US Army Fireflies

[Charles M]

Since hypothetical encounters and weapons systems that never actually saw action can be created in WinSPWW2, I am surprised that no Sherman Fireflies are included in the American OB list, which is not exactly overlong. Obviously a player can buy British Fireflies by adding allied units to a game's OB, but there should really be US Fireflies for hypothetical scenarios. Had the war lasted even a little longer, it is likely that US Army Fireflies would have seen action. The UK was asked to supply, initially, 160 Fireflies by converting 75mm M4s and (especially) M4A3s with wet stowage, although at least one M4A3 with dry stowage was converted. Britain also supplied 12 M4 Fireflies from its own stocks to the US 755th Tank Battalion in Italy. Although the initial order for 160 Fireflies was halved when it became obvious that the war in Europe was ending, a document dated 26th May 1945 stated that 86 Fireflies (M4 and M4A3) were in theatre in N.W. Europe. The First and Ninth US armies were allocated 40 each, all being completed by 7th April 1945; the last three being shipped from the UK on 10th May. Perhaps we will see these added to the American OB in the future.

Sources:

Mark Hayward, Sherman Firefly, Barbarossa Books, Tiptree, 2001
David Fletcher, Sherman Firefly: New Vanguard # 141, Osprey Publishing, Botley, 2008
John Sanders, The Sherman Tank in British Service 1942-45, Vanguard # 15, Osprey Publishing, London, 1982
Steven J. Zaloga, The Sherman Tank in US and Allied Service, Vanguard # 26, Osprey Publishing, London, 1982
Steven J. Zaloga, M4 (76mm) Sherman Medium Tank 1943-65, Osprey Publishing, Botley, 2003

[Mobhack]

The American OOB is rather full

The US fireflies were issued and then quickly supplanted

Thier only use would be as a scenario item, or some player might want them in a campaign. The way to do that is via the allies page. That wont allow core units in a LC, but they did not stick around anyway.

[MarkSheppard]

I've run across something.

https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digi...3coll8/id/3394

Page 10 of the PDF, the 755th Tank Battalion in Italy, their report from 11 APR 1945 to 2 MAY 1945.

Between 19 and 22 April, we drew fifteen (15) 17 pounder M4 tanks, seventeen (17) M4A3's and seventeen M4's. Seventeen (17) M-24 light tanks were drawn on 20 and 21 April, and assigned to D Company.

..

27 April.....One platoon of Company D, in support of 168 Infantry, took 700-1000 prisoners. Heavy resistance, including self propelled enemy artillery, was encountered. He made use of his single attached 17 pounder.

So it does look like the US made use of at least one (1) 17 pounder M4 in Italy.

I smell a custom scenario?

EDIT: Another 755th report:

https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digi...3coll8/id/3476

Page 98:

The Battalion had been reequipped with Medium Tanks M4 and M4A3, one company of 17 pounders (British guns) and one company of M24 light tanks and concentrated in the vicinity of MODENA, on highway 9, ready to support the attack of the 34th Infantry Division down that highway.

Page 99:

27 April 1945. "Company [illegible] with one platoon of Company B and the 105mm Howitzer SP Section, supported the 135th Infantry Regiment. Small arms and self propelled artillery fire were received. Two of our tanks and one 105mm were knocked out by SP fire. [illegible] knocked out one 88mm gun. Company B with one platoon of Company D attached in support of the 133rd infantry Regiment, knocked out three Mark IV tanks, meeting resistance and taking 700 to 1000 prisoners.

http://www.34ida.org/images/133inf/4504.txt

133d Infantry, 34th ID:

27 April [1945]

FIRST BATTALION:
0330 hours - Troops moving northward toward the Po River are held up by
the Molina Canal between Fidenza and Busseto. Rifle troops cross on
foot, but vehicles must take long way around to find a vehicular bridge,
0700 hours - Column reforms just south of Busseto.
1200 hours - Battalion established in Zibello (P953105), 5 kilometers
northeast of Busseto. Company B reconnoitering to the Po River.
Companies A and B engaged in fire-fight with enemy near river.
2000 hours - Battalion assembles in Busseto. Company B reconnaissance
group met heavy self-propelled fire.
2400 hours - All elements assembled and bivouaced in Busseto.

SECOND BATTALION: (The following report is based on an account by
Second Lieutenant Ronald C. Davis, Company H.)

After midnight patrols were sent to clear the houses in S. Pietro
in Cerro; one German was captured. He said that the enemy forces
were moving a short distance in front of the battalion. He also
declared that another German regiment would be through the town
before daylight. During this time a farmer came to the command
post and informed the battalion commander that there were 50 enemy
in his house who wished to surrender. Captain Gray of Company F
and a group of enlisted men went to the house and took in custody
a German lieutenant and his 49 men, together with their baggage,
wagons and draft horses.

At the battalion rear command post near Cortemaggiore (K797088),
meanwhile, contact was being made with the enemy forces reported
by the prisoner taken earlier. Members of the battalion
Headquarters Company at the rear command post watched a column of
Germans, with many wagons and artillery pieces, march past the
door of the building they occupied, almost on the heels of our
troops now only a few minutes [3 km.] ahead in S. Pietro in Cerro.
First Lieutenant Ralph Lager, transportation officer, and his
driver were surprised and surrounded in the darkness by the enemy
column. Lieutenant Lager was wounded in the leg, later losing his
limb, and the driver was killed by machine-pistol fire. The
officer, despite his painful wound lay quietly until the Germans
gave up their search for him. Second Lieutenant John Decker,
battalion S-2, succeeded in telephoning a partial account of
events to Lieutenant Colonel Horan before the Germans found and
cut the communication wire. Captain Edward H Meany, Jr.,
battalion S-1, then led a group of Headquarters Company men in
harassing the tail of the enemy column, scattering the rear
elements and causing many observed casualties in the half-light of
approaching dawn.

At the battalion forward headquarters in S. Pietro in Cerro,
Lieutenant Colonel Horan quickly deployed his troops to meet the
oncoming hostile forces. Company E, commanded by Captain Allan W.
Sudholt, took up positions in the outermost buildings to the south
in S. Pietro in Cerro. Companies F and G spread out in other
buildings of the town. Two 57-millimeter anti-tank guns were
emplaced by members of the Anti-Tank Company platoon, one pointing
south directly at the approaching enemy, and the other aimed
eastward along another possible route of hostile approach. Heavy
machine guns manned by Company H men were placed in supporting
positions on the open road.

Company E soldiers were instructed not to begin firing until the
enemy's advance units had passed our outposts, as it was hoped
that the sight of our troops in defensive position in the heart of
the town might convince the enemy that surrender would be the best
course to follow. A German soldier, however, turned into the
courtyard of a Company E building and there saw one of our light
machine guns, manned by weapons platoon men. He raised his
machine-pistol to fire, but was killed instantly by our soldiers.
The sound of the shooting was the signal for our 57-millimeter
road block and our machine guns to go into action. The dawn was
lighted up by the yellow flash of the 57-millimeter piece firing
southward into the enemy troops, and by the machine guns firing
eastward and southward. Pandemonium reigned on the roads: the
Germans fled to the fields, where they took cover in the ditches
and in farm buildings, and to the houses on the southern edges of
the town. But, although numerically fewer, the Company E
infantrymen withstood the onrushing Germans with every weapon at
their disposal. The enemy line took shape: a great semi-circle,
with the greater part of the enemy in buildings to the south of
the village, while other groups moved northeast and northwest in
flanking movements. The intensity of their fire increased;
artillery pieces of varied caliber began firing into the town. A
series of rushes by 10 to 20 Germans were repelled. Enemy
hollow-charge weapons battered the building from which our men
fired. Falling stone and brick injured some of the men, but
everybody stayed at his post and the Germans were held off.

In the center of S. Pietro in Cerro, there was bedlam in the
neighborhood of the battalion command post. The leading troops of
the German column, which had almost reached the command post
before our firing started, were scattered in heaps of dead and
wounded, the latter screaming in agony. The few who escaped the
withering blasts begged our soldiers to lift fire. This was done,
and a dozen prisoners stumbled into the courtyard of the command
post with their hands up.

In the meantime, Lieutenant Colonel Horan had informed Regimental
Headquarters of the block he had thrown across the path of the
German column. A call for reinforcements was made, together with
an urgent request for tanks. In response, the Regimental
commander dispatched "Company S", consisting of 121 men hastily
recruited from the supply, kitchen, and clerical personnel of the
Regiment. To relieve the besieged battalion they, along with five
light tanks, went through Cortemaggiore, where they took seven
prisoners. Commanded by Captain William Dubinsky, assistant
Regimental S-4, the relieving group engaged the rear of the enemy
line and took in custody 350 prisoners out of the total of about
750 who were surrounded by the Second Battalion in S. Pietro in
Cerro.

Learning of the serious situation confronting the Second
Battalion, the Third Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel
Marchi, swung quickly from its path near Villanova sull' Arda,
[east] of S. Pietro in Cerro, and raced toward the town to aid its
sister unit.

In the central buildings of S. Pietro in Cerro two 81-millimeter
mortars were placed in firing position in front of the command
post. Observers in the upper windows, aided by radioed
corrections from Captain Sudholt, directed nearly 300 rounds of
mortar fire at attacking bands of Germans attempting to over-run
our outer positions. Incoming German artillery shells menaced all
the troops. Platoons from Companies F and G fanned out to meet
the enemy units flanking our central position. Our men in the
outer buildings of the town were meanwhile taking the initiative.
Noting the casualties caused by our mortar fire on the enemy,
Captain Sudholt directed his Company E men to move out. Employing
rifle grenades against the doors and automatic weapons on the
personnel, they swept the Germans out of building after building.

At this point, a 151st Field Artillery Battalion observer with the
[2nd] battalion commander finally made contact with his battery
fire-control headquarters. By careful adjustment, he brought his
battery to bear on soldiers south of the town, in some cases
hitting buildings less that 100 yards from the men of Company E.
Under this punishment - artillery falling on them from the rear
(our guns were still in position in country to the south, over
which the Second Battalioneers had passed earlier) - the German
attack began to weaken. Our troops pressed their advantage:
groups of five and ten prisoners were taken with increasing
frequency. The flying column of the Third Battalion and armor
rolled into town [from the east] and the situation was relieved,
the appearance of "Company S" [from the south] completely broke
the German will to fight. Prisoners taken numbered 738, including
11 officers. Much equipment was captured. Our casualties were
two killed, 17 wounded.

[MarkSheppard]

And this has led me down a rabbit hole -- the 755th did some interesting things, like an amphibious joint operation with the UK in April 1945 as well:

https://web.archive.org/web/20150201...on_Impact.html

[DRG]

Yes and that is why in the next release the Brit OOB has this which was used as support at Comacchio


and yes these kinds of things are best left for scenarios

[DRG]

[DRG]

Originally Posted by MarkSheppard

And this has led me down a rabbit hole -- the 755th did some interesting things, like an amphibious joint operation with the UK in April 1945 as well:

https://web.archive.org/web/20150201...on_Impact.html

This as well ..

After action report, 755th Tank Battalion (M), Dec 43-Aug 44, Oct 44, Jan 45, Feb 45, Apr 45.

https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digi.../id/3868/rec/1