The "background" chat is what draws me to this channel. Keep up the good work, lads. On the history side, iirc it was a Firefly (or several Fireflies) that finished off Wittman (the Tiger ace).
John, the green/blue 45 is the arm of service marking for a divisional armoured recon regiment, in armoured divisions they were usually equipped with Cromwell tanks.
In terms of 'acquring' a Sherman, I bet the designer got hold of a damaged one, like the vehicle which crashed off the bridge into the relatively shallow River Evenlode at Burford in Oxfordshire, before DDay in May 1944. It took months to get out as the heavy lifting gear was earmarked for Normandy. Still remembered in the town. I have a pic. Enjoyed the content.
Tank destroyers weren't treated as artillery as we think of artillery today. They were used instead of the QF 6/17 pdr anti tank guns. 17pdrs were artillery and took about day to set up. They were thought to be too unamoured to be front line units so they were used as quick moving artillery pieces
The main reason that was only one firefly in a unit was due to the lead time running upto D day, which limited the number of fire fly produced. It was also offered to the yanks but was turned downed.
Fun fact the Irish army may have been the last Army to score a kill on a Firefly. I believe as the story goes during the crisis in the Lebanon in the 80s when the Irish where on peacekeeping duties they were attacked by a Christian militia who had a Firefly. The plucky Irish thinking on their feet as machine gun fire rained in used their main anti tank weapon at the time. A javelin missile thus scoring what maybe the only tank kill in recent Irish military history.
The loaders hatch was installed because if hit he couldn't get out. Would you be a loader? With the Shermans (and Fireflies) having armor deficiencies it was necessary to get the crews to fight. Purely for moral.
There's a comic anthology series called Battlefields that has a story about a Firefly tank crew. They start in a Churchill in "Tankies" in the first volume then get upgraded to a Firefly in "The Firefly and His Majesty" in the second volume.
![Warlord Plastic Firefly [28mm]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qA5nCh25xqA/mqdefault.jpg)
![Painting the Warlord Firefly [28mm]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VAHhjROFx3w/mqdefault.jpg)
The "background" chat is what draws me to this channel. Keep up the good work, lads. On the history side, iirc it was a Firefly (or several Fireflies) that finished off Wittman (the Tiger ace).
I absolutely love your "History Lessions" ! Thx guys, keep it up !
John, the green/blue 45 is the arm of service marking for a divisional armoured recon regiment, in armoured divisions they were usually equipped with Cromwell tanks.
In terms of 'acquring' a Sherman, I bet the designer got hold of a damaged one, like the vehicle which crashed off the bridge into the relatively shallow River Evenlode at Burford in Oxfordshire, before DDay in May 1944. It took months to get out as the heavy lifting gear was earmarked for Normandy. Still remembered in the town. I have a pic. Enjoyed the content.
The Firefly is next on my list of aquisitions for my British force (based on No. 10 (IA) Commando).
Tank destroyers weren't treated as artillery as we think of artillery today. They were used instead of the QF 6/17 pdr anti tank guns. 17pdrs were artillery and took about day to set up. They were thought to be too unamoured to be front line units so they were used as quick moving artillery pieces
Warlord really made a Firefly specific hull, glad I got the Rubicon vc instead. Edit: so few marking options compared as well.
The main reason that was only one firefly in a unit was due to the lead time running upto D day, which limited the number of fire fly produced. It was also offered to the yanks but was turned downed.
Great additional knowledge John!
Comet also had 17pdr as further short upgrade prior to introduction of Centurion
Fun fact the Irish army may have been the last Army to score a kill on a Firefly. I believe as the story goes during the crisis in the Lebanon in the 80s when the Irish where on peacekeeping duties they were attacked by a Christian militia who had a Firefly. The plucky Irish thinking on their feet as machine gun fire rained in used their main anti tank weapon at the time. A javelin missile thus scoring what maybe the only tank kill in recent Irish military history.
The loaders hatch was installed because if hit he couldn't get out. Would you be a loader? With the Shermans (and Fireflies) having armor deficiencies it was necessary to get the crews to fight. Purely for moral.
I wish you had more Bolt action content.
My Firefly is done, I just need the the Sherman V's to go with it.
Too bad there aren't any modern war films about the VC Firefly. Instead we have that weird monstrosity "Fury".
Fury is a good movie, the only issue is the biased luck the main characters get, The end is based off the actions of audie murphy.
a movie about the firefly would be a potato fest lol
There's a comic anthology series called Battlefields that has a story about a Firefly tank crew. They start in a Churchill in "Tankies" in the first volume then get upgraded to a Firefly in "The Firefly and His Majesty" in the second volume.
just out of curiocity, are these sprews PSC product? because they look similar to my eyes.
You need to make more videos like that. Even without the unboxing part. :)
great show!
great vid, cheers guys!
Green Blue is Armoured Recce
Firefly was more a result of the experiences in ITALY than that tiger you Brits talk so much about in that museum....This gets a partial FAIL!
pure british ?