Sherman Firefly
| Sherman Firefly | |
|---|---|
Sherman Firefly at the Bovington Tank Museum (2014) |
|
| General properties | |
| crew | 4 (commander, gunner, loader / radio operator, driver) |
| length | 5.89 m (total length 7.82 m) |
| width | 2.67 m |
| height | 2.74 m |
| Dimensions | 33 tons |
| Armor and armament | |
| Armor | 51 mm (front armored hull) - 25 mm (tower and tub roof) |
| Main armament | 1 × 76.2 mm cannon (QF 17 pounder) |
| Secondary armament | 1 × 7.62mm coaxial machine gun Browning M1919 |
| agility | |
| drive |
425 hp |
| Top speed | 40 km / h |
| Power / weight | 12.88 hp / t |
| Range | 201 km (road) or 145 km (terrain) |
The Sherman Firefly ( Firefly ) was an Allied main battle tank, the development of which is to be understood as a reaction to the increasing technical dominance of German armored vehicles - especially the VI Tiger armored vehicle . Based on the design of the US-American M4 Sherman , the installation of the QF 17-pounder anti-tank gun led to a British model variant with high combat power. And although it was developed indirectly or without official approval, the 17-pdr made the Sherman Firefly an effective battle tank in the Western European theater of war.
development
Until the development of the Sherman Firefly or A30 Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger , the British tank units lacked a counterpart to the powerful panthers and tigers, which were to be found in increasing numbers on the European battlefields from 1943 onwards. One of the problems was the fact that the penetration of the British tank cannons could not compete with the armor of German tanks. However, the British armed forces had a powerful anti-tank gun - the Ordnance Quick-Firing 17-pounder. The latter could even penetrate the armor of heavy German combat vehicles with APDS (armor-piercing discarding sabot) projectiles .
This 17 pdr cannon was intended by the British army command as armament for a new development, the A30 Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger, which, however, revealed clear deficits in the course of its first test and was criticized by the troops. At the Royal Armored Corps Gunnery School Lulworth / Dorset, Major George Brighty began experimenting on his own with the 17 pdr cannon and the M4 Sherman. Although this combination turned out to be feasible in practice, the DTD (Department of Tank Design) prohibited further experiments. Only after a detour succeeded Brighty and later Lt. Col. George Witheridge for promoting the development of the Firefly.
However, neither of them was able to solve one major problem: the enormous barrel return of the 17 pdr cannon. At about 1 meter, the latter was too much for the Sherman's tower. It was only through the work of a former Vickers engineer, WGK Kilbourn, that this problem could be solved by designing a new retraction system for the 17 pdr gun. In addition, other changes were made to the original design, such as the location of the radio equipment. In addition, the cannon's loading mechanism had to be changed significantly to make loading easier. The result was the 17-pounder Mk IV. Apart from the modifications related to the inclusion of a larger cannon, the design of the M4 remained unchanged, both in terms of armor and engine.
Armament
The main armament of the Sherman Firefly consisted of the modified 17-pounder Mk-IV cannon with a caliber of 76.2 mm and a length of almost 4.20 meters (55 caliber). Although designed for a total capacity of 78 rounds of ammunition for the 17 pdr cannon, crews of the Firefly usually only carried 77 rounds. Left the 17-pdr gun was a coaxial machine gun of caliber .30-in. ( Browning M1919 A4) attached. In addition, a Sherman Firefly could be equipped with machine guns on the tower roof (historical photos show tanks with Vickers twin machine guns, for example) and had 2-inch smoke launchers . The bow machine-gun of a standard Sherman was missing in the Firefly, as was the radio operator as the fifth crew member.
The following types of ammunition were mainly used in the Firefly :
- APC (Armor Piercing Capped; armor piercing, with cap)
- APCBC (Armor Piercing Capped Ballistic Capped; armor piercing, with ballistic cap)
- HE (High Explosive)
- APDS (Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot; armor piercing, with sabot ; from August 1944, could only be used after a modification of the egg-shaped muzzle brake)
Normally, a Sherman Firefly carried an ammunition load consisting of 50 percent armor-piercing projectiles and 50 percent high-explosive projectiles.
Use in World War II
Series production of the Sherman Firefly began in early 1944 with the participation of four Royal Ordnance Factories - Woolwich, Hayes, Radcliffe and Nottingham. The British War Office planned 2,100 modified Sherman tanks (mainly Sherman of the M4A4 variant were used for the modifications). The Firefly replaced the A30 Cruiser Mk VIII Challenger in its planned role. Its use should be limited to those tank regiments that were originally equipped with British Cromwell tanks .
By May 31, 1944, the British and their allied forces had 342 of the new Sherman Firefly at their disposal. In preparation for the Allied landing in Normandy under Dwight D. Eisenhower, assigned primarily to the 21st Army Group (Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery ), this number was sufficient to carry out every troop (the British armored forces were defeated during During the Second World War, the regiment was divided into squadrons or troops, each troop consisted of four chariots) to be equipped with one Firefly each.
The Sherman Firefly was used for the first time in combat operations on D-Day in Normandy - including in the Staffordshire Yeomanry Tank Regiment (a former volunteer cavalry regiment) at the Sword landing section . In the following weeks, the Sherman Firefly was involved in various individual battles between German and Allied units. The claim that German units viewed the Sherman Firefly as a higher priority target cannot be easily confirmed based on numbers up to June 23, 1944. A British report concludes that by June 23, 29 percent of the standard tanks in four Allied brigades had been lost, but only 19 percent of the Fireflies deployed.
Due to the considerably longer 17-pdr than the 75 mm cannon of the standard Sherman, the Firefly were easy to spot even for their German opponents. Tank crews then tried z. B. by using paint and brush to camouflage the 4.20 m long cannon. Due to the fact that the main modifications were limited to armament and turret, the Sherman Firefly remained just as sensitive to enemy fire as the other Sherman tanks. Despite this fact and the fact that many crews were sent into action without extensive training, various individual battles made the potential of the Sherman Firefly clear.
In addition to British and Canadian troops, Sherman Firefly tanks also operated in the ranks of the New Zealand, Polish and South African contingents during the advances in Western Europe and Italy. For example, units equipped with the Firefly were involved in the battles of the 1st Polish Armored Division during the battle for the Falaise pocket.
Use in the post-war period
A total of 2,139 to 2,239 Sherman Firefly rolled off the production line between January 1944 and May 1945. Their use after the end of the war can only be traced to a limited extent. However, in the post-war years Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands, for example, used Sherman tanks with 17 pdr cannon. The Firefly is said to have been used for the last time in Lebanon in the late 1970s.
literature
- David Fletcher: New Vanguard 141 - Sherman Firefly. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2008, ISBN 978-1-84603-277-6 .
- Stephen A. Hart: Duel 2 - Sherman Firefly vs. Tiger Normandy 1944. Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2007, ISBN 978-1-84603-150-2 .
