing had taken place in February of 1944, an order for 2,100 Sherman tanks armed with 17 pounder guns was placed. This reaction was understandable, as the Challenger program was suffering constant delays and few would be ready for Normandy, and even worse the realization the Cromwell tank did not have a turret ring big enough to take the new High Velocity 75mm gun (50 calibres long), so the Cromwell would have to be armed with the weaker 75mm M3 gun of the Sherman tank. Thus the Sherman Firefly represented the only available tank with superior firepower over the 75mm M3 gun in the British Army’s arsenal, and not surprisingly it was given ‘highest priority’ by Winston Churchill himself. [1]
The nickname "Firefly" is however not found in wartime official documents. It was sometimes used at unit level (Brigade/Regiment) war diaries from March 1944, with another nickname being 'Mayfly'. During the war, Shermans with 17 pounder guns were usually known as '1C' '1C Hybrid' or 'VC', depending on the basic mark of the vehicle. In British nomenclature, a "C" at the end of the Roman numeral indicated a tank equipped with the 17-pdr.
Armament
The main armament of the Sherman Firefly was the Ordnance Quick Firing 17 pounder. Designed as the successor to the British QF 6-pounder, the 17 pounder was the most powerful British tank gun of the war, and one of the most powerful of WWII, being able to penetrate more armor then the Tigers 88mm and Panthers 75mm main gun. The gun mounted in the Sherman Firefly was in fact a modified 17 pounder, redesigned to allow it to be fitted into the cramped turret of the M4 Sherman. The 17 pounder fitted had a modified barrel base in front of the breech which reduced its recoil in the gun cradle. The issue with the vertical recoil cylinders was resolved by turning the gun on its side so the recoil cylinders were horizontal, thus taking advantage of width of the turret rather than be hampered by the short height of the turret. [2]
The 17 pounder mounted on the Sherman Firefly was able to penetrate some 140mm of armor at 500 meters and 131mm at 1000 meters using standard APCBC ammunition at a 30 degree angle, more than sufficient to defeat the German Tiger I and Panther tank at standard combat ranges. When supplied, APDS ammunition could penetrate some 209mm of armor at 500 meters and 192mm of armor at 1000 meters at a 30 degree angle, thus in effect, almost every German tank at any likely range. However APDS was not as accurate as APCBC ammunition, and being a sub caliber shot, the actual penetrating device was around 50mm wide, thus being less destructive after it had penetrated the enemy tanks armour then the 76.2mm APCBC shell. In any case APDS ammunition was rare, with very little being available until late 1944.
One major disadvantage of the Sherman Firefly during its first few months in service was its lack of an effective High Explosive shell for its main gun, which meant Sherman Firefly crews faced much the same disadvantage of British tank crews some 2 years earlier in the Deserts of North Africa when their 2 pounder armed tanks lacked an effective High Explosive shell to deal with soft targets like Anti-Tank guns or dug in infantry. An effective High Explosive shell was only available in late 1944 and even then it was not as potent as the standard Shermans 75mm HE shell.[3] Another problem was the fact the powerful blast from the 17 pounders gun kicked up large amounts of dirt as well as smoke, making it difficult for the commander and gunner to observe the fall of the shell and correct their aim if they missed. As well as temporarily blinding the gunner and commander, this dirt and dust revealed the position of the tank to enemy tanks, thus Sherman Firefly tanks would have to relocate every few shots to avoid detection. Finally the cramped nature of the turret meant that loading the large 17 pounder shell was more difficult and thus Fireflies had a reduced rate of fire over regular M4 Shermans. [4]
The Firefly's secondary armament was one .30 cal machine gun located in the turret. Its hull gun was eliminated to increase ammunition storage for the main gun. A top mounted .50 cal machine gun was also attached though many crews often removed it as it could get caught on branches or wires. A small number of Fireflys carried launching rails for two RP-3 rockets, one on each side of the turret. This weapon was highly inaccurate when fired from a tank, but was valued by crews for the destructive effect of its 60 pound warhead. [5].
Production and Distribution
Three different variants of Sherman Firefly served during the second world war, each based on different variants of the M4 Sherman. The Firefly conversion was carried out on Sherman I (M4), Sherman I Hybrid (M4 Composite) and Sherman V (M4A4) tanks. Some sources state that several Sherman IIs (M4A1) were converted and used in action but photos allegedly showing these conversions are in fact views of the front half of Sherman I Hybrid Fireflies. To complicate matters, a very small number of Canadian licence-built Sherman IIs (M4A1) known as Grizzlies were converted to Fireflys in Canada and were used for training, but none saw action. The majority of Shermans converted were the Sherman V/M4A4 model of which the British received about 7,200. The Sherman VC and IC variants can be easily distinguished by their lower hulls; the VC having a cylinder like lower hull while the IC has a more angled and welded lower hull. The Hybrid can be distinguished by its cast hull which gives it a distinctive curved look to its hull in comparison to the more rigid hull of a typical Sherman.
Production of the Firefly started in early 1944, and by May 31st, some 342 Sherman Firefly's had been delivered to Montgomery's 21st Army Group for the D-Day landings.[6] As a result the Sherman Firefly could be distributed one a 1:4 ratio to British Armor troops, thus each troop would be comprised of 3 regular Shermans and 1 Firefly. The same distribution occurred in Cromwell units but this caused logistical problems as each Cromwell troop now needed parts for two different tanks, and the Firefly's were slowly replaced by Challenger tanks as they came out. Churchill units received no Firefly tanks, and as a result often had to rely on any attached M10 or M10C units to provide increased firepower to deal with tanks their 75mm guns could not eliminate. [7]
From D-Day in June to the end of the Battle of Normandy in late August, some 550 Sherman Fireflies were built, more then sufficient to replace any permanent tank losses during the battle.[8] In late 1944, with the creation of an effective High Explosive shell for the 17 pounder gun, British units started to receive 2 Fireflies per troop.[9] By February 1945, with some 2,000 Sherman Fireflies had been built, and all British Armor troops were equipped with a 50/50 mix of 75mm and 17 pounder armed Shermans. However in the spring of 1945 production of the Firefly was scaled down, with the last tank being delivered in May 1945. This was the result of several factors, from home grown designs like the Comet and Centurion coming into service which would replace the Firefly, to the impending destruction of Nazi German, and the inferior design of Japan's tanks, which it seemed would be the next opponents the British would face after the fall of Germany.[10]
Overall production of the Sherman Firefly reached some 2,100 - 2,200 tanks, exact numbers are hard to determine as documents give contradictory totals.[11]
Service
Fireflies were introduced to armoured brigades and divisions in 21 Army Group in 1944 just in time for the Normandy landings. The timing was fortunate as the Allies were to discover immediately the Germans were fielding a much larger number of Heavy tanks like the Panther then had been expected in the Normandy Theatre. In fact the Allies had mistakenly assumed the Panther, like the Tiger, would be a rare heavy tank with a limited production run, rather then a total replacement for their medium tanks, and the larger then expected number of Panthers came as a nasty shock both to the Allied commanders, as well as the majority of Allied tank crews forced to engaged them with guns that could not penetrate the frontal armour at any range.[12]
While the number of Panthers and Tigers only accounted for some 30% of the total German tanks deployed in Normandy (the rest being comprised of Panzer IV's, Sturmgeschütz III's and other tanks the standard Shermans were able to effectively deal with), Montgomery's strategy of drawing the bulk of the German armor units around the vital town of Caen so the US units could break out to the west meant that British and Commonwealth units were to face the bulk of German armor. Indeed, over 70% of all German armor deployed was to be focused in the British sector during the Battle of Normandy, as well as almost all the elite and well equipped SS units which contained the fearsome Tigers and Panthers. Thus despite the relatively low quantity of Panthers and Tigers deployed in the battle, they would almost all be facing the British and Commonwealth troops exclusively. As a result the Sherman Firefly was perhaps the most valued British tank by British and Commonwealth commanders, as it was the only tank in the British Army able to effectively defeat the Panther and Tiger tanks at the standard combat ranges in Normandy.[13]
This fact did not go unnoticed by the Germans, who realized these long barrel Shermans posed a much greater threat to their heavy tanks then the regular Shermans, and thus German tank crews and Anti-tank gun crews were instructed to eliminate Fireflies before engaging standard M4 Shermans. Similarly the Firefly crews realized the distinctive long barrel of their 17 pounder gun made the Firefly stand out from regular Shermans, so crews attempted to disguise their tanks in the hope they would not be targeted. To prevent their Shermans from being identified as Fireflies by the Germans, some tank crews had the front half of the gun barrel painted white on the bottom and dark green or the original olive drab on the top to give the illusion of a shorter gun barrel. Another suggestion was for a shorter wooden dummy gun would be mounted on the rear of the turret and point forward; however, this tactic does not appear to have been used in combat.[14]
Despite being a high priority target for the Germans, Fireflies appear to have had statistically lower chances of being knocked out then standard Shermans, and this was likely more due to how they were employed then the actual effectiveness of the attempted camouflaging of the long barrel on Fireflies.[15] Given the high value the British and Commonwealth commanders placed on Firefly tanks, common practice was for commanders to recon the battlefield before a battle to look for hull down positions that their tanks could advance to. In the process a good hull down position with a clear field of fire was sought for the Firefly tanks to be positioned at. During the battle, Firefly tanks would stay behind in that position and cover the regular Shermans as they pushed forward, eliminating any enemy tanks that revealed themselves when they opened fire on the advancing M4s and only moving forward when the regular M4s had secured the area, or when they could no longer cover them from their current position. However, given the relatively unpredictable nature of battle this setup was not always practical or possible, and many times Fireflies and regular Shermans were forced to engage enemies in the open when Fireflies could be identified and eliminated first by the Germans. Despite the risks of crewing the Firefly, its firepower was much valued by British and Commonwealth tankers, and during many engagements the Firefly proved its worth, knocking out the feared Tigers and Panthers at long range, as well as less formidable tanks like the Marks 4s and Stugs.
Two noteworthy examples of the increased firepower of the Firefly during the Battle of Normandy include the actions of Sgt. Wilfred Harrif and his gunner Trooper Mackillop of the 4th/7th Dragoon Guards near Tilly-sur-Seulles on 14th of June, and Sgt. Gorden and his Gunner Joe Ekins of the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry during Operation Totalize on August the 8th near Saint-Aignan-de-Cramesnil.
On June 14th, during Operation Perch, Sgt. Harris along with 4 other Shermans set up defensive positions along with the infantry after successfully driving out the Germans in the village of Lingèvres, near Tilly-sur-Seulles. Looking through his binoculars, Sgt. Harris spotted two Panthers advancing from the east, and at a range of 800 meters he opened fire, knocking out the lead Panther with his first shot, and the second Panther with his second shot. Relocating to a new position on the other side of the town, he spotted another three panthers approaching from the west. From his well concealed flanking position, he and his gunner eliminated all three Panthers with just 3 rounds. Thus in a short engagement, Sgt. Harris and his gunner knocked out 5 panthers with 5 rounds, demonstrating the potency of the Firefly, especially when firing from a defensive position on advancing enemy tanks. [16]
During Operation Totalise the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry and elements of the 51st (Highland) Division reached the French village of St. Aignan de Cramesnil during the early morning of August 8, 1944.[17][18][19] While B Squadron stayed around the village, A and C Squadrons moved further south into a wood called Delle de la Roque.[20] C Squadron positioned themselves on the east side of the woods and the understrength A Squadron positioned themselves in the southern portion with No.3 Troop on the western edge of the wood.[20][21][18] From this position they overlooked a large open section of ground and was able to watch as German tanks advanced up Route nationale 158 from the town of Cintheaux. Under strict orders from the troop commander they held their fire until the German tanks were well within range before opening fire. Ekins, the gunner of Sergeant Gordon's Sherman Firefly (called Velikye Luki, A Squadrons tanks were named after towns in the Soviet Union), had yet to fire his gun in action.[20] With the Tiger tanks in range the order was given to fire, what followed was an almost twelve minute battle that saw Ekins destroying all three Tigers that No.3 Troop could see (there was actually 7 Tiger tanks in the area heading north along with some other tanks and self propelled guns).[22][18] A short time later, the main German counterattack was made in the direction of C Squadron. A Squadron (minus Sgt Gordon who had been wounded and had already bailed out of the Firefly) moved over to support them and in the resulting combat Ekins destroyed a Panzer IV before his tank was hit and the crew were forced to bail out.[20]One of the Tigers Ekins is credited with knocking out was that of Michael Wittmann, though there is still some controversy over if Ekins really killed Wittman.
Overall the Firefly proved itself a very successful tank despite the fact it was only intended as a stop gap tank until future British tanks like the Comet and the Centurion came into service. While Normandy had priority, Sherman Fireflies saw action in Italy where they also served with distinction in British and Commonwealth units.
References
- ^ Source: J. Buckley, "British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944."
- ^ Hart, Stephen. Sherman Firefly vs Tiger (Osprey Publishing, 2007)
- ^ Source: J. Buckley, "British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944."
- ^ Hart, Stephen. Sherman Firefly vs Tiger (Osprey Publishing, 2007)
- ^ Fletcher, David (2008). Sherman Firefly. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1846032776.
- ^ Hart, Stephen. Sherman Firefly vs Tiger (Osprey Publishing, 2007)
- ^ Source: J. Buckley, "British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944."
- ^ Hart, Stephen. Sherman Firefly vs Tiger (Osprey Publishing, 2007)
- ^ Source: J. Buckley, "British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944."
- ^ Hart, Stephen. Sherman Firefly vs Tiger (Osprey Publishing, 2007)
- ^ Hart, Stephen. Sherman Firefly vs Tiger (Osprey Publishing, 2007)
- ^ Source: J. Buckley, "British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944."
- ^ Source: J. Buckley, "British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944."
- ^ Hart, Stephen. Sherman Firefly vs Tiger (Osprey Publishing, 2007)
- ^ Source: J. Buckley, "British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944."
- ^ Hart, Stephen. Sherman Firefly vs Tiger (Osprey Publishing, 2007)
- ^ Reid, Brian. No Holding Back (Robin Brass Studios, 2005)
- ^ a b c Tout, Fine By Tank D to VE Day
- ^ Tout, Fine Night For Tanks
- ^ a b c d Hart, Pg 52-69
- ^ Reid, Brian. No Holding Back (Robin Brass Studios, 2005)
- ^ Reid, Brian. No Holding Back (Robin Brass Studios, 2005)
See also
- M4 Sherman tank
- M4 Sherman variants
- Lend-Lease Sherman tanks
- Allied Technological Cooperation During WW2