For those looking for hard core tank enthusiast evaluations of the Movie FURY with historical backgrounds, check out the following links from the World of Tanks electronic game web site —
Chieftain’s Hatch - Fury: Battling German Die-Hards
http://worldoftanks.com/en/news/pc-browser/21/hatch-fury-battling-german-die-hards/
The Chieftain’s Hatch: Fury’s Tiger Standoff
http://worldoftanks.com/en/news/pc-browser/21/TCH_Fury_Sherman_Tiger/
The Chieftain’s Hatch: Creating “Fury”
http://worldoftanks.com/en/news/pc-browser/21/The_Chieftains_Hatch_Fury/
And for a further background on German Panther tanks versus M4 Sherman’s, see:
The Chieftain’s Hatch: French Panthers
http://worldoftanks.com/en/news/pc-browser/21/chieftains-hatch-french-panthers/
A bit of FURY irony from the G104 Sherman tank collector’s newsgroup on Yahoo —
“Ironically, not an M4A3 in the set, which is what would have most likely been serving at that time in the US Army.”
Adrian Barrell, whose M4A4 was used in the movie, posted the following on Missing-Lynx a few days ago:
“Fury is an M4A2(76)HVSS
Matador is an M4(105)HVSS with a 76mm turret and gun and re-engined with a Mercedes diesel. It also has part M4 engine decks and doubled as Fury when the Tank Museums Sherman died on set.
Old Phyllis is an M4A1(76)
Lucy Sue is an M4A2
Murder Inc is my M4A4 (Adrian’s)
There were also two more M4A4s, a Grizzly and an M4(105)HVSS for various scenes.”
Sherman tank note:
The M4 and M4A1 had a gasoline fueled radial aircraft engine. These were the primary US Army Sherman through the summer of 1944. The M4 had welded hull armor and the M4A1 had cast hulls.
The M4A2 had a pair of diesel engine on a common drive shaft. They were used by the USMC and the Russians via lend lease.
The M4A3 had a 450 HP Ford eight cylinder gasoline engine. It was lend lease to the British but became the primary US Army Sherman after the Summer of 1944.
The M4A4 was a Sherman that had five car engine mounted together to feed the same drive shaft. It was a Lend lease only tank and the British were its primary users.
A notation like this: “M4(76)W HVSS”
Would be for a late production M4 radial engine powered Sherman armed with a 76mm gun, having “horizontal volute suspension” with 24 inch wide tracks, and 76 mm gun ammunition stored in anti-freeze and water filled (”W” for “wet”) jackets.