Originally posted by Furball
How come it is M4, and not Firefly? or Fire? or FiFy? or FrFly? or FirFly?
AFAIK, even if the British were using an American tank, it still retained its numeric moniker. For example, the M3 "Lee" was slightly modified for the British and became the the M3 "Grant". Even the British tanks had numeric designations: The Matilda was the A12, the Churchill was the A22, the Comet was A34, etc.
Even if I am wrong (who knows anymore), think about the future . . .
The Ta-152 shows up as a "190" until close enough to be identified separately. The Tempest shows as a "Typh" until it gets close.
So, it would follow, that any M4 chassis would show as "M4" until you are close enough to identify it as a specific variant. Imagine seeing 6 M4s on a battlefield, not knowing until you are close enough in your jabo of choice to pick out "FRFL" from "M4A3" from "M4105" from whatever. Same could go for the PzkwIV if they ever decided to do multiple variants (Pnzr becoming PzH, PzC, PzF, etc.).
Well, ok, multiple variants of GVs are probably not going to happen in my lifetime . . . but a guy can dream!