Origins
The concept of fitting a 17 pounder gun into a Sherman tank had initially been rejected by the Ministry of Supply's Tank Decision Board. Although the British Army had made extensive use of the American-built Sherman tank, it was intended that a new generation of British tanks would replace it in the anti-tank role. First there was the Cromwell tank, which was expected to use the Vickers High Velocity 75mm gun; this gun would have had superior anti-tank performance to the US 75mm and 76mm guns that were mounted in the Sherman. The second was the A30 Challenger which was based on the Cromwell but with the even more powerful 17 pounder gun. These two tanks - and their successors, the Comet and the Centurion, which were already on the drawing board - were to have replaced the Sherman in British service, and so the prospect of spending time and money mounting a 17 pounder on the Sherman was not seen as desirable.
Nonetheless several unofficial attempts were made to upgun the Sherman. The earliest attempt can be credited to Major George Brighty of the Royal Tank Regiment while he was at Lulworth Armoured Fighting School in early 1943. Despite the fact the A30 Challenger was undergoing initial trials at Lulworth, Brighty was convinced that the Sherman was a better mount for the 17 pounder. However he was stymied by the turret of the Sherman, which was too small to allow for the very long recoil of the gun. In a rather desperate move, Brighty removed the recoil system and locked the gun in place, thus forcing the entire tank to absorb the recoil, but this was a far from ideal situation and there was no telling how long the tank would have been able to handle such a set-up.
Around June 1943, a colleague of Brighty, Lt. Col. George Witheridge of the Royal Tank Regiment, arrived at Lulworth. A veteran of the North Africa campaign, Witheridge had experienced firsthand the lopsided battles between British tanks armed with 2 pounder guns against Rommel's formidable panzers and anti-tank guns. During the disastrous Battle of Gazala in mid 1942, Witheridge had been blown out of his Grant tank, and though he recovered from his wounds, he was declared unfit to return to combat duty. Instead, in January 1943, he was posted to Fort Knox in the United States for six months to advise on gunnery, where he was "sold" on American tanks. While at Lulworth, Witheridge inspected the A30 Challenger, and "joined in the chorus of complaints" about the tank. Upon looking up Brighty and learning of his attempts to use the Sherman, Witheridge lent his assistance. He advised Brighty on methods to solve the recoil issue.
Not long after, Witheridge and Brighty received a notice from the Department of Tank Design (DTD) to cease their efforts. Unwilling to abandon the project, Witheridge, using his connections with such influential people as Major General Raymond Briggs, former GOC of the 1st Armoured Division in North Africa and now Director of the Royal Armoured Corps, and successfully lobbied Claude Gibb, Director General of Weapon and Instrument Production at the Ministry of Supply, to make it an official ministry project. In doing so, the endeavour was taken out of the hands of the highly enthusiastic and devoted amateurs at Lulworth who had initiated it and given to professional tank developers.
Read more about this topic: Sherman Firefly
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