SHERMAN FIREFLY ERRATA FILE
This file is version 2 of the errata file covering mistakes made by the author and during the production process of the book "Sherman Firefly" by Mark Hayward, published by Barbarossa Books in 2002.
It is hoped that this will not spoil your enjoyment of the book, nor invalidate that, which is contained within it.
Para's are referred to as by simply counting down from the top of the page and lines, by simply counting down from the top of the relevant paragraph and do not refer to sentences.
Copyright page 2 in the "Thank You" section, Para 1, Line 2, "England" has been printed as "Egland". This is not some obscure part of the UK and Mr Brown does indeed live in the England!
Contents Page 3 "16. Modelling the Firefly"
Should read "Milcast IC Hybrid", not "Hybrid IC". The Matchbox VC should also be included instead of the Airfix M4, which is a minor part of the story.
Page 5, Introduction Para 2, line 3, Replace "Most" with "some", as since the book was completed Dave Fletcher has published two books for Concord, that include most of the Tank Museum shots included in this book, so invalidating this statement.
Page 5, Introduction, Para 5, Line 5, replace "fifty-five" with "fifty seven".
Page 5, Introduction, Para 5, Line 9, replace "conjectural" with "contextual". The words were changed somehow! The narrative is not conjectural, but hopefully quite factual.
Page 5, Introduction, Para 5, Line 21. Replace ",place on the Internet, or publish in the specialist press" with ".", thus deleting the line as this is inaccurate.
Note that the web site may have to change or be removed as I can not afford to have it commercially hosted, but I will keep it going as long as I can.
Page 6, Para 4, Line 4. Delete "Perhaps someone in the United States can help out with a complete set of files from the American Archives." Steve Zaloga and Joe Demarco among others are working hard on this and have been turning up much new material, some of which may come out from them in the future.
Page 7. Dad this books still for you.
Page 9, Para 3, Line one replace "lack of" with "weak".
Page 10, Para 1, Line 14, insert "the" before "17-pdr".
Page 10, Para 2, Line 12, insert after "Achilles", "in post war books".
Page 11, Caption, Line 6, delete "access plates", replace with "covers".
Page 11, Caption, Line 9, insert "many" before "production". To read "many production examples".
Page 13, Para 1, Line 4, replace "by" with "in", to read "Even in Mid-1943".
Page 14, caption to photo 7, Line 4, "researching" was mis-spelt as "researcing".
Page 14, caption to photo 7, Line 9, the page reference is Page 29 and the book has recently been reprinted.
Page 16, Para 4. I think that we can now be certain where the Fireflies were made in the UK , so this paragraph is unduly cautious. Thus delete "There is limited firm evidence as to where the 17- pdr Shermans were converted." And replace with:
There is limited documentary evidence to be completely certain where Fireflies were converted, but based on a number of surviving sources in the UK and US archives I think we can be certain that the factories noted in Table 1 (left margin) are the only ones used for production vehicles. Then continue with the "A report to DGAFV....
Page 16, Para 5. I now think that only these factories/depots were used. So delete paragraph.
Page 16, Para 6. "after "the 6-pdr was considered" insert "to be", before "as good as" on Page 17. Then on Page 17 insert "APC" after "17 pdr". Some corespondents have queried this. Regrettably I will trust the men who were there at the time on this one. After all they were only expressing a preference, rather than some definitive statistically provable fact. This view comes from them and is not something that author or the publisher or designer put in for some kind of dramatic effect. The story of the Sherman Firefly has enough drama, without making anything up!
Page 17, Para 1, half a blank line has been inserted into the text, thus Line 4, should read "...so 6 pdr Cromwells..." rather than having "so" and a big gap until Line 7.
Page 19, Para 1, Line 20, insert "man" between 140 and "hours".
Below Para 20, delete last sentence "Types other than M4's and M4A4's do not seem to have been used." Insert new paragraph:
The United States has a number of M4A3 tanks converted as part of the eighty tanks it eventually took on charge. Some were wet stowage and some dry stowage, with low and high bustle turrets. A very few had HVS. More information is coming to light on this at the time of writing. The vehicles are not however very important as they did not see combat and what use was made of them is at this juncture unknown, but some occupation duty work in Germany seems to be the most use that was made of them.
Page 20, Para 1, Line 2. After "Duplex Drive conversions." Insert that as far as is known only about seven such Shermans were given to the UK.
Page 20, Para 3, Line 6. Insert a "," after "units".
Page 20, footnotes. Delete the "," after "Tracklink" and the "," after "No 41".
Page 21, Para 2. In light of the new US information. I think now that the twenty "partially completed" - Line 3. Should be counted as complete. But there is still nothing to offer a conclusion if the US one hundred were included within the 2,139 production figure. I think they were now, but that is conjectural only at this stage. Thus replace "partially completed with "completed, but not required and held at Hayes for allocation to UK."
Page 21, Para 4, Line 4, replace "Achilles" with "M10 17 pdr". Line 5. Replace "Archer" with "Valentine 17- pdr".
Page 23 Para 1, this opening sentence has been changed. It should read: " In 21st Army Group in NW Europe the Firefly entered service in April/May 1944, just in time for D Day with perhaps some 200 plus being with units on D Day itself."
Page 23, Para 1, Line 8. Replace "Western-Allied" with "British or American".
Page 28, Para 2, Line 6. Insert 76mm W's after "the M4A1".
Page 30 and 31
Peter Brown informs me that the 1st Derbyshire Yeomanry were part of 6th Armoured Division and had Shermans and were the Divisional; Armoured Recce regiment. Noting that in 21st Army Group such units had Cromwells for the most part. I rechecked the file (WO 204/7445) and it does state that the 1st DY did not have any Fireflies. In fact it only had 75mm Shermans (forty six (46) M4A2 Sherman III). The Armoured Regiments had Fireflies as stated (eight (8) each) M4 IC or M4A4 VC, 105mm (six (6 )each) (M4 1B), 76mm (thirty eight (38)), M4A1 W IIA. HQ 6 Armoured Division also had seven (7) 75mm M4A2 Sherman III and HQ 26 Armoured Brigade ten (10) 75mm M4A2 Sherman III. This information was the estimated figure at 1st April. It was to be desired that the number of Fireflies would increase to twelve (120 as soon as numbers permitted. These would supplant 75 and 76mm tanks, but in the "amd regt", no mention is made of allocating any to the 1st DY. This suggests that the Firefly shortage was to blame and that the need for heavy anti tank support (or hole punchers as the files of the time call them) was less, than for the main armoured regiments.The 6th South African Armoured Division included in the table, does not distinguish an Armoured Recce regiment, it had one earlier. But none is listed at this Spring 1945 date. What seems to have happened as the table notes is that its Armd Recce regiment (the Natal Mounted Rifles) had "recently been reorganised as an infantry Battalion".
Page 34, Para 1, Line 9-11. Delete sentence "It seem clear...conversion facilities". Insert. "This last ditch official programme for US forces in North West Europe took place at some of the British conversion facilities, including Hayes in Middlesex (greater London)."
Page 35. Amend as it is now confirmed by Joe Demarco from documents in the USNA, that the units Fireflies came from British Commonwealth stocks and were not part of the special US conversions.
Page 36-37. Weapon performance tables.
These have been subject to a lot of comment and there is too much detail to record here. But in essence the corespondents have been saying that they dispute the data in the tables. I would wish to make the following points:
My thanks go to Charles Markuss for much new information on weapon performance and for the others who have commented on this section of the book.
Page 39, Para 3, Line 16. Delete "It's" and replace with "its", which is of course correct - arrgghh the curse of the aberrant apostrophe!
Page 42, header - note me honest guy's! "Serman IC" should of course be replaced with "Sherman IC". I hope you like the grouping of the comparative stowage sketches, which has not been done before. Nice one from the designer Mike as this is his doing and not mine. He also cleaned them up to make them presentable for printing.
Page 47. Para 1. At the end insert:
"Plus the United States conversions on M4A3 Dry and Wet stowage tanks, plus some with HVS.
Page 47, Para 2, Line 11-13. Delete from the sentence starting "The obvious..." M4A3". This whole paragraph and section needs major re writing and additions. There is also new information to confirm that the Oilgear traverse was essential to the conversion as was the M34A1 mantlet. The latter two points could help to explain the lack of M4A1 and M4A2 conversions.
Page 49, Para 3, last line. Delete last sentence as this only applies to British use.
Page 51, Para 3, Line 8. Phil Greenwood points out that this is misleading, as "The original muzzle brake did not allow the clean separation of the SABOT. The shot itself did not touch the muzzle as you implied" Thus delete "affected the bore of the gun, not the baffles" and replace with Phil's quote instead.
Page 56, Para 1. Delete "." and insert at end of paragraph; "and none saw combat.
Page 58, Para 1, Line 19. I misunderstood a letter from Peter Brown and Christopher Grey was not a wartime member of 1st RTR, but served in the 1980's, when he wrote to Peter. I had misunderstood the context. I apologise most profusely to Peter and to Mr Grey for this faux pas.
Page 59, Para 4, Line 1-2. Insert "(" before "because" and ")" after "screen"
Page 60-61.
One error has crept in to the table and I don't know how it did, for the 8th Armoured Brigade, the Nott's Yeomanry (Sherwood Rangers) is listed as having Cromwells. This is incorrect as the 8th was totally Sherman equipped. I have also been asked to point out that some people think the text confusing and indicating that Armoured Brigades had Armoured Recce Regiments. I am not sure that it does, but just in case anyone is confused. "Armoured Brigades did not have Armoured Recce Regiments." Thanks to Peter Brown and Julian for pointing this idiocy out.
Page 63, Para 4., Line 7. Insert "the" after "provide".
Page 63, Para 4, Line 8. Replace "Fireflies" with "Firefly's".
Page 65, Caption to Photo 21. Add before photo ref. at end. "Note the similarity to the vehicle on Page 19. Thanks to Robert Tomlin for that point.
Page 67, Para 1, Line 7. Delete "destroy" and replace with "destroyed".
Page 69, Para 3. Last line. Replace "peterred out" with "petered out ".
Page 69, Para 4, Last line insert "(" before "probably" and ")" after "Panthers".
Page 71, Para 2, Line 2. Delete "censor" and replace "censored".
Page 74, Caption to Table 30, Line 2. Delete "sane" with "same". Sane is hardly a word one can apply to war.
Page 75. Photos 31 and 32. The captions did not come out as I intended and therefore do not make sense. What I wanted them to say was;
Two VC Fireflies probably of 33rd Armoured Brigade taken in Normandy (the only Sherman unit in Normandy, with a marking like this) near "Lebisey", which is just north of Caen. The tank to the upper left has a Sherman V stowage box, plus another box on the engine deck above it. Like so many Fireflies another stowage box is fitted on the rear of the radio box. It also does not have a turret pistol port. Photo by "Sgt Mapham", taken "8 Jul 44". IWM B6639. The caption for the upper photo says "27th Armd Brigade" and this is possible as repaired tanks could be swapped around units without being remarked as need dictated. Photo taken by "Sgt Christie 9 Jul 44". Gamers should note the amount of dust kicked up by the tank to the left, showing that even in Europe dust can be a give away for vehicle movement. In most model scales ground artists pastel sticks can be used to simulate the dust. Tank "37" can also be seen in video clips that often crop up in WW2 documentaries. IWM B6751.
They make more sense as a pair and that, is how it was written.
Page 78, Caption to Photo 35. The original quote from the caption was changed, thus it now reads the same as what is likely to be the correct location. This makes the whole thing look stupid. The original caption spelt the place name as "St Martin des Besares". This should replace the first use of "St Martin des Besaces" in the caption.
Page 80, Caption to photo 4, Line 2. Replace "grill" with "grille".
Page 81, Caption to Photo 42, Line 10. Insert "Appliqué" after "The" and "plates".
Page 83, Para 1, Line 4. Delete "Fireflies" and replace with "Firefly's".
Page 83, Para 3, Line 1. Insert "," after "Brigade" and before "the".
Page 85, Para 2, Line 2. Delete "the" (third word in from left).
Page 86, Para 3, Line 3. Insert "," after "brigade" and before "the".
Page 91, Para 1, Line 2. Insert "," after "closed" and before "following".
Page 93, Para 1, Line 5. Insert "bins" after "armoured".
Page 94, Para 3, Line 4. Delete "," after "forces" and before "US". Plus the "," on Line 5 after "French".
Page 96, Para 1, Line 12. Insert ""supply" after "lengthening".
Page 98, Para 5, Line 7. Insert after "(another" "note".
Page 103, Para 1, Line 8. Delete "probably ICs and Hybrids, based on the few available photographs."
Page 104, Para 2, Line 8. Delete "not known for sure". Also insert ")" after Shermans) deleting the ",". Thus it would now read 3 RTR (probably a Firefly if the brigade did not pick up a 75mm Shermans.) fire on the Germans....
Page 105, Para 4, Line 2. Delete "a" at beginning of line.
Page 106, Para , Line 12. Delete "that".
Page 107, Caption to Photo 63. Delete "probably" between "This vehicle" and "has the".
Page 110, Para 4, Line 2. "wars" should read "war's".
Page 120. Un-crop photo 83, to show the ICH to the right of the photo and mentioned in the caption.
Page 122. Sgt Moat interview. Para 4, Line 3. Insert "to" after "type due" and before "the ease".
Page 122, 2nd column. The metric figures are wrong (not me Guv! As I work in imperial for the most part if the original uses them). The figures in Yards are correct.
Page 124, also see pages 30 and 31.
Page 30 and 31
Peter Brown informs me that the 1st Derbyshire Yeomanry were part of 6th Armoured Division and had Shermans and were the Divisional; Armoured Recce regiment. Noting that in 21st Army Group such units had Cromwells for the most part. I rechecked the file (WO 204/7445) and it does state that the 1st DY did not have any Fireflies. In fact it only had 75mm Shermans (forty six (46) M4A2 Sherman III). The Armoured Regiments had Fireflies as stated (eight (8) each) M4 IC or M4A4 VC, 105mm (six (6 )each) (M4 1B), 76mm (thirty eight (38)), M4A1 W IIA. HQ 6 Armoured Division also had seven (7) 75mm M4A2 Sherman III and HQ 26 Armoured Brigade ten (10) 75mm M4A2 Sherman III. This information was the estimated figure at 1st April. It was to be desired that the number of Fireflies would increase to twelve (120 as soon as numbers permitted. These would supplant 75 and 76mm tanks, but in the "amd regt", nomention is made of allocating any to the 1st DY. This suggests that the Firefly shortage was to blame and that the need for heavy anti tank support (or hole punchers as the files of the time call them) was less, than for the main armoured regiments.The 6th South African Armoured Division included in the table, does not distinguish an Armoured Recce regiment, it had one earlier. But none is listed at this Spring 1945 date. What seems to have happened as the table notes is that its Armd Recce regiment (the Natal Mounted Rifles) had "recently been reorganised as an infantry Battalion".
Page 127, Para 2, Line 7. Insert "largely" after "been" and before "used".
Page 130, text box on Typhoons and Hurricanes. Line 8. "cannon" has been mis-spelt "canon".
Page 134, Para 4, Line 2. Delete "," after "history" and replace with ";".
Page 145. Caption to photo 107. This needs completely rewriting due to the new information on US Fireflies. Perhaps:
Delete Line 1; "Proof of an M4A3 Firefly (of a sort)"
After "a fully functional test vehicle", insert; "It may not have had anything to do with the production M4A3 conversions made in the UK."
Page 146, Para 1, Line 6. After "1975-1976". This photo has also been placed in the mid 1950's since this text was written.
Page 146, Para 2. Insert at the end of the paragraph: "More information can be found on Lebanese Fireflies at : http://web.inter.nl.net/users/spoelstra/g104/lebanon.htm" or the link is on the authors web site.
Page 147, Para 1. My speculation that the 105mm guns in the Argentinean tanks were as in the M51 was mistaken. Peter Brown tells me that the gun "is the same FRT L44/57 type as on late AMX 13's, not the cut-down CN-105-51 used on the M51, which came from AMX 30 and the conversion is far less involved than the M51 and also on a 75mm not a T-23 series turret.
Page 148, Para 3, Line 5. Replace the first "you" with "them" and the second "you" with "they".
Page 151. Bottom caption delete "As wartime combat vehicles the M4A2 was not converted to C standard as far as is known." Add in after "removed." "to make way for the hull ammunition bins." Also replace "these" in the first line with "such".
Page 151, Bottom caption, replace "make" in the last line with "produce". Add after this more photos on the next page of this vehicle.
Page 152. New text. "Above and right; Photos 117 and 118", caption is on the previous page."
P158, Caption to photo 137. "replace "grill" with "grille".
P160, Caption to photo 144. "replace "grill" with "grille". P162, Caption to Photo 150. Delete "casting" and replace with "cast".
P163, Caption to Photo 153. Insert "Right the" before "three" - de-capitalising "Three".
P163, Caption to Photo 154. Insert "left" at beginning. Delete "1:35".
P163. Caption to photo 155. This has got totally screwed up! It should read:
155. A close-up of the pressed steel ribbed road wheel and VVS bogie common to most Sherman VCs. Note the intricate sprocket and all the little details on the VVS arms, that some kits don't capture too well. Note that many Fireflies had a far simpler sprocket style. Fortunately Tamiya and Italeri/Dragon offer these as options in their Sherman kits (baring the Tamiya M4A3)"
Photo 184. "replace "grill" with "grille".
Page 174, general caption, Line 12. Add "armour" after "appliqué".
P176. Sherman expert Joe DeMarco has advised that a couple of the serials may not be right thus:
T-331402 - on my original list I took from WO 205/641 as a VC I am afraid. Without going back to PRO I can't check it any more at the moment. T-350210 - I will have to do a lot of checking to see where this one came from, but if its not from the lists in the above file, it came from a photo if memory serves.
The others seem to match Joe's knowledge of British T numbers.
Page 177, Table 52. For some reason unknown to myself the table now does not make a lot of sense. The key problem is that while the table is designed to show Sherman VC statistics, with for comparison a normal 75mm Sherman V and the IC. On line 1,9,10,11,18,19,26. "VC" has been inserted rather than "V". This regrettably makes a nonsense of the table. Also on the 5th line "centre of last road wheel" has been duplicated under the figures on the right hand side.
Page 189, Caption to IC plans. Delete, "access panels" and replace with "armoured covers over the ventilation holes".
"Quickfit" is wrong as its "Quickfix".
P192, Matchbox VC review. Insert after "PK 172" Morris C8/17 Pdr and Jeep kit."
Page 205, Para 2, left column, delete "M4A2s" and replace with "M4A2".
Page 206. From Delete "All a modeller can do...modeller at the moment" Replace with the following;
"All a modeller can do is to refer to a photograph of a real tank and model that particular example. There are decal sheets from accurate Armour, Finger Print Designs and Archer Fine Transfers, but compared to the rich variety available to the aircraft modeller, the amour modeller is poorly served.
One quick fault. P210, War data No 6. Delete "The source on Israeli Shermans" - the Gannon book is the new standard.
P212. Glossary. Add to the HVAP bit on the right hand column;" Also known as Armour Piecing Composite Rigid or APCR."
Insert "HVS - Horizontal Volute Suspension. Used on some US conversions. This system with three bogies with four road wheels each replaced the two wheel VVS bogies on late Shermans. The sprocket, idler and return rollers were also different and it used T66 and T80 tracks (T66 most likely for Firefly conversions in 1945).