Re: Conventional DS2?

On 21 Nov 96 at 9:44, Cleyne, Daniel wrote:

> > And THANK YOU for the Firefly mention! The UK and Canada made good
use of
> > what was considered the best Sherman variant. I heard that politics 
> stopped
> > the US from adopting the Sherman.
> 
> The Firefly didn't have a HE round and was thus limited severely in
its use 
> against soft targets and infantry. Perhaps that was one of the reasons
the 
> Americans didn't want it.

Don't forget that the British had long used a close support variant 
in the Squadron HQ (105mm howitzer IIRC) to provide the HE support. 
Also, at 1 Firefly in 4 tanks ost of the time the other 3 could look 
after the infantry while the Firefly looked after the enemy tanks.

It all appears to come down to a matter of choice - specialisation or 
generalisation, but I suspect that another reason may have been the 
spuuly of 17dr guns and munitions. To introduce these into US 
production would have been a major change, whereas the long 75 & 76mm 
guns were a much smaller change.

-- 
Cheers
Nick Meredith - nickm@discover.co.uk - Coventry, UK