Now this makes me wonder why Saunders (and by extension the US since they sort of represent them in tank craft)don't want to field a Firefly. Kay, do tell us.
Now this makes me wonder why Saunders (and by extension the US since they sort of represent them in tank craft)don't want to field a Firefly. Kay, do tell us.
Well a Sherman Firefly's gun, the 17 pounder is a excellent tank killer so if you mount that then Oarai tanks are screwed. These tanks were responsible for killing Micheal Wittmann a famous German Tiger ace.
The tank gun is also very accurate.
The prowess of the Sherman Firefly is noted the game Company of Heroes where a German tank crew says the following:
"We can never outrange the Firefly, we could be in Berlin and they can still hit us"
Now this makes me wonder why Saunders (and by extension the US since they sort of represent them in tank craft)don't want to field a Firefly. Kay, do tell us.
Because the US felt the 17 pounder wasn't accurate enough at range.
The 17-pdr wasn't seen as a substantial improvement over the 76mm Gun, M1A1 when firing full-bore armor-piercing ammunition (at least in theory, both will, with full-bore AP, penetrate the Tiger's glacis, but not the Panther's or the Tiger II's) and while the M1A1 had a rather sub-par HE round (while the 75mm Gun, M3 had an excellent HE round, which is much of why the army was reluctant to make the switch), at the time, the 17-pdr completely lacked one due to its even higher pressures. As for the APDS round that gave it much of its anti-tank advantage, the U.S. army wasn't nearly as enamored with the APDS round as the British were, since due to petal separation issues, the 17-pdr's APDS had glaring accuracy issues, even at short range. The British preference for the 17-pdr and its APDS may have been somewhat influenced by the fact that for much of the war, they faced much more of the Germans' heavy armor than the Americans did.
The 90mm Gun, M3, however offered the U.S. a gun with similar anti-armor abilities to the 17-pdr's APDS while retaining a powerful HE shell and avoiding the accuracy problems that period APDS ammo had. Interestingly, plans adapting it to a tank destroyer (what would become the Gun Motor Carriage, M36 "Jackson") began before the U.S. army had encountered any Panthers or Tigers (countries like to plan ahead, but testing takes time).
The 17-pdr wasn't seen as a substantial improvement over the 76mm Gun, M1A1 when firing full-bore armor-piercing ammunition (at least in theory, both will, with full-bore AP, penetrate the Tiger's glacis, but not the Panther's or the Tiger II's) and while the M1A1 had a rather sub-par HE round (while the 75mm Gun, M3 had an excellent HE round, which is much of why the army was reluctant to make the switch), at the time, the 17-pdr completely lacked one due to its even higher pressures. As for the APDS round that gave it much of its anti-tank advantage, the U.S. army wasn't nearly as enamored with the APDS round as the British were, since due to petal separation issues, the 17-pdr's APDS had glaring accuracy issues, even at short range. The British preference for the 17-pdr and its APDS may have been somewhat influenced by the fact that for much of the war, they faced much more of the Germans' heavy armor than the Americans did.
The 90mm Gun, M3, however offered the U.S. a gun with similar anti-armor abilities to the 17-pdr's APDS while retaining a powerful HE shell and avoiding the accuracy problems that period APDS ammo had. Interestingly, plans adapting it to a tank destroyer (what would become the Gun Motor Carriage, M36 "Jackson") began before the U.S. army had encountered any Panthers or Tigers (countries like to plan ahead, but testing takes time).
This is according to episode 3 of Akiyama Yukari's Tank Corner.
At just 500 meters, the 17-pounder could penetrate only 140mm of armor. This means that Sherman Firefly crews have difficulties KO'ing King Tigers...
Also for the 90mm gun, the M18 Hellcat also used it, and it was the gun of choice for the M26 Pershing, the tank the US could field in sufficient numbers during the final years of the war.
This is according to episode 3 of Akiyama Yukari's Tank Corner.
At just 500 meters, the 17-pounder could penetrate only 140mm of armor. This means that Sherman Firefly crews have difficulties KO'ing King Tigers...
Also for the 90mm gun, the M18 Hellcat also used it, and it was the gun of choice for the M26 Pershing, the tank the US could field in sufficient numbers during the final years of the war.
The Hellcat used the M1A1 76mm gun. The so-called "Super Hellcat" with the 90mm gun was a one-off prototype.