Canadian Sherman Firefly VC....an old tanker's ride into hell.
Recently my wife's grandfather passed away. He served with A Sqn in the 8th New Brunswick Hussars(PL) during WW2.
He made it through Italy and then through Holland. He drove in Sherman
M3's, Stuarts (they nicknamed them Honey Tanks for their speed) and the
last tank he crewed was a Sherman Firefly VC.
Involved in many battles and seen the nasty end of a few Panthers and
Tigers made him appreciate his Firefly. I sat with him many times and
he'd tell me of his antics throughout the war and the things he saw and
the things that still bothered him. Unfortunately, with age came his
slow decay and his ability to speak, move was on the decline....so
getting any further information was not a priority, just making him
comfortable.
That being said, I have an old photo of him and the rest of the crew he
was with in the latter days of the war somewhere in Holland. He said he
thought it was somewhere near the northwest corner just before they
crossed into Germany.
This was all the prompting I needed to make this model and get back into the hobby after a 10+ year hiatus. I had to buy everything, airbrush, brushes, paints, thinners, PE tools, tweezers...the list goes on and on. I've made my local hobby shop owner a very happy man.
This build is an exact replica of his Sherman Firefly VC tank, however I only
have the rear left portion to go off of that clearly shows the nickname
of his tank, "Abegweit". I have gone off his memories from 20 years ago on the layout of his tank and the field mods they did and the order they were done. For instance, the 17 pdr turret being swapped out and them leaving the bow gun in for a couple of weeks before taking it out for more ammo stowage and the plates being welded on. This was also in his memoirs on audio tape that he made from the 70's.
His widow, my wife's grandmother, got rather
choked up to say the least when she saw what I was making when she
dropped by for a visit.
Made a home made stencil to paint on the tank's nickname of Abegweit,
but the darn thing didn't stay close enough to the hull when I fogged it
on. Oh, I realize that the nickname is spelled wrong but it was spelled
wrong on the actual tank!
As for the CT number, there are various positions they were on the tanks. Each unit had a different spot and there was absolutely no standardization at all. I've gone through Archives Canada and done tons of research and there are no definitive examples from his unit at all. Even Armour Acorn, an exceptional site, has nothing of relevance.
TANKS for looking.