re: #421 Brother Holy Cruise Missile of Mild Acceptance

Unless I am mistaken wasn’t that the fabled Sherman Firefly? (They just released that line in World of Tanks and I am doing the currently painful grind through the Grant to get a Firefly).

Sherman Firefly is what the British called M4s fitted with the 17-Pounder. The M4A3 model was not issued to the British Army in anything but small numbers for testing. It was, however, the preferred tank for conversion of as far as the US Army was concerned, and over 80 M4A3s plus an few M4s for a total of 100 were converted to the 17-Pounder in the UK for US Army use. These did not become operational til after Germany had surrendered and as a result only 80 were taken into US service (with the other 20 retained by the UK). At one point it was proposed to transfer them to the Pacific for the invasion of Japan, but Japan field no tanks that the US 76mm gun could not defeat and so the proposal was decided against.

Source: M4 (76mm) Sherman Medium Tank: 1943-65, Zaloga, Steven J, Osprey Publishing, 2003.