Intro
At the end of 1940, their hand forced by the ineffectiveness of existing 2-pounder and 6-pounder weapons against German tanks, the British military began development of the 17-pounder gun. With a 58.3 caliber length barrel, it could fire armour piercing rounds through 130mm of 30-degree armour from one kilometer. A compact breech was evidence of an intent to fit the gun to tanks. On the back of encouraging performance against the German Tiger I in Tunisia, February 1943, the mounting of the 17-Pounder on a vehicle was officially approved.
<Tomcat note> At this point the info from the kit goes on to say the following:
As it was next to impossible to use with any vehicles of the day or even those under development, the most viable platform was deemed the Sherman, supplied by the U.S. under the Lend-Lease program. The modified vehicle was developed with the nickname “Firefly”. Of the four Sherman variants received by Britain, two were to become the base for Fireflies – the M4A1 became the Sherman IC Firefly, and the M4A4 the VC Firefly, C denoting variants fitted with the 17-pounder. A complex multibank inline-6 engine in the VC required an extended rear on the welded hull.
Conversion proved relatively smooth, initial prototypes produced at the end of 1943 and the program officially beginning in 1944.
<Tomcat note> But this doesn't really tell the whole story, so here's a bit more info on the background to the conversion from another source:
The idea of fitting a 17-pounder gun into a Sherman tank was rejected by the Ministry of Supply's Tank Decision Board.
Major George Brighty of the Royal Tank Regiment was at the Lulworth Armoured Fighting School in early 1943. Despite the A30 Challenger undergoing initial trials at Lulworth, Brighty was convinced that the Sherman was a better mount for the 17-pounder. The turret of the Sherman was too small to allow for the very long recoil of the gun. In a radical adjustment, Brighty removed the recoil system and locked the gun in place, thus making the entire tank absorb the recoil, but this was far from an ideal situation, and there was no telling how long the tank would have been able to handle such a setup.
Around June 1943, a colleague of Brighty, Lieutenant Colonel George Witheridge of the Royal Tank Regiment, arrived at Lulworth. A veteran of the North Africa campaign, Witheridge had experienced first-hand the one-sided battles between British tanks armed with the 40 mm 2-pounder gun and Rommel's formidable tanks and anti-tank guns. During the Battle of Gazala in mid-1942, Witheridge had been blown out of his M3 Grant medium tank, and though he recovered from his wounds, he was declared unfit to return to combat duty. In January 1943, he was posted to Fort Knox in the United States for six months to advise on gunnery, where he was "sold" on the Sherman. While at Lulworth, Witheridge inspected the A30 Challenger and "joined in the chorus of complaints" about the tank. Upon looking up Brighty and learning of his attempts to improve the Sherman, Witheridge lent his assistance. He advised Brighty on methods to solve the recoil problem.
Not long after, Witheridge and Brighty received a notice from the Department of Tank Design (DTD) to cease their efforts. Unwilling to abandon the project, Witheridge, using his connections with such influential people as Major General Raymond Briggs, former General Officer Commanding the 1st Armoured Division in North Africa and then director of the Royal Armoured Corps, successfully lobbied Claude Gibb, Director-General of Weapons and Instruments Production at the Ministry of Supply, to make it an official ministry project. Gibb was able to explain to the detractors that not only was it possible, but it should be doable in England. He had liaised with Colonel William Watson, who in late 1942 had returned from secondment to Australia to work on the production of the Australian AC1 Sentinel tank, onto which the 17-pounder had been mounted. With this development, the endeavour was taken out of the hands of the highly enthusiastic and devoted amateurs at Lulworth who had initiated it and given to professional tank developers.
<Tomcat note> Right, back to the kit info now I've got that off my chest
The 17-pounder was paired with the M34 cradle by rotating the position of the recoil cylinders 45 degrees around the barrel, while the breech was moved some 8 inches (around 20cm) backwards to fit the Sherman turret. This forced the radio outside into a box under the armour plating on the rear of the hull. The front machine gunner and seat were removed from the crew compartment, allowing 78 rounds for the 17-pounder to be stored within. Finally, a boxy loader’s hatch was added on the left side of the turret. 314 converted Firefly tanks were a part of the mass Allied landings at Normandy on June 6th. At the time, British forces deployed one Firefly per troop, and this eventually increased to two. The 2,139 Fireflies converted served not only in British units but also in Canadian, New Zealand and Polish counterparts. Although powerful alternatives appeared such as the Centurion with 17-pounder gun and the 90mm gun-equipped U.S. M26 Pershing, they never did so in large numbers and the Firefly proved effectively the only Allied counter to powerful German rivals, to such an effect that German troops were ordered to prioritize the Firefly as a target in battle.
<Tomcat note> At this point the info from the kit goes on to say the following:
As it was next to impossible to use with any vehicles of the day or even those under development, the most viable platform was deemed the Sherman, supplied by the U.S. under the Lend-Lease program. The modified vehicle was developed with the nickname “Firefly”. Of the four Sherman variants received by Britain, two were to become the base for Fireflies – the M4A1 became the Sherman IC Firefly, and the M4A4 the VC Firefly, C denoting variants fitted with the 17-pounder. A complex multibank inline-6 engine in the VC required an extended rear on the welded hull.
Conversion proved relatively smooth, initial prototypes produced at the end of 1943 and the program officially beginning in 1944.
<Tomcat note> But this doesn't really tell the whole story, so here's a bit more info on the background to the conversion from another source:
The idea of fitting a 17-pounder gun into a Sherman tank was rejected by the Ministry of Supply's Tank Decision Board.
Major George Brighty of the Royal Tank Regiment was at the Lulworth Armoured Fighting School in early 1943. Despite the A30 Challenger undergoing initial trials at Lulworth, Brighty was convinced that the Sherman was a better mount for the 17-pounder. The turret of the Sherman was too small to allow for the very long recoil of the gun. In a radical adjustment, Brighty removed the recoil system and locked the gun in place, thus making the entire tank absorb the recoil, but this was far from an ideal situation, and there was no telling how long the tank would have been able to handle such a setup.
Around June 1943, a colleague of Brighty, Lieutenant Colonel George Witheridge of the Royal Tank Regiment, arrived at Lulworth. A veteran of the North Africa campaign, Witheridge had experienced first-hand the one-sided battles between British tanks armed with the 40 mm 2-pounder gun and Rommel's formidable tanks and anti-tank guns. During the Battle of Gazala in mid-1942, Witheridge had been blown out of his M3 Grant medium tank, and though he recovered from his wounds, he was declared unfit to return to combat duty. In January 1943, he was posted to Fort Knox in the United States for six months to advise on gunnery, where he was "sold" on the Sherman. While at Lulworth, Witheridge inspected the A30 Challenger and "joined in the chorus of complaints" about the tank. Upon looking up Brighty and learning of his attempts to improve the Sherman, Witheridge lent his assistance. He advised Brighty on methods to solve the recoil problem.
Not long after, Witheridge and Brighty received a notice from the Department of Tank Design (DTD) to cease their efforts. Unwilling to abandon the project, Witheridge, using his connections with such influential people as Major General Raymond Briggs, former General Officer Commanding the 1st Armoured Division in North Africa and then director of the Royal Armoured Corps, successfully lobbied Claude Gibb, Director-General of Weapons and Instruments Production at the Ministry of Supply, to make it an official ministry project. Gibb was able to explain to the detractors that not only was it possible, but it should be doable in England. He had liaised with Colonel William Watson, who in late 1942 had returned from secondment to Australia to work on the production of the Australian AC1 Sentinel tank, onto which the 17-pounder had been mounted. With this development, the endeavour was taken out of the hands of the highly enthusiastic and devoted amateurs at Lulworth who had initiated it and given to professional tank developers.
<Tomcat note> Right, back to the kit info now I've got that off my chest
The 17-pounder was paired with the M34 cradle by rotating the position of the recoil cylinders 45 degrees around the barrel, while the breech was moved some 8 inches (around 20cm) backwards to fit the Sherman turret. This forced the radio outside into a box under the armour plating on the rear of the hull. The front machine gunner and seat were removed from the crew compartment, allowing 78 rounds for the 17-pounder to be stored within. Finally, a boxy loader’s hatch was added on the left side of the turret. 314 converted Firefly tanks were a part of the mass Allied landings at Normandy on June 6th. At the time, British forces deployed one Firefly per troop, and this eventually increased to two. The 2,139 Fireflies converted served not only in British units but also in Canadian, New Zealand and Polish counterparts. Although powerful alternatives appeared such as the Centurion with 17-pounder gun and the 90mm gun-equipped U.S. M26 Pershing, they never did so in large numbers and the Firefly proved effectively the only Allied counter to powerful German rivals, to such an effect that German troops were ordered to prioritize the Firefly as a target in battle.
Kit
Ok onto the kit and as mentioned at the start this is a 2014 Tamiya rebox of Asuka's Firefly kit from 2013 which in turn traces its own heritage back to a Tasca kit from 2006... the timeline on Scalemates is a real maze. Tamiya tidied up the instructions and added a group of British/Commonwealth infantry.
Here are the sprue frames for the tank
The infantry
And the instruction booklet - I'll be posting the instruction stages as I build
There's also an Aber metal barrel in the box and if I'm honest I can't remember if I added this or if it was included when I bought the kit.
This went together well for the most part but there was a little fettling needed to get the sponson bases to fit with the central firewall
(not 