Sherman Firefly
From OMGWiki
 |
Sherman Firefly is updated to version Beta Two. |
| ||
| Placement | ||
| Faction | British | |
|---|---|---|
| Doctrine | Any | |
| Tree | Any | |
| Price | ||
 Manpower
| 400 | |
 Ammunition
| 0 | |
 Fuel
| 380 | |
 Population
| 12 | |
| Attributes | ||
| Health | 550 | |
| Targeting | ||
| Target Type | armour_sherman | |
| Rear Armor | true | |
| Vision | ||
| Sight | 35 | |
| Detection | 0/0 | |
| Speed | ||
| Max Speed | 5 | |
| Acceleration | 1.5 | |
| Deceleration | 5 | |
| Rotation | 35 | |
| Crush | ||
| Crush Mode | true | |
| Human Crush | crush_medium | |
| British | Sherman Firefly Veterancy | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 10% increase to top speed & 10% increase to acceleration. | 36 |  Level 1
| ||
| 50% increase to moving accuracy. | 90 |  Level 2
| |||
| 10% reduction to reload & 15% reduction to received damage. | 225 |  Level 3
| |||
| Known Unit (Custom Name) | 450 |  Level 4
| |||
| Feared Unit (Custom Skin) | 675 |  Level 5
| |||
| Sherman Firefly Visual Identification | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||
The Sherman Firefly was a World War II British variation of the American Sherman tank, fitted with the powerful British 17 pounder anti-tank gun as its main weapon. Originally conceived as a stopgap tank until future British tank designs armed with the 17 pounder came into service, the Sherman Firefly in fact became the most common tank fielded during World War II with the 17 pounder as its main armament followed by the 17 pdr SP M10 "Achilles".
Contents |
History
Design
The task of fitting a 17 pounder into a Sherman fell into the hands of Mr W.G.K Kilbourn, at the time working for the Department of Tank Design. The first problem Mr. Kilbourn had to fix was the lack of a workable recoil system for the 17 pounder mounted on the Sherman. In the anti-tank gun role for which the gun was designed, the 17 pounder would travel 40 inches back as it absorbed the recoil of the blast. This recoil movement was too long for the Sherman turret to allow.
Mr. Kilbourn solved this problems by redesigning the recoil system completely rather than modifying it. The recoil cylinders were shortened to allow the turret to take the gun and its recoil, and the new cylinders were placed on both sides of the gun to take advantage of the width of the Sherman's turret rather than be hindered by its height. The gun itself was also rotated 90 degrees to allow for left handed loading. The next problem that was encountered by Mr. Kilbourn was that the gun cradle, the metal block the gun sits on, had to be shortened to allow the gun to fit into the Firefly, and thus the gun itself was not very stable. To solve this, Kilbourn had a new barrel designed for the 17 pounder that was wider at the base which helped solve the stability problem. A new mantlet was designed to house the new gun and accept the modified cradle. Thus, while the 17 pounder which was to be fitted in the Firefly was a modified variant, it would have to be factory built specifically for the Firefly.
Now that a suitable recoil system had been designed for the Firefly, Mr. Kilbourn turned his attention to other problems with the tank. On the standard Sherman tank, the loader exited through the same hatch as the tank commander and gunner. However the 17 pounder's larger breech and recoil system significantly reduced the ability of the loader to quickly exit from the tank if it was knocked out. As a result a new hatch for the loader was cut into the top of the turret over the gunners position to increase his ability to exit the tank quickly.
The final major change was the elimination of the hull gunner in favor of more 17 pounder ammunition, which was significantly longer than the 75 mm shell and thus took up more room. However the hull gunner also doubled as the Radio Operator, so an armored box (a "bustle") was attached to the back of the turret to house the new radio, and the loader was to double as the radio operator. In action however it was to be found this situation was far from ideal, as the loader, who had to handle the much larger 17 pounder shell in a significantly more cramped turret would find it almost impossible to work the radio in the heat of battle, and as a result coordinating with its fellow tanks would be more difficult during battle while he was busy reloading the gun. As a result Troop commanders responsible for a troop of 4 tanks including their own were discouraged from crewing Fireflies because of the impossibility of coordinating their entire troop during a battle.
Combat
Fireflies were introduced to armored 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 that the Germans were fielding a much larger number of heavy tanks, like the Panther, than had been expected in the Normandy theater. In fact the Allies had mistakenly assumed the Panther, like the Tiger, would be a rare heavy tank with a limited production run, rather than a total replacement for their medium tanks, and the larger-than-expected number of Panthers came as a nasty shock to the Allied commanders as well as the majority of Allied tank crews forced to engage them with guns that could not penetrate the frontal armor at long range.
While the number of Panthers and Tigers only accounted for some 30% of the nearly 2,500 German tanks deployed in Normandy (the rest being composed of Panzer IVs, Sturmgeschütz IVs and other tanks the standard Shermans were able to effectively handle), Montgomery's strategy of drawing the bulk of the German armor units around the vital town of Caen so the American units could break out to the west meant that British and Commonwealth units had to face over 70% of all German armor deployed during the Battle of Normandy, as well as almost all the elite, well-equipped SS units which contained the fearsome Tigers and Panthers. Thus, despite the relatively low number of Panthers and Tigers deployed, they would almost all be facing British and Commonwealth troops. As a result, the Sherman Firefly was perhaps the most valued tank by British and Commonwealth commanders, as it was the only tank in the British Army able to effectively defeat the Panthers and Tigers at the standard combat ranges in Normandy.
This fact did not go unnoticed by the Germans, who realized that these long-barrel Shermans posed a much greater threat to their heavy tanks than the regular Shermans, and German tank crews and anti-tank gun crews were instructed to eliminate Fireflies first. Similarly, the Firefly crews realized that 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. Some 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.
Despite being a high priority target for the Germans, Fireflies appear to have had a statistically lower chance of being knocked out than standard Shermans, and this was likely more due to how they were employed rather than the actual effectiveness of the attempted camouflaging of the long barrel. Given the high value the British and Commonwealth commanders placed on Firefly tanks, a common tactic was for commanders to reconnoitre the battlefield before a battle to look for good hull down positions for the Firefly tanks. During the battle, Firefly tanks would stay behind in those position and cover the regular Shermans as they pushed forward, eliminating any enemy tanks that revealed themselves when they opened fire on the advancing Shermans and only moving forward when the regular Shermans 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 were forced to engage enemies in the open where they could be identified.
Despite this, the Fireflies increased 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 Mark IVs and StuGs.
Tactics & Tips
- The 17 pounder makes this tank great at engaging Axis armor, but it still won't out last a heavy tank.
- The 17 pounder gun on this tank not only penetrates any axis armor, it also out ranges it by hundreds of meters. Use this to your advantage and don't let the enemy get close.
- The 17 pounder gun is only decent versus enemy infantry. Use Churchill tanks, Cromwell tanks or infantry to support your Firefly versus enemy infantry. A Bren Gun Carrier is also a good alternative.
- The Firefly has good frontal armor, use this when fighting lower penetration axis tanks, such as the Wehrmacht Panzer 4.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
