Of course, if it is just a simple observation, then there is no need to let an armored team like Andre come over, but just directly select a group of 'spectators' from the upper echelons of the official residence. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Since Andre was chosen as the representative of the observation, it means that his team will also contribute to the battle. The 217 Squadron formed by him and Trode's squad is to focus on annihilating the opponent's 'Firefly' medium tanks in this battle.

The "Firefly" medium tank is a modification of the M4 series tanks of the US army, and due to the different models before the modification, there are also some differences in defense and mobility capabilities. However, in terms of firepower, it is equipped with a 17-pounder gun produced by the British army, which is also a really good main gun that the British army has been able to come up with since the beginning of the war, but even so, it is still a little weak in the face of the ever-changing main guns of the Soviet Union and Germany.

However, as long as there is an advantage in troops, there is indeed no shortage of 'fireflies' who are 'good at destroying the enemy'. Especially compared with the various M4 series used by the U.S. military itself, the probability of winning in the face of German heavy armored combat vehicles is far higher. In addition, the 'Firefly' always has a numerical advantage, so the 'Firefly' can always go around the flank of the German army to carry out sneak attacks, and the 17-pounder gun is quite good in this regard.

And when the 'Firefly' is preached, then the 17 pounds it carries is a topic that is absolutely impossible to be bypassed, after all, the birth of the 'Firefly' is a product of the British Army's exploration of the 17-pound motorization.

Although the British 17-pounder gun was only 76.2 mm caliber, this was only a small margin larger than the 75 mm caliber commonly used in German medium tanks, and had the same caliber as the Soviet 76.2 mm gun. However, the power of these three is difficult to completely compare with each other, except for the 75 mm KwK42L/70 gun used in the German V. Leopard tank, it is indeed difficult to compete with the main gun in this caliber. Therefore, the "Firefly" is relatively equal to the armor level of the T-34 in armor level, which is better than that of the IV. At the same time, it also firmly surpasses the first two in terms of main gun capabilities, although the power is not as great as the new Soviet production tank T-34-85, but it is a solid victory in armor-piercing ability.

(PS: This gap will be even greater when the Firefly uses shell-piercing shells.) ）

And when it comes to the success of 'Firefly', in fact, it is not all accidental, after all, it can be combined into such a masterpiece in a limited equipment, and if there is no foundation for just an idea, it will definitely not work at all. And the 'firefly' is naturally the result of a good car with a good gun.

Speaking of good cars, perhaps most of the Soviet and German soldiers who fought against Sherman would not think that they could be associated with a 'good car' once. However, when Sherman compared with the German Army's 'Army Horse' IV, he did win a little in general, which was more reflected in its reliability and compatibility.

Different from the difficulty of upgrading and improving the IV tank, Sherman has a considerable reserve for improvement and excellent reliability, so it is much easier to modify and upgrade than the IV, which has led to the emergence of an extremely large and complex model in the M4 series. The 17-pounder gun, which was not a product of the Americans, could be loaded into the Americans' M4 relatively smoothly, and on the other hand, the British-produced Cromwell could not complete this task due to the limitations of the turret, and as for its improved version, the A30 Challenger, he could only look at the 'Firefly' and sigh again and again in terms of test parameters and the feasibility of mass production.

In this way, for a time, the 'Firefly' became the absolute darling of the British armored troops. They were tired of the sluggishness and bulkiness of infantry tanks and the lack of firepower of cruiser tanks, and the 'Firefly', a 'freak' formed by the combination of the equipment of the two countries, was like a savior, so that the British army could often make a big profit on the German armored forces during the counteroffensive for a period of time.

Of course, after seeing that their own Sherman had become a weapon to defeat the enemy by skillfully modifying it in the hands of the British, the Americans were naturally a little greedy. However, the Americans, who had a strong family, were not satisfied with the level of the "Firefly" like the British, but found another way to create their own new generation of chariots. Of course, this is all a later story, and it has nothing to do with this battle, so I won't mention it for the time being......

Looking back at the 'Firefly', its otherworldly firepower, in addition to the excellent performance of the 17-pounder gun itself, the shell is naturally also an important factor. In contrast to the hood-piercing, cap-piercing, and hood-cap-piercing shells used by tanks in the warring countries at this time, the Firefly is equipped with an armor-piercing shell (APDS), which disintegrates after being discharged, leaving only a hard tungsten inner core to shoot towards the opponent. In addition to attacking targets with a smaller contact surface like the Hard-Core Armor-Piercing Projectile (APCR), it can also concentrate kinetic energy on a tungsten core, which can have a greater armor-piercing capacity than the latter.

However, this kind of shelled armor-piercing projectile (hereinafter referred to as APDS) also has certain disadvantages, that is, after its launch, the smaller tungsten core inside is more susceptible to interference from external factors due to its light weight, which makes it easier to deviate from the target than other types of ammunition. This also leads to the fact that although APDS has the armor-piercing ability to destroy German tanks at a long distance, its accuracy has not reached the level of matching the armor-piercing ability, which has to be said to be a big embarrassment of the 'Firefly'.

In addition, another major embarrassment surrounding the 17-pounder gun on the "Firefly" is about the power of the grenade - although it is superior in armor-piercing ability, it is regrettable that the modified 17-pounder gun "Firefly" is not as effective as the M4 Sherman, which uses a 75mm gun without modification, when it uses grenades to attack unarmored targets. Not only that, but in terms of recoil, the Firefly is also much larger than the M4, and even the smoke from firing will obscure the view many times, which makes the Firefly more often a deliberate performance hand that only targets armored targets.

And this has a certain similarity with the T-34/57 that Andrei once used......