Sherman Firefly

Medium Tank · Britain

A Sherman with the 17-pounder: it kills Panthers and Tigers from the front. The hull is still a Sherman's and the long barrel gives it away, so take the first shot and relocate.

(the vehicle's description in the garage)

At a glance

History

The Sherman Firefly was a British conversion that put the powerful 17-pounder anti-tank gun into a Sherman turret. It was the only Allied tank in Normandy that could reliably knock out a Tiger or Panther from the front at normal combat ranges. About 2,000 were converted, mostly from the M4A4 (Sherman V), as in the game's Sherman VC.

Fireflies were spread one per troop of four tanks in British and Commonwealth units, and German crews learned to spot the long barrel and target them first. Crews painted the end of the barrel to make it look shorter. Fireflies fought at Villers-Bocage and through the rest of the campaign in north-west Europe.

In Armor Heads

Compared with the other 34 WW2 vehicles, it is top 5 for turret / gun traverse speed (#4 of 35); top 5 for ap penetration (#3 of 35).

Survivability

• Hit points: 1060. Damage taken multiplier: 1.01 (effective HP 1050).
• Tracks: a hit on the running gear breaks a track 45 % of the time (the hit does no damage); the crew repairs it in 7 s.

Real plate: the thickness of the real vehicle's armour there, and its slope from vertical with the line-of-sight thickness in brackets; each zone's multiplier is worked out from it (see how the numbers work). The last column counts square-on hits under 100 m.

Main gun

• Mount: turret, 360° traverse at 36°/s.
• Elevation +20° / depression -5°, at 22°/s.
• Reload: 5.5 s.
• Damage per minute (AP): 3,109.
• Accuracy: 0.075° dispersion when settled, aim time 1.52 s, move bloom 0.054.
• Gunner's sight: No. 43, 3x (binoculars 6x / 10x / 15x).

The penetration threshold is the lowest zone multiplier (the thickest armour) the shell still gets through: zones below it stop the shell (10 % damage for AP, 20 % for HE). See how the numbers work.

HE and the crew: every direct hit shakes the crew (slower reload and traverse, a wider aim circle) for about 1.9 s when the plate stops it and 3 s when it bursts through. It is big enough to knock crew members out of their seats even when the plate stops it.

APDS (17-pdr APDS) is bought in the garage, not issued: 3 rounds for 200 credits, at most 6 carried, from a team stock of 3 per player for the whole match (never resupplied). It gets through far thicker plate than the AP up close but loses its punch quickly with range:

Matchups (AP against the hull front, square-on, under 100 m)

• Its AP gets through the hull front of 32 of the other 34 vehicles. It is stopped by: Tiger II, IS-2.
• 17 of the other 34 vehicles' AP get through its hull front. Safe from the front against: M4 Sherman, M3A1 Stuart, Panzer II Luchs, Panzer III Ausf. L, T-34/76, Cromwell, Churchill VII, KV-1, M32 TRV, M24 Chaffee, Sd.Kfz. 250/9, T-70M, T-60, SU-76M, M3 Lee, 75 mm GMC M3, Stuart V "Honey".
• From the side, 33 of them get through its hull side; from behind, 33 get through its hull rear (every zone is in the table above).

Secondary weapons and equipment

• Roof machine gun: .50 cal (M2 Browning), the vehicle's own modelled gun on its turret, 9 rounds/s, 2.5 damage per round, overheats after 48 rounds. It elevates to 70° and can shoot down recon planes.
• Smoke: 2 salvos, each recharges in 40 s.

Mobility

• Running gear: tracks (pivot turns).
• Top speed 40.2 km/h on roads, 18.9 km/h off-road (47 %), reverse 5.2 km/h, acceleration 3 m/s².
• Turn rate 30°/s (18°/s at top speed). Mass 35,300 kg. Engine start 3 s.

Special ability (B)

Recon Plane: a recon plane flies a line you draw on the map (up to 800 m) and spots every enemy within 75 m of it for 10 s. Ready 60 s after the round goes live, once per round; another use costs 250 credits.

Where it appears

Players can take it on all seven WW2 maps, on either team. The AI fields it on:

• Villers-Bocage 1944, Blue (Allied side): 2x in an 8-vehicle line-up (first at position 2).

Where it ranks (1 = best of 35)

The real vehicle

Sources used for the model: hull_length: TM 9-2800 (1 Sep 1943) p.114 Tank, Medium, M4A4: 238 1/2 in over the front and rear fenders, no sand shields (+15 in with them); TM 9-754 par. 4: over-all length 238.5 in. width: TM 9-2800 / TM 9-754 103 in over the sponsons and fenders, no sand-shield rails (+1 1/8 in with them; 100 1/8 in over the tracks); this is the model's body width without Barrel / Antenna / Turret_MG. height: TM 9-2800 M4A4 silhouette 112 in = top of the commander's hatch periscope, the highest point of the body without Barrel / Antenna / Turret_MG (108 in over the turret hatch: Hunnicutt-format Sherman VC data sheet, theshermantank.com; 107.5 in: TM 9-754). length_with_gun: research/dims.md. The muzzle-brake face is 4.43 m ahead of the turret ring centre. This is derived from Hunnicutt's Sherman VC figures (309 in gun forward and 292 in gun to the rear, both with sand shields, 254 in with sand shields and no gun: L = (309 + 292 - 254) / 2 = 173.5 in). It agrees with drawings #79987/#17343 and Tamiya to 3-5 cm. With the ring centre at y +0.02 the muzzle is at y -4.41, and 7.70 m is measured to the rear fender tips at y +3.29. Expect 7.55 m if the model ends at the rear plate (+3.14) and 7.75 m with the British rear stowage bin (+3.34), against Wikipedia's 7.77 m. Drawings #88106 and #72610 put the muzzle 0.2 m further forward (-4.62); dims.md explains why that is rejected. The model's hull_length counts the tracks: track front (-2.90) to the rear plate is 6.04 m, to the rear fender flaps 6.19 m, and to the British rear bin 6.24 m (+3 %, explain it in the notes).

In-game model: 7.76 m long (gun included) × 2.65 m wide × 3.23 m high (antenna excluded), 7,125 triangles, built at true scale.

Images

Renders of the in-game model in a plain nation colour (the game paints its camouflage at runtime).