Just out of curiousity, did the M4A2 ever get upgraded with the horizontal volute suspension system into the M4A2E8? How about the M4A4 into the M4A48? Or did the Firefly ever get HVSS either?

By this I mean into production versus one or two test prototypes.

i dont think so, i think only the M4A1 and A3 were built with it in any numbers.

i dont know about the A2, but most A4s went to british,with some going to the free french and chinese. hardy any british shermans had HVSS suspension, some 105 howitzer tanks were delivered late in 1945, and a handful of fireflies had it around the same time.

there is an article somwhere about fireflies with it by steve zaloga, i dont have the address unfortunately.

cheers

joe

Well I know for sure that there were M4A2E8's because Canada bought them after the war from the U.S. But when we deployed to Korea we left them at home and used American M4A3E8's over there.. As for the M4A4 I do know the Israelies did get some M4A4 used as Super Shermans(M-50's) with the HVSS road wheels. Now was this done by them or were they sent that way ...your guess is as good as mine.

Rick

There's a pic of an M4A2(76)W with HVSS in Hunnicutt. I don't think I've ever seen a Firefly with HVSS, but it may have been tested or prototyped.

The Israeli M50 certainly had an M4A4 hull with HVSS, but who made this conversion? Were they shipped to Israel that way or converted in-country? I suspect they were added in Israel, but perhaps someone who knows a lot more than I about Israeli Shermans can answer this question. I seem to remember also seeing small-hatched M4A1 hulls with HVSS in Israeli service.

Photos exist of lend lease M4A2s w/HVSS in service with the Soviets. Don't recall if they were in the final battles in Europe or during their employment in Manchuria at war's end. Definitely existed though.

Never designated as such, but yes. It was called the M4A2(76) HVSS or M4A2(76)(Wet) HVSS. Pretty much all the Shermans produced in 1945 were HVSS.




Nope. Production was complete in 1943.




Nope.

KL