Okay, lets shoot this lame horse. Shall we?
I played with a few pis for comparison reasons between the questionable U.S. 17pdr and a true British 17pdr. Understand that the pic I chose for the British 17pdr is certainly not the best example of one, but for this purpose it was the best because of the photo's angle to compare with the US version.

The first pic is of the questionable US 17pdr.


The second pic is of a true British 17pdr.


The third pic shows the US version with a vertical red line to show the barrel's length and a clipped turret and barrel from the British tank. Note that the British tank clip is of a smaller scale than the US version.


The fourth pic shows the clipped British pic placed just above, but in-line with the US tank's. Watch the red line.


The fifth and final pic shows the British turret and barrel in the same position as the US tanks would be. Notice now the barrel of the 17pdr is longer than the US tanks. Also remember that the British clip is of a smaller scale than the US one so the British barrel would actually be even longer.


I did not play with a 76mm nor a 75mm barrel, but it is in my opinion that the US tank is mounting a 76mm with a muzzle brake wrap.

Lame horse? If I'd have known flame war ws gonna start I wouldn't have started this post

No need to take it that way Zod sir. It certainly has proven to be a thread of great interest. I was simply attempting to to finalize the discussion on whether or not that is a U.S. Firefly.
No flame war here.

Flame war? I don't think so -- we've all remained civilized and are bouncing around theories. I think it's kind of fun. I was a photojournalist for quite a few years and also helped do a bit of photo interpretation back in the day -- believe me when I say that light and shadow can play tricks on our eyes, especially in black and white photos.

The problem is with our original photo -- it's a bit soft (i.e. out of focus) and printed very high contrast -- lots of the gray scale is missing. From the size of the visible grain, I'd guess it's a blown-up detail from a much larger original. We've floated a few theories out there and tried to support our favorites while discounting those theories we reject. Unless someone comes up with a higher-quality version of this image, we'll probably never all agree about what we see or think we see. I certainly wouldn't try to build a model based on this photo.

This has been fun. I think we had all already come to the conclusion that it wasn't a 17 pdr though?
The discussion in the last few posts was centred around whether or not it was a 75mm with an antennae pot, or a 76mm with a muzzle brake or wrap. I don't know about you gents but I've learned a hell of a lot from this thread by having to look things up in books etc. Great fun! Thanks!

Vinnie

interesting debate,

dont know about any flame war.

cheers

joe