I have seen pictures of M4A4 Fireflies, some with applique armor and some without. Since the Firefly had wet stowage, was the extra plating put on before the conversion to a Firefly, or did the crews add it for more protection?

Jesse

1) The Firely 17pdr ammo was NOT stored in "wet" bins.

2) The Firefly upgrade was made to existing M4A4s and M4s that were taken off of inventory. The presence of applique armor was solely dependent on the base M4A4s and M4s. Applique armor was NOT part of the upgunning to Firefly status (the 17pdr shells were below the turret basket so were not vulnerable as the previous 75mm gun tanks). If crews added more armor (such as plates or extra tracks), it was a personal or unit thing -- but not associated with the Firefly conversion process

3) The conversion pulled 75mm turrets off of M4A4s and M4s, upgunned them. And these newly armed turrets were sent back to awaiting hulls without regard to which tank was the donor. Thus you could have applique armored Firefly turrets mated with older M4A4s w/o side applique armor -- and vice versa.

Roy,
Thanks for the primer. Next time I'll do a little more research.

Jesse