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I thought that you may be interested to see a photo of 17pdr HE shells being loaded into a Canadian Firefly. The photo is NAC PA-113696 and the original caption reads:

“Sherman' tanks of the 4th Canadian Armoured Division shelling German position near the Dortmund-Ems Canal, Germany, 8 April 1945.�



Note the tracks used as extra armour.

I hear the 17 pdr had the same complaint as the Panther, namely a notably lackluster HE shell. I suppose higher tube pressures meant thicker-walled shell bodies, which meant smaller HE filling. That was the one saving grace of the Sherman 75 and T34 76.2 guns. The shells had a bit of an oblique 'artillery' heritage. Thier AT was lackluster but at least their HE had plenty 'o bang.

Someone posted the numbers back on the old board

As I remember it from best to worst it was

90mm (M36 & M26)
75mm (Sherman)

76.2 & 3" (Sherman, M10)



17pdr (Firefly)

The gaps represent my memory of the scale of difference. I'll have to see if I saved that data somewhere

It may be a bias but I have noticed that british HE shells seem to have smaller fillers than comparable American, French and German shells. I'm working from spotty sources and poor memory but that is the impression I've always had

It is my understanding that there was more than one type of 17pdr HE shell. I downloaded the page below from another web site, however I don’t remember where.



One had a higher explosive content the other, however, because it used a lower propellant charge the cartridge case would not eject and had to be manually extracted, thus reducing the rate of fire.

It looks like the picture with the 17pdr HE shell is even more complicated. So far I’ve have found the following types of shells:

Shell HE Mk 1/T
Shell HE/T/HC
Shell HE/Super/HC Reduced Charge
Shell HE reduced charge with Tracer & Time Fuze.

But basically it comes down to there being two main types of 17pdr HE Shells.

The first weighted 16.9lbs and had about the same MV and trajectory as the AP shot. This was so the gunner could use the same range settings on his sights for both types of rounds. These came into use in 1943. It is claimed that these shells are inferior to the 75mm HE Shell of the Sherman because of their poor fragmentation pattern. However, it should be noted that these 17pdr Shells were intended for use against fortifications, i.e. concrete busting, and not as an anti-personnel weapon.

The second type weight 15.4lbs. It is the same HE shell as used with the British 3in 20cwt AA Gun, but fitted to the 17pdr cartridge with a reduced propellant charge. These shells were used in the indirect fire role and could be fitted with a time fuze (from the AA gun) for air bursts. (Note that for the 77mm gun on the Comet the 17pdr AP ammo was fitted to the cartridge case from the 3in 20cwt AA gun.) Below are photos of some firefly tanks being used as field artillery:

Also from Hunnicutt, "Sherman"

Here are some photos I took showing the sight mounts for the 17pdr A/T gun. Note that it has mounts foe both a telescopic for direct fire and a panoramic dial sight for indirect fire. The bottom two photos show the range scales. You can see that there are scales for three types as ammunition as follows:

APCBC FULL
2900 F.S.

AP SV/DS
3950 F.S.

HE/Mk 2 T
FUZE No 244 1800 F.S.

There is a lot of information concerning the 17pdr gun along with its ammunition on David Boyd’s site.

www.wwiiequipment.com/...under.aspx