The new Zealanders in Italy often felt uneasy crewing the Firefly because the Allied Air Forces (I did'nt say the Americans
) were given a quick method of identifying Allied/German tanks. All Allied tanks:- the gun barrel does'nt protrude past the front of the tank, All German tanks:- the gun barrel overhangs the front of the tank. Therefore if it has a gun barrel overhanging the glacis, shoot it up. This is probably a handy guide if you are skimming over rooftops in a fighter plane and only have milliseconds to recognise a target, but does'nt apply to a Firefly, or indeed the profusion of German self-propelled artillery and assualt guns with short barrels.
Obviously, the small numbers of Fireflies on the ground in that theatre were not enough to create an exception to the rule, or to generate a reputation for themselves as fine AFV's.