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Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun

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Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60
Bofors L60 IWM England.jpg
British Bofors 40 mm L/60 on Mk VII, Priddy's Hard, Gosport, United Kingdom
TypeAutocannon
Place of originSweden
Service history
In service1934–present
Used bySee Users
WarsSee Wars
Production history
DesignerAB Bofors
Designed1930
ManufacturerBofors Defence (1932–2000)
Zastava Arms (1970–present)
Gun Carriage Factory Jabalpur (1960-present)
United Defense Industries (2000–2006)
BAE Systems AB (2006–present)
Produced1932–present
No. built>60,000 (L/60)[1]
VariantsSee variants
Specifications
MassL/60: 1,981 kg (4,367 lb)
LengthL/60: 6.5 m (21 ft 4 in)
Barrel lengthL/60: 2,400 mm (7 ft 10 in) barrel with breech
WidthL/60: 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in)
HeightL/60: 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in)
Crew4[2] (dependent on use)

Shell40 × 311 mm R
Shell weight0.9 kg (2 lb 0 oz)
Caliber40 mm
Barrels1 or 2[2]
ActionAutomatic extraction and integrated cam-operated recoil powered autoloader
BreechVertical sliding-wedge
Carriage522 kg (1,151 lb)
ElevationL/60: −5°/+90°, 55°/s
TraverseFull 360°, 50°/s
Rate of fire140 round/min at low elevation angles
120 round/min at high elevation angles
Muzzle velocityL/43: 700–730 m/s (2,300–2,400 ft/s)
L/60: 850–880 m/s (2,800–2,900 ft/s)
Maximum firing range7,160 m (23,490 ft)

The Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60 (often referred to simply as the "Bofors 40 mm gun", the "Bofors gun" and the like,[3][4] see name) is an anti-aircraft autocannon, designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. The gun was designed as an intermediate anti-aircraft gun, filling the gap between fast firing close-range small calibre anti-aircraft guns and slower firing long-range high calibre anti-aircraft guns, a role which previously was filled by older outdated guns. The Bofors 40 mm L/60 was for its time perfectly suited for this role and outperformed competing designs in the years leading up to World War II in both effectiveness and reliability.[5][3]

It entered the export market around 1932[5] and was in service with 18 countries by 1939.[6] Throughout World War II it became one of the most popular and widespread medium-weight anti-aircraft guns. It was used by the majority of the western Allies and some Axis powers such as Nazi Germany and Hungary.

In the post-war era, the Bofors 40 mm L/60 design was not suitable for action against jet-powered aircraft, so Bofors developed a new 40 mm replacement design with significantly more power — the Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70, also known under the generic name 'Bofors 40 mm gun' — which was adopted by many nations during the Cold War and was selected as NATO-standard in November 1953.[7] The Bofors 40 mm L/60 would however continue to see service long after becoming obsolete as an anti-aircraft weapon due to the massive number of surplus guns from WWII, and a small number of Bofors 40 mm L/60 guns remain in service today. Some weapons saw action as late as the Gulf War and Yugoslav Wars.

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Anti-aircraft warfare

Anti-aircraft warfare

Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action". It includes surface based, subsurface, and air-based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements, and passive measures. It may be used to protect naval, ground, and air forces in any location. However, for most countries, the main effort has tended to be homeland defence. NATO refers to airborne air defence as counter-air and naval air defence as anti-aircraft warfare. Missile defence is an extension of air defence, as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight.

Autocannon

Autocannon

An autocannon, automatic cannon or machine cannon is a fully automatic gun that is capable of rapid-firing large-caliber armour-piercing, explosive or incendiary shells, as opposed to the smaller-caliber kinetic projectiles (bullets) fired by a machine gun. Autocannons have a longer effective range and greater terminal performance than machine guns, due to the use of larger/heavier munitions, but are usually smaller than tank guns, howitzers, field guns or other artillery. When used on its own, the word "autocannon" typically indicates a non-rotary weapon with a single barrel. When multiple rotating barrels are involved, such a weapon is referred to as a "rotary autocannon" or occasionally "rotary cannon", for short.

Bofors

Bofors

AB Bofors is a former Swedish arms manufacturer which today is part of the British arms manufacturer BAE Systems. The name has been associated with the iron industry and artillery manufacturing for more than 350 years.

Allies of World War II

Allies of World War II

The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy. Its principal members by the end of 1941 were the United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, and China.

Axis powers

Axis powers

The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Germany, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan. The Axis were united in their opposition to the Allies, but otherwise lacked comparable coordination and ideological cohesion.

Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70

Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70

The Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70,, is a multi-purpose autocannon developed by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors during the second half of the 1940s as a modern replacement for their extremely successful World War II-era Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun-design. It was initially intended as a dedicated anti-aircraft weapon, being sold as Bofors 40 mm Automatic A.A. Gun L/70, but has since its conception been redeveloped into a dedicated multi-purpose weapon capable of firing both sabot projectiles and programmable ammunition. The Bofors 40 mm L/70 design never achieved the same popularity and historical status as the original L/60 design but has still seen great export and popularity to this day, having been adopted by around 40 different nations and even being accepted as NATO-standard in November 1953. It is still being produced and sold, and several variants exist for both field and naval applications. A notable variant is the Bofors 40/70B "light armoured vehicle variant" which is in use on the Swedish Strf 9040 and Korean K21 infantry fighting vehicles.

Gulf War

Gulf War

The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led Liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.

Yugoslav Wars

Yugoslav Wars

The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from the breakup of Yugoslavia, which began in mid-1991, into six independent countries matching the six entities known as republics which previously comprised Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia. Yugoslavia's constituent republics declared independence due to unresolved tensions between ethnic minorities in the new countries, which fuelled the wars. While most of the conflicts ended through peace accords that involved full international recognition of new states, they resulted in a massive number of deaths as well as severe economic damage to the region.

Name

The Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60 is known under a variety of names around the world. In common historical nomenclatures it is commonly known under the names Bofors 40 mm gun, 40 mm Bofors gun and Bofors gun.[3] This mostly stems from Western Allied usage of the gun during World War II, who commonly used the nickname 'Bofors gun' and the like. For example, British anti-air batteries armed with the gun during the war received the nickname "The Bofors Boys".[8] There were other guns by Bofors which also had these nicknames, the most common being the Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70, leading some to think they are the same gun.[9]

The naming problem originates at Bofors themselves, as they never marketed the gun and its variants with a clear standardized name or abbreviation, a rule of thumb going for all of their products.[10][11][12] In the vast majority of 1930s marketing material the gun is sold under a variety of descriptive names depending on the configuration, such as: "40 mm Automatic Field Gun L/60" to "40 mm Automatic A.A. Gun L/60 in Field Carriage" or "40 mm Automatic Naval Gun L/60" to "40 mm Automatic A.A. Gun L/60 in Naval Mounting". This theme transfers over to other languages as well: Swedish: 40 mm fältautomatkanon L/60, German: 40 mm feldluftautomatkanone L/60,[10] Spanish: Cañón automatico de campaña de 40 mm L/60 Bofors.[13] Only the caliber of 40 mm and caliber length of L/60 are somewhat universal in branding.

Due to this the gun is often specified by the calibre length "L/60".[14] Enthusiasts and experts usually call the gun "Bofors 40 mm L/60"[4] or simply "Bofors 40/60" and the like.[15][16][17] In some Bofors material the gun is standardized under the English name "Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60".[11][18]

Calibre length

Contrary to the name, the Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60 has an actual barrel length of 56.25 calibres – 2,250 mm (7 ft 5 in). Due to this the gun can at times be found under the designation "L/56".[19] The L/60 calibre length – 2,400 mm (94 in) – refers to the length of the barrel and breech mounted as a unit.[20] Historically, L/62 has also occurred as a calibre length for the gun on occasion. This refers to the length of the barrel – 2,250 mm – when equipped with the conical flash hider – 250 mm (9.8 in); amounting to a length of 2,500 mm (8 ft 2 in), or 62.5 calibres.[21]

Similarly the Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/43 also has several calibre lengths. The L/43 calibre length – 1,720 mm (5 ft 8 in) – refers to the length of the barrel and breech mounted as a unit.[21] The actual barrel length is 1,570 mm (5 ft 2 in) – 39.25 calibres.[21] With a flash hider or muzzle brake mounted the barrel length becomes 1,740 mm (5 ft 9 in)[21] or 1,760 mm (5 ft 9 in).[22]

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Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70

Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70

The Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70,, is a multi-purpose autocannon developed by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors during the second half of the 1940s as a modern replacement for their extremely successful World War II-era Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun-design. It was initially intended as a dedicated anti-aircraft weapon, being sold as Bofors 40 mm Automatic A.A. Gun L/70, but has since its conception been redeveloped into a dedicated multi-purpose weapon capable of firing both sabot projectiles and programmable ammunition. The Bofors 40 mm L/70 design never achieved the same popularity and historical status as the original L/60 design but has still seen great export and popularity to this day, having been adopted by around 40 different nations and even being accepted as NATO-standard in November 1953. It is still being produced and sold, and several variants exist for both field and naval applications. A notable variant is the Bofors 40/70B "light armoured vehicle variant" which is in use on the Swedish Strf 9040 and Korean K21 infantry fighting vehicles.

Bofors

Bofors

AB Bofors is a former Swedish arms manufacturer which today is part of the British arms manufacturer BAE Systems. The name has been associated with the iron industry and artillery manufacturing for more than 350 years.

Swedish language

Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken predominantly in Sweden and in parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, the fourth most spoken Germanic language and the first among any other of its type in the Nordic countries overall.

German language

German language

German, or more precisely High German, is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Western Europe and Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a co-official language of Luxembourg and Belgium, as well as a recognized national language in Namibia. Outside Germany, it is also spoken by German communities in France (Bas-Rhin), Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary (Sopron).

Spanish language

Spanish language

Spanish is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula. Today, it is a global language with about 486 million native speakers, mainly in the Americas and Spain. Spanish is the official language of 20 countries. It is the world's second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese; the world's fourth-most spoken language overall after English, Mandarin Chinese, and Hindustani (Hindi-Urdu); and the world's most widely spoken Romance language. The largest population of native speakers is in Mexico.

Caliber

Caliber

In guns, particularly firearms, caliber is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore matches that specification. It is measured in inches or in millimeters. In the United States it is expressed in hundredths of an inch; in the United Kingdom in thousandths; and elsewhere in millimeters. For example, a US "45 caliber" firearm has a barrel diameter of roughly 0.45 inches (11 mm). Barrel diameters can also be expressed using metric dimensions. For example, a "9 mm pistol" has a barrel diameter of about 9 millimeters. Since metric and US customary units do not convert evenly at this scale, metric conversions of caliber measured in decimal inches are typically approximations of the precise specifications in non-metric units, and vice versa.

Breechloader

Breechloader

A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front (muzzle).

Development

In 1922, the Swedish Navy purchased a number of 40 mm 2-pounder "pom-poms" from Vickers as anti-aircraft guns. The navy approached Bofors about the development of a more capable replacement, and Bofors signed a contract in late 1928. The company produced a gun that was a smaller version of a 57 mm (6-pounder) semi-automatic gun, developed as an anti-torpedo boat weapon in the late 19th century by Finspång. Bofors' first test gun was a re-barrelled Nordenfelt version of the Finspång gun, to which was added a semi-automatic loading mechanism.

Testing of the gun in 1929 showed that a problem existed with feeding the weapon to maintain a reasonable rate of fire. A mechanism that was strong enough to handle the stresses of moving the large round was too heavy to operate quickly enough to fire rapidly. One attempt to solve the problem used zinc shell cases that burned up when fired. However, that left heavy zinc deposits in the barrel and had to be abandoned. In the summer of 1930, experiments were conducted with a new test gun that did away with controlled feed and instead flicked the spent casing out the rear, after which a second mechanism reloaded the gun by "throwing" a fresh round into the open breech from the magazine. That improved firing rates to an acceptable level, so work on a prototype commenced soon after.

During that period, Krupp purchased a one-third share of Bofors. Krupp engineers began the process of updating the Bofors factories with modern equipment and metallurgy, but the 40 mm project was kept secret.

Finnish Bofors 40 mm. This gun mounts the original reflector sights, and lacks the gun shield found on British examples
Finnish Bofors 40 mm. This gun mounts the original reflector sights, and lacks the gun shield found on British examples

The prototype was completed and fired in November 1931 and, by the middle of the month, it was firing strings of two and three rounds. Changes to the feed mechanism were all that remained and, by the end of the year, the gun was operating at 130 rounds per minute. The development needed to turn it into a weapon suitable for production was completed in October 1933. Because acceptance trials had been passed the year before, it became known as the "40 mm akan M/32". Most forces referred to it as the "Bofors 40 mm L/60", although the barrel was actually 56.25 calibres in length, not the 60 calibres that the name implied.

The gun fired a 900 g (2.0 lb) high explosive shell at 2,960 ft/s (900 m/s) from a 40 × 311 rimmed cartridge.[23] The rate of fire was normally about 120 rounds per minute (2 rounds per second), which increased slightly when the barrels were closer to the horizon, because gravity assisted the feeding from the top-mounted magazine. Practical firing rates were closer to 80–100 rpm, because the rounds were fed into the breech from four round clips which had to be replaced by hand. The maximum attainable ceiling was 7,200 m (23,600 ft), but the practical maximum was about 3,800 m (12,500 ft).

The gun was provided with an advanced sighting system. The trainer and layer were both provided with reflector sights for aiming, while a third crew-member, standing behind them, "adjusted" for lead using a simple mechanical computer. Power for the sights was supplied from a 6V battery.

British 40mm L/60 includes the British-designed Stiffkey Sight, being operated by the gun layer standing on the right. The layer operates the trapeze seen above the sights, moving them to adjust for lead. The loader stands to the layer's left, and the two trainer/aimers are sitting on either side of the gun
British 40mm L/60 includes the British-designed Stiffkey Sight, being operated by the gun layer standing on the right. The layer operates the trapeze seen above the sights, moving them to adjust for lead. The loader stands to the layer's left, and the two trainer/aimers are sitting on either side of the gun

In spite of the successful development, the Swedish Navy changed its mind and decided it needed a smaller hand-traversed weapon of 13 mm-25 mm size, and tested various designs from foreign suppliers. With the development of the 40 mm well advanced, Bofors offered a 25 mm version in 1932, which was eventually selected as the Bofors 25 mm M/32.

The first version of the 40 mm the Swedish Navy ordered was intended for use on submarines, because the larger calibre allowed the gun to be used both as an anti-aircraft gun, and against smaller ships. The barrel was shorter, at 43 calibres, which reduced the muzzle velocity to about 700 m/s (2,300 ft/s). When not in use, the gun was pointed directly up and retracted into a watertight cylinder. The only known submarines that used that arrangement were the Sjölejonet-class boats. The guns were later removed when the submarines were modified with streamlined conning towers.

The first order for the "real" L/60 was made by the Dutch Navy, which ordered five twin-gun mounts for the cruiser De Ruyter in August 1934. Those guns were stabilized using the Hazemeyer mount, in which one set of layers aimed the gun, while a second manually stabilized the platform the gun sat on. All five mounts were operated by one fire-control system.

Bofors also developed a towable carriage, which was displayed at a show in Belgium in April 1935. That mount allowed the gun to be fired from the carriage with no set-up required, although it had limited accuracy. If time was available for set-up, the gunners used the tow-bar and muzzle lock as levers, raising the wheels off the ground and so lowering the gun onto supporting pads. Two additional legs folded out to the sides, and the platform was then levelled with hand cranks. The entire set-up process could be completed in under a minute.

Orders for the land-based versions were immediate, starting with one for eight weapons from Belgium in August 1935, followed by a flood of orders from other forces including Poland, Norway, and Finland.[24] It was accepted into the Swedish Army the next year, and known as the "40 mm lvakan m/36", the lower-case "m" indicating an army model as opposed to the capital "M" for the navy.

The Swedish navy adopted the weapon as the m/36 in two versions: hand-worked single air-cooled, and power-operated twin water-cooled. A twin air-cooled mounting, probably hand-worked, was also used by the navies of Sweden and Argentina, and a twin air-cooled wet mounting was developed for Polish submarines.

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QF 2-pounder naval gun

QF 2-pounder naval gun

The 2-pounder gun, officially the QF 2-pounder and universally known as the pom-pom, was a 40 mm (1.6 in) British autocannon, used as an anti-aircraft gun by the Royal Navy. The name came from the sound that the original models make when firing. This QF 2-pounder was not the same gun as the Ordnance QF 2-pounder, used by the British Army as an anti-tank gun and a tank gun, although they both fired 2 lb (0.91 kg), 40 mm (1.6 in) projectiles.

Cartridge (firearms)

Cartridge (firearms)

A cartridge or a round is a type of pre-assembled firearm ammunition packaging a projectile, a propellant substance and an ignition device (primer) within a metallic, paper, or plastic case that is precisely made to fit within the barrel chamber of a breechloading gun, for the practical purpose of convenient transportation and handling during shooting. Although in popular usage the term "bullet" is often informally used to refer to a complete cartridge, it is correctly used only to refer to the projectile.

Krupp

Krupp

The Krupp family was a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, noted for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG, was the largest company in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, and was the premier weapons manufacturer for Germany in both world wars. Starting from the Thirty Years' War until the end of the Second World War, it produced battleships, U-boats, tanks, howitzers, guns, utilities, and hundreds of other commodities.

Caliber (artillery)

Caliber (artillery)

In artillery, caliber or calibre is the internal diameter of a gun barrel, or, by extension, a relative measure of the barrel length.

Reflector sight

Reflector sight

A reflector sight or reflex sight is an optical sight that allows the user to look through a partially reflecting glass element and see an illuminated projection of an aiming point or some other image superimposed on the field of view. These sights work on the simple optical principle that anything at the focus of a lens or curved mirror will appear to be sitting in front of the viewer at infinity. Reflector sights employ some sort of "reflector" to allow the viewer to see the infinity image and the field of view at the same time, either by bouncing the image created by lens off a slanted glass plate, or by using a mostly clear curved glass reflector that images the reticle while the viewer looks through the reflector. Since the reticle is at infinity it stays in alignment with the device to which the sight is attached regardless of the viewer's eye position, removing most of the parallax and other sighting errors found in simple sighting devices.

Bofors 25 mm M/32

Bofors 25 mm M/32

The Bofors 25 mm M/32 was a Swedish designed and built light anti-aircraft gun that was used aboard ships of the Swedish Navy during the Second World War.

HSwMS Sjölejonet (1936)

HSwMS Sjölejonet (1936)

HSwMS Sjölejonet was the lead ship of a class of nine naval submarines in the service of the Swedish Navy from just before World War II into the early Cold War. The submarines were ordered in response to the rising German threat to the south in the interwar period. Sjölejonet remained in service until 1959 and was sold for scrap in 1962.

Royal Netherlands Navy

Royal Netherlands Navy

The Royal Netherlands Navy is the naval force of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Cruiser

Cruiser

A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles.

HNLMS De Ruyter (1935)

HNLMS De Ruyter (1935)

HNLMS De Ruyter was a light cruiser of the Royal Netherlands Navy. She was originally designed as a 5,000 long tons (5,100 t) ship with a lighter armament due to financial problems and the pacifist movement. Later in the design stage, an extra gun turret was added and the armor was improved. She was the seventh ship of the Dutch Navy to be named after Admiral Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter.

Hazemeyer gun mount

Hazemeyer gun mount

The Hazemeyer gun mount was a stabilized naval gun mount for the Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft gun, used during World War II by the Royal Navy. It was eventually replaced by the STAAG gun mount.

Swedish Army

Swedish Army

The Swedish Army is the land force of the Swedish Armed Forces.

British versions

Army and RAF Regiment versions

Q.F. 40 mm Mk. 1 displayed at CFB Borden. This example mounts a Stiffkey Sight, and displays the additional armor protecting the gunners
Q.F. 40 mm Mk. 1 displayed at CFB Borden. This example mounts a Stiffkey Sight, and displays the additional armor protecting the gunners
Bofors gun on the Ley-class minehunter HMS Isis (1978)
Bofors gun on the Ley-class minehunter HMS Isis (1978)

The British Army had first examined the weapon in 1937, when it received a number of Polish-built examples for testing. They were known as the "QF 40 mm Mark I" (QF standing for "quick firing"). With a minor change to the flash hider, they were designated "Mark I/2". A production licence was acquired, and the gun was converted from metric to imperial measurements. Numerous changes were made to the design so that it was more suitable for mass production, because the original Bofors design was intended to be hand-assembled. Many parts were labelled "file to fit on assembly", requiring many man-hours of work to complete.

Testing showed that there was a serious problem with aiming the gun at high-speed aircraft. Although it could be trained quickly, aiming accurately while doing so proved difficult. In order to deal with that, the British introduced a complex mechanical analogue computer, the Kerrison Director, which drove the laying electrically. A three-man team operated the director by pointing it at the target whilst dialing in estimates for speed, range, and various atmospheric conditions. The director then aimed the gun using powered mounts, while a gunner loaded the clips. That eliminated the need for the lead-correcting reflector sights, which were replaced with a backup system consisting of a simple ring-and-post sight, known as a "pancake".

In that form, the "QF 40 mm Mark III" (Mk II was a designation used for a version of the naval "pom-pom" anti-aircraft gun), became the army's standard light anti-aircraft (AA) weapon, operating alongside their 3-inch 20 cwt and 3.7-inch heavy AA guns. Following the fall of France in 1940, the gun was considered so important to the defence of Britain that a movie, The Gun, was produced to encourage machinists to work harder and complete more of them. British production started slowly and, by September 1939 only 233 equipments had been produced. However, by the end of the war, the total production of British, Canadian and Australian factories numbered over 19,000. The peak production year was 1942, when British factories produced 5,025 and Canadian factories produced 1,311.[25]

Bofors L/60 sighting system, left side
Bofors L/60 sighting system, left side

In combat, it was found that the Kerrison was difficult to set up in many situations, as well as making logistics more complex, due to the need to keep its electrical generator supplied with fuel. In most engagements, only the pancake sights were used, without any form of correction, making the British versions less capable than those used by other forces. Eventually, an anti-aircraft gunnery school on the range at Stiffkey on the Norfolk coast, delivered a workable solution, a trapeze-like arrangement that moved the pancake sights to offer lead correction, operated by a new crew-member standing behind the left-hand layer. The "Stiffkey Sight" was sent out to units in 1943, arriving in Canadian units in the midst of the Battle of the Aleutian Islands. A final wartime change to the elevation mechanism resulted in the "QF 40 mm Mark XII". A much lighter, two-wheeled carriage was also developed for airborne use.

The army experimented with various self-propelled anti-aircraft guns based on various tank chassis. Changes to the breech for that role created the "QF 40 mm Mark VI", which was used on the Crusader tank to produce the Crusader III AA Mark I. The main self-propelled version of the Bofors was the gun mounted on a chassis derived from the Morris C8 "Quad" artillery tractor, which was known as the "Carrier, 30 cwt, SP, 4×4, 40 mm AA (Bofors)" or Morris-Commercial C9/B. Such guns were used in support of army divisions, to provide swift protection against air attack without the need to unlimber. They saw service in north-west Europe, where six SP Bofors of 92nd (Loyals) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, landed with the British 3rd Infantry Division on Sword Beach on D-Day, to protect the vital bridges over the Caen Canal and the Orne River (Pegasus Bridge and Horsa Bridge), shooting down 17 German planes. Later in the campaign, SP Bofors were used extensively for ground shoots as well as in an anti-aircraft role.

In British Army service, the Bofors found a highly specialised role: during the North Africa campaign, at the Second Battle of El Alamein, they were used to fire tracer horizontally to mark safe paths for units through the German minefields. That practice was further developed during operations in north-west Europe, where bursts of colour-coded tracer were used to define the axis of advance of different formations in large-scale night attacks.

The RAF Regiment was formed in February 1942, in response to the German capture of airfields with airborne troops in the Battle of Crete, which resulted in strategic defeat on the island by numerically inferior German forces. The formation of a dedicated airfield defence force included low-level air defence, in which the Bofors L60 — the same design as the Army version — was the principal weapon for the RAF Regiment's Light Anti-Aircraft squadrons in North Africa, Malta, Italy, the Balkans, the UK (including the allocation of fifty-two squadrons to Operation Diver defence against V-1 flying bombs in southern England), and north-western Europe (from Normandy landings through to the cessation of hostilities).

No 2875 Squadron RAF Regiment, employing the L60, became the first unit to shoot down a jet aircraft, a Messerschmitt Me 262, with ground-based anti-aircraft fire, at Helmond in the Netherlands on 28 November 1944. Although the Allied air forces had achieved air superiority by the Normandy landings, Advanced Landing Grounds continued to be high-priority targets for the Luftwaffe when the opportunity presented, and that ensured that the RAF Regiment's L60s continued to be heavily used. For example, on New Year's Day 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge, RAF Regiment Light Anti-Aircraft squadrons shot down 43 German aircraft and damaged 28 others during the Operation Bodenplatte attacks on eleven RAF forward airfields. There were insufficient guns available to equip the RAF Regiment squadrons in the Far East during the war, and they had to make do mostly with 20 mm Hispano and Oerlikon 20 mm guns.

A Light Anti-Aircraft field regiment (one with each infantry division) had 54 Bofors guns.[26]


After World War II, the RAF Regiment continued to employ the L60 as its principal anti-aircraft weapon until it was replaced by the L70 gun in 1957. The guns were deployed in the UK, Germany, Cyprus, the Middle East, and the Far East.

Naval versions

Single Bofors 40 mm Boffin mounting, displayed at CFB Borden. In 1996, museum pieces like this cannon were pressed back into service as the main armament of the Kingston-class minesweepers[27]
Single Bofors 40 mm Boffin mounting, displayed at CFB Borden. In 1996, museum pieces like this cannon were pressed back into service as the main armament of the Kingston-class minesweepers[27]

The Royal Navy also made extensive use of the Bofors. Its first examples were air-cooled versions quickly adapted for ships during the withdrawal from Norway. After the German invasion of the Netherlands in May 1940, the Dutch minelayer, HNLMS Willem van der Zaan, gave the navy its first example of a water-cooled gun on its Hazemeyer tri-axially stabilized mounting. Locally produced examples started arriving in 1942, known as the "QF 40 mm Mark IV" with twin-mounts, or the "QF 40 mm Mark V" with single mounts. The navy ran through a variety of versions of the basic Bofors gun over the war, including the Mark VII to Mark XI. The Royal Navy's home-grown light anti-aircraft weapon, the QF 2-pounder gun, also had a calibre of 40 mm, but was referred to as the QF 2-pdr.

In the Royal Navy guns and mounts were designated separately. The following mountings were used:

  • Mark I: twin mounting based on American design and using American-built guns, not widely fitted. Fitted for remote fire control.
  • Mark II: quadruple version similar to the Mark I
  • Mark III: a navalized version of the Army single mounting, hand worked elevation and training.
  • Mark IV: a tri-axially stabilized twin mounting, copied from, and usually known as, the "Hazemeyer". It had on-mounting fire control, and was usually fitted with Radar Type 282 to provide target range information.
  • Mark V: twin mounting, which superseded, and eventually replaced, the Mark IV, often referred to as the "utility" mounting. It was a simplified, unstabilised mounting based on the American twin mounting Mark I, and was designed for remote fire control.
  • Mark VI: a six-barreled weapon, feeding from large trays instead of clips, and designed for remote control from a dedicated radar-equipped director.
  • Mark VII: a single-barreled, hydraulically-powered mounting, that superseded the Mark III and entered service in 1945.
  • Mark IX: Mark VII mount modified for electrical power, as the Mounting Mark IX and, in that form, saw service in the Falklands War.

The Mounting Mark V (Mark VC for Canadian built examples) for the 20 mm Oerlikon and QF 2 pounder guns was also adopted initially as an interim mount for the Bofors. It was a single-barrelled mounting with hydraulic power, and was known as the "Boffin".

The final British Bofors mounting to see service was the "Stabilized Tachymetric Anti-Aircraft Gun" (STAAG), which was twin-barrelled, stabilised, and carried its own tachymetric (i.e. predictive) fire control system, based around the centimetre Radar Type 262, capable of "locking on" to a target. The mounting was heavy (17.5 tons) and the high-vibration of the gun mounting made it a poor location for sensitive valve electronics and mechanical computers. The STAAG Mark I carried the radar dish over the gun barrels, where it was subject to damage during firing so, on the STAAG Mark II, the set was shifted to the roof of the control cabin. STAAG was ultimately too difficult to maintain in the harsh environment of a warship and was replaced by the Mounting Mark V, with the fire control equipment located remotely, then by the single Mark VII and, ultimately, with the GWS20 Seacat missile system. The final version of STAAG was fitted to the RN Type 12 Whitby-class anti-submarine frigates and the Type 41 Leopard anti-aircraft and Type 61 Salisbury air direction frigates, completed from 1956 to 1958. HMNZS Royalist was also fitted with the STAAG Mk 2 during modernisation, completed in 1956. Initially, it had three STAAG CIWS, the STAAG in Q position was removed in 1960, but it carried two mounts until the end of its service in Southeast Asian waters, in 1965. In 1956 during the Suez Crisis, the crew of Royalist seemed to find the STAAG a reasonably effective anti-aircraft weapon in Operation Musketeer.

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CFB Borden

CFB Borden

Canadian Forces Base Borden, formerly RCAF Station Borden, is a large Canadian Forces base located in Ontario. The historic birthplace of the Royal Canadian Air Force, CFB Borden is home to the largest training wing in the Canadian Armed Forces. The base is run by Canadian Forces Support Training Group (CFSTG) and reports to the Canadian Defence Academy (CDA) in Kingston.

Ley-class minehunter

Ley-class minehunter

The Ley class was a class of inshore minehunter built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1950s. They had pennant numbers in the series M2001. Eleven ships were built in the early 1950s, most of which were subsequently disarmed and used as training vessels, RNXS tenders, URNU vessels etc.

Minehunter

Minehunter

A minehunter is a naval vessel that seeks, detects, and destroys individual naval mines. Minesweepers, on the other hand, clear mined areas as a whole, without prior detection of mines. A vessel that combines both of these roles is known as a mine countermeasures vessel (MCMV).

British Army

British Army

The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. As of 2022, the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkhas, and 28,330 volunteer reserve personnel.

Flash suppressor

Flash suppressor

A flash suppressor, also known as a flash guard, flash eliminator, flash hider, or flash cone, is a muzzle device attached to the muzzle of a rifle that reduces its visible signature while firing by cooling or dispersing the burning gases that exit the muzzle, a phenomenon typical of carbine-length weapons. Its primary intent is to reduce the chances that the shooter will be blinded in low-light shooting conditions. Contrary to popular belief, it is only a minor secondary benefit if a flash suppressor reduces the intensity of the flash visible to the enemy.

Metric system

Metric system

The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the definition of the International System of Units (SI) in the mid-20th century, under the oversight of an international standards body. Adopting the metric system is known as metrication.

Analog computer

Analog computer

An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved. In contrast, digital computers represent varying quantities symbolically and by discrete values of both time and amplitude.

Kerrison Predictor

Kerrison Predictor

The Kerrison Predictor was one of the first fully automated anti-aircraft fire-control systems. It was used to automate the aiming of the British Army's Bofors 40 mm guns and provide accurate lead calculations through simple inputs on three main handwheels.

Battle of France

Battle of France

The Battle of France, also known as the Western Campaign, the French Campaign and the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France during the Second World War.

Logistics

Logistics

Logistics is a part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the point of consumption according to the needs of customers. Logistics management is a component that holds the supply chain together. The resources managed in logistics may include tangible goods such as materials, equipment, and supplies, as well as food and other consumable items.

Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea, with The Wash to the north-west. The county town is the city of Norwich. With an area of 2,074 sq mi (5,370 km2) and a population of 859,400, Norfolk is a largely rural county with a population density of 401 per square mile. Of the county's population, 40% live in four major built up areas: Norwich (213,000), Great Yarmouth (63,000), King's Lynn (46,000) and Thetford (25,000).

Airborne forces

Airborne forces

Airborne forces are ground combat units carried by aircraft and airdropped into battle zones, typically by parachute drop or air assault. Parachute-qualified infantry and support personnel serving in airborne units are also known as paratroopers.

U.S. versions

Manufacturing

In order to supply both the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy with much greater numbers of the guns, Chrysler built 60,000 of the guns and 120,000 barrels through the war,[1] at half the original projected cost, and filling the Army's needs by 1943.[28] Over the lifetime of the production, their engineers introduced numerous changes to improve mass production, eventually halving the overall time needed to build a gun. Most of the changes were in production methods rather than the design of the gun itself.[28][29] York Safe & Lock also produced the weapons, though its attempts to coordinate drawings across the program were unsuccessful, and this responsibility was transferred to the Naval Gun Factory in July 1943.[30]

There were many difficulties in producing the guns within the United States, beyond their complexity ( 2,000 subcontractors in 330 cities and 12 Chrysler factories were used to make and assemble the parts). The drawings were metric, in Swedish and read from the first angle of projection. Chrysler had to translate to English, fix absolute dimensions, and switch to the third angle of projection. Chrysler engineers also tried to simplify the gun, unsuccessfully, and to take high-speed movies to find possible improvements, but this was not possible until near the end of the war.[28]

Naval

A MK 12 quadruple mount of Bofors guns fires from USS Hornet
A MK 12 quadruple mount of Bofors guns fires from USS Hornet

The United States Navy's Bureau of Ordnance purchased a twin-mount air-cooled example, spare parts and 3,000 rounds of ammunition directly from Bofors, which arrived in New York on 28 August 1940 aboard the Army transport USAT American Legion, which had evacuated 897 people, including members of the Norwegian royal family, through the Finnish port of Petsamo.[31] During that month another Dutch ship, the Van Kinsbergen, demonstrated the Hazemeyer mount to Navy observers. The gun was quickly chosen as the Navy's standard anti-aircraft weapon over the British 40 mm calibre, 2-pounder pom-pom; however, negotiations with Bofors for licensed production stalled when the Swedes requested airplane export and manufacturing licenses in return.[30] Reportedly, the Navy secretly imported a set of imperial designs from Britain and started production illegally. A formal contract with Bofors was reached in June 1941. The resulting Mark 1 and Mark 2 weapons were intended for the left and right side of a twin mount, respectively, and were adapted by Chrysler for water cooling.[28]

A twin Bofors 40 mm at Patriots Point
A twin Bofors 40 mm at Patriots Point

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the existing 1.1" (28 mm) quad mount and .50 caliber machine guns were determined to be inadequate against modern aircraft, and their replacement by 40 mm Bofors and 20 mm Oerlikon weapons was accelerated. The water-cooled version was used almost exclusively by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. The 40 mm quadruple mount was developed by essentially mounting two twin mounts side by side.[30] A major improvement was the addition of power operation to both twin and quadruple mounts. Essentially all US naval mountings were twin or quadruple. 40 mm weapons were eventually mounted on virtually every naval and armed auxiliary vessel larger than a small landing craft.[30] After the war, the 3"/50 caliber gun Mark 27 twin mount began to replace the Bofors, because the "VT" proximity fuse would not fit a 40mm projectile, and the 40 mm weapon was considered inadequate against the emerging anti-ship missile threat. The twin 3" mount was intended to be the same weight as the 40mm quad mount, but was somewhat heavier in practice, which had to be compensated for. Except on destroyers and new construction, the Navy was slow in phasing out the 40 mm gun, and it continued in active Navy service through the Korean War. It remained on inactive Reserve fleet ships at least through the early 1970s.[32]

The Navy's satisfaction with the weapons was demonstrated by their practice of telegraphing Chrysler Corporation with the serial numbers of guns when they shot down an aircraft.[28]

Army

U.S. Army 40-mm Automatic Gun, Anti-Aircraft, M1, on 40-mm Gun Carriage M2(A1)[33]
U.S. Army 40-mm Automatic Gun, Anti-Aircraft, M1, on 40-mm Gun Carriage M2(A1)[33]

In 1938 the United States Army introduced a 37 mm gun of their own design, but found it to be of limited performance. In early World War II, six British Bofors were imported for testing, along with Kerrison Predictor directors, and they proved to be superior in all areas. By the middle part of the war, most of the 37 mm guns had been replaced by the 40 mm.In U.S. Army and Marine Corps service, the single mount Bofors was known as the 40 mm Automatic Gun M1.[34] The U.S. version of the gun fired three variants of the British Mk. II high-explosive shell as well as the M81A1 armor-piercing round, which was capable of penetrating some 50 mm of homogeneous armor plate at a range of 500 yards. In the Army, each Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) auto-weapons battalion was authorized a total of thirty-two 40 mm guns in its four firing batteries.[35][36] Each U.S. Marine division had a "special weapons battalion" that included sixteen 40 mm guns; in early 1944 these were replaced with anti-aircraft battalions with twelve 40 mm guns. Marine defense battalions also used the 40 mm gun.[37] All of these unit types also included other AA weapons.

During World War II, the twin mount version of the gun was mounted on an M24 Chaffee tank chassis as the M19 Gun Motor Carriage. In the 1950s, the M41 Walker Bulldog tank was heavily modified into the M42 Duster with the same twin 40 mm mounting. After being largely withdrawn from service in the early 1960s, the M42 was re-introduced beginning in 1966 for the Vietnam War, where it was mostly used for ground fire support. Following the withdrawal from Vietnam in the early 1970s, the M42 was retained in National Guard service until finally retired in 1988.

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Chrysler

Chrysler

Stellantis North America, officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler, is one of the "Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automotive company Stellantis. In addition to the Chrysler brand, Stellantis North America sells vehicles worldwide under the Dodge, Jeep, and Ram nameplates. It also includes Mopar, its automotive parts and accessories division, and SRT, its performance automobile division.

Multiview orthographic projection

Multiview orthographic projection

In technical drawing and computer graphics, a multiview projection is a technique of illustration by which a standardized series of orthographic two-dimensional pictures are constructed to represent the form of a three-dimensional object. Up to six pictures of an object are produced, with each projection plane parallel to one of the coordinate axes of the object. The views are positioned relative to each other according to either of two schemes: first-angle or third-angle projection. In each, the appearances of views may be thought of as being projected onto planes that form a six-sided box around the object. Although six different sides can be drawn, usually three views of a drawing give enough information to make a three-dimensional object. These views are known as front view, top view and end view. Other names for these views include plan, elevation and section. When the plane or axis of the object depicted is not parallel to the projection plane, and where multiple sides of an object are visible in the same image, it is called an auxiliary view.

USS Hornet (CV-12)

USS Hornet (CV-12)

USS Hornet (CV/CVA/CVS-12) is an Essex-class aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy (USN) during World War II. Completed in late 1943, the ship was assigned to the Fast Carrier Task Force in the Pacific Ocean, the navy's primary offensive force during the Pacific War.

United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of its active battle fleet alone exceeding the next 13 navies combined, including 11 allies or partner nations of the United States as of 2015. It has the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, two new carriers under construction, and five other carriers planned. With 336,978 personnel on active duty and 101,583 in the Ready Reserve, the United States Navy is the third largest of the United States military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 290 deployable combat vessels and more than 2,623 operational aircraft as of June 2019.

Bureau of Ordnance

Bureau of Ordnance

The Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) was a United States Navy organization, which was responsible for the procurement, storage, and deployment of all naval weapons, between the years 1862 and 1959.

Pechengsky District

Pechengsky District

Pechengsky District is an administrative district (raion), one of the six in Murmansk Oblast, Russia. As a municipal division, it is incorporated as Pechengsky Municipal District. It is located in the northwest of the oblast, on the coast of the Barents Sea and borders Finland in the south and southwest and Norway in the west, northwest, and north. The area of the district is 8,662.22 square kilometers (3,344.50 sq mi). Its administrative center is the urban locality of Nikel. Its population was 38,920 (2010 Census); 46,404 (2002 Census); 59,495 (1989 Census). The population of Nikel accounts for 32.8% of the district's total population.

HNLMS Van Kinsbergen (1939)

HNLMS Van Kinsbergen (1939)

HNLMS Van Kinsbergen was a unique sloop of the Royal Netherlands Navy build by Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij. She served in the Dutch West Indies in 1940. Later, she served as escort vessel and survived World War II. She was decommissioned on 29 May 1959 and was sold for scrap on 19 May 1974.

Imperial units

Imperial units

The imperial system of units, imperial system or imperial units is the system of units first defined in the British Weights and Measures Act 1824 and continued to be developed through a series of Weights and Measures Acts and amendments.

Patriots Point

Patriots Point

Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum is located in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, at the mouth of the Cooper River on the Charleston Harbor, across from Charleston.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Attack on Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The United States was a neutral country at the time; the attack led to its formal entry into World War II the next day. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI, and as Operation Z during its planning.

Anti-ship missile

Anti-ship missile

An anti-ship missile (AShM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. A good number of other anti-ship missiles use infrared homing to follow the heat that is emitted by a ship; it is also possible for anti-ship missiles to be guided by radio command all the way.

Reserve fleet

Reserve fleet

A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed; they are partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed". In earlier times, especially in British usage, the ships were said to be "laid up in ordinary".,

Captured examples

In World War II Germany, the Wehrmacht used a number of Bofors guns which had been captured in Poland and France. The Kriegsmarine also operated some guns obtained from Norway. In German naval use, the gun was designated the "4 cm Flak 28", and was used aboard the cruisers Admiral Hipper and Prinz Eugen toward the end of the war.[38] Beginning in 1942, several E-boats were equipped with the Flak 28 to enable them to fight against British MGBs and MTBs on equal terms.

Germany also purchased a large number (200+) of Hungarian-made Bofors guns. In return, Hungary received a 75 mm PAK gun for every 4-5 Bofors. The Wehrmacht used Hungarian guns after German occupation of Hungary from late 1944. Most of them were lost during the fights in Budapest and Transdanubia.[39]

Japan captured a number of Bofors guns in Singapore and put them into production as the Type 5.

After the Continuation war the Soviet Union took possession of the Finnish coastal defence ship Väinämöinen, which was armed with four M/36 Bofors guns.

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Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy), and the Luftwaffe. The designation "Wehrmacht" replaced the previously used term Reichswehr and was the manifestation of the Nazi regime's efforts to rearm Germany to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted.

Kriegsmarine

Kriegsmarine

The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches, along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe, of the Wehrmacht, the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945.

German cruiser Admiral Hipper

German cruiser Admiral Hipper

Admiral Hipper was the lead ship of the Admiral Hipper class of heavy cruisers which served with Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1935 and launched February 1937; Admiral Hipper entered service shortly before the outbreak of war, in April 1939. The ship was named after Admiral Franz von Hipper, commander of the German battlecruiser squadron during the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and later commander-in-chief of the German High Seas Fleet. She was armed with a main battery of eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) guns and, although nominally under the 10,000-long-ton (10,000 t) limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displaced over 16,000 long tons (16,000 t).

German cruiser Prinz Eugen

German cruiser Prinz Eugen

Prinz Eugen was an Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, the third of a class of five vessels. She served with Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down in April 1936, launched in August 1938, and entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940. She was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy, an 18th-century general in the service of Austria. She was armed with a main battery of eight 20.3 cm (8 in) guns and, although nominally under the 10,000-long-ton (10,160 t) limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displaced over 16,000 long tons (16,257 t).

MÁVAG

MÁVAG

MÁVAG was the largest Hungarian rail vehicle producer. MÁVAG company was the second largest industrial enterprise after the Manfréd Weiss Steel and Metal Works in the Hungarian half of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. MÁVAG was the property of the Kingdom of Hungary. After World War II MÁVAG was nationalized, and "Királyi" ("Royal") was removed from its name.

7.5 cm Pak 40

7.5 cm Pak 40

The 7.5 cm Pak 40 was a German 75 millimetre anti-tank gun of the Second World War.

Siege of Budapest

Siege of Budapest

The siege of Budapest or battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement by Soviet and Romanian forces of the Hungarian capital of Budapest, near the end of World War II. Part of the broader Budapest Offensive, the siege began when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and German troops, was encircled on 26 December 1944 by the Red Army and the Romanian Army. During the siege, about 38,000 civilians died through starvation, military action, and mass executions of Jews by the far-right Hungarian nationalist Arrow Cross Party. The city unconditionally surrendered on 13 February 1945. It was a strategic victory for the Allies in their push towards Berlin.

Operation Spring Awakening

Operation Spring Awakening

Operation Spring Awakening was the last major German offensive of World War II. The operation was referred to in Germany as the Plattensee offensive and in the Soviet Union as the Balaton defensive operation. It took place in Western Hungary on the Eastern Front and lasted from 6 March until 15 March, 1945. The objective was to secure the last significant oil reserves still available to the European Axis powers and prevent the Red Army from advancing towards Vienna. It was a failure for Nazi Germany.

Singapore

Singapore

Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bordering the Strait of Malacca to the west, the Singapore Strait to the south, the South China Sea to the east, and the Straits of Johor to the north. The country's territory is composed of one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet; the combined area of these has increased by 25% since the country's independence as a result of extensive land reclamation projects. It has the third highest population density in the world. With a multicultural population and recognising the need to respect cultural identities of the major ethnic groups within the nation, Singapore has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. English is the lingua franca and numerous public services are available only in English. Multi-racialism is enshrined in the constitution and continues to shape national policies in education, housing, and politics.

Soviet Union

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national republics; in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as its capital as well as that of its largest and most populous republic: the Russian SFSR. Other major cities included Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Tashkent, Alma-Ata, and Novosibirsk. It was the largest country in the world, covering over 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi) and spanning eleven time zones.

Finnish coastal defence ship Väinämöinen

Finnish coastal defence ship Väinämöinen

Väinämöinen was a Finnish coastal defence ship, the sister ship of the Finnish Navy's flagship Ilmarinen and also the first ship of her class. She was built at the Crichton-Vulcan shipyard in Turku and was launched in 1932. Following the end of the Continuation War, Väinämöinen was handed over to the Soviet Union as war reparations and renamed Vyborg. The ship remained in Soviet hands until her scrapping in 1966.

Service use

Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/43

The Bofors 40 mm L/43 is a submarine variant of L/60 with retractable mounting, and using low propellant charge ammunition.[40][19][41]

Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60

The L/60 Bofors fitted to the  Kingston-class coastal defence vessel HMCS Nanaimo
The L/60 Bofors fitted to the Kingston-class coastal defence vessel HMCS Nanaimo
Twin L/60 dismounted from an Argentinian Drummond-class corvette which saw service during the Falklands War
Twin L/60 dismounted from an Argentinian Drummond-class corvette which saw service during the Falklands War
Gunnery practice on the aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney off Korea in 1951
Gunnery practice on the aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney off Korea in 1951

The L/60 remained in front-line service well into the 1980s and 1990s although it had replaced in production by the Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70, . In most cases, these were the ground anti-aircraft versions, as a suitable replacement in this role did not come along until the introduction of truly effective MANPADS missiles in the 1980s and 1990s.

In United States Army service, the M19 Gun Motor Carriage was replaced by the M42 Duster, using the same turret but based on the chassis of the M41 Walker Bulldog tank.

The L/60 saw active service with the Argentinian and British navies in the 1982 Falklands War and continued to be used into the 1990s, when it was replaced by modern 20 mm and 30 mm artillery.

The Canadian Forces removed the guns from their surface fleet in the late 1980s when they were considered to be outdated, only to re-use old Bofors guns as the main armament of the Kingston-class coastal defence vessel.[27] The Bofors served as the main armament for almost 20 years.[42] The decision to remove them was made in 2014, due to their maintenance burden, and their lack of stabilization.

As of August 2006, the French navy uses L/60s on more than twenty ships (patrols and auxiliaries). Ships of the Norwegian and Icelandic Coast Guards continue to use the 40mm Bofors gun. The L/60 continued in use in the Irish Army until recent years, when it was retired in favour of the radar-controlled L/70. The Irish Naval Service P20 class retained L/60s on board as their main weapon until the 1990s but were rearmed with L/70s. The last remaining P20-class patrol vessel, (Aisling) decommissioned in 2016, was the final vessel fitted with the L/70. Two retired L/60s can be seen adjacent the square in Sarsfield Barracks, Limerick.

The last 40 mm/60 Bofors in service with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) were used as the main weapon aboard the Attack class and Fremantle class patrol boats and for training purposes at the West Head gunnery range at HMAS Cerberus.[43] These were removed from service during 2007; Bofors were used aboard almost every RAN ship to operate between the 1940s and the 1990s, including the aircraft carriers Sydney and Melbourne.[43]

As of 2012, the L/60 is still in use by the military of Brazil, Indonesia, Paraguay, Taiwan, and the United States.

AC-130 Gunship

Bofors guns on an AC-130A Spectre gunship
Bofors guns on an AC-130A Spectre gunship

Since the beginning of the 1970s Bofors L/60s have been used in the United States Air Force's Lockheed AC-130 gunships in the air-to-ground role.[44] Between 2006 and 2012, there were plans to remove these and the M61 Vulcans from newer AC-130U variants and replace them with 30 mm autocannons. However, these plans did not come to fruition at the time, and the Bofors and Vulcans remained in service as of 2009,[45] though the later W- and upcoming J-model variants have 30 mm Mk44 Bushmaster II autocannons instead.[46][47]

When four additional AC-130Us were to be converted from 2002, the necessary 40 mm L/60 guns had to be salvaged from old M42 targets at the Nellis AFB range.[48]

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Kingston-class coastal defence vessel

Kingston-class coastal defence vessel

The Kingston class consists of 12 coastal defence vessels operated by the Royal Canadian Navy. The class is the name for the Maritime Coastal Defence Vessel Project (MCDV). These multi-role vessels were built and launched from the mid- to late-1990s and are crewed by a combination of Naval Reserve and Regular Force personnel. The main mission of the vessels is to train reservists, coastal patrol, minesweeping, law enforcement, pollution surveillance and search and rescue duties. The multi-purpose nature of the vessels led to their mixed construction between commercial and naval standards. The Kingston class is split between the east and west coasts of Canada and regularly deploy overseas to West Africa, Europe, Central America and the Caribbean.

HMCS Nanaimo (MM 702)

HMCS Nanaimo (MM 702)

HMCS Nanaimo is a Kingston-class coastal defence vessel that has served in the Canadian Forces and Royal Canadian Navy since 1997. Nanaimo is the third ship of her class. She is the second vessel to use the designation HMCS Nanaimo. She is assigned to Joint Task Force Pacific and is homeported at CFB Esquimalt.

Drummond-class corvette

Drummond-class corvette

The Drummond class are three corvettes designed and built in France based on the A69 D'Estienne d'Orves-class avisos. The ships were commissioned in the Argentine Navy between 1978 and 1982.

HMAS Sydney (R17)

HMAS Sydney (R17)

HMAS Sydney (R17/A214/P214/L134) was a Majestic-class light aircraft carrier operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was built for the Royal Navy and was launched as HMS Terrible (93) in 1944, but was not completed before the end of World War II. The carrier was sold to Australia in 1947, completed, and commissioned into the RAN as Sydney in 1948.

Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70

Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70

The Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/70,, is a multi-purpose autocannon developed by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors during the second half of the 1940s as a modern replacement for their extremely successful World War II-era Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun-design. It was initially intended as a dedicated anti-aircraft weapon, being sold as Bofors 40 mm Automatic A.A. Gun L/70, but has since its conception been redeveloped into a dedicated multi-purpose weapon capable of firing both sabot projectiles and programmable ammunition. The Bofors 40 mm L/70 design never achieved the same popularity and historical status as the original L/60 design but has still seen great export and popularity to this day, having been adopted by around 40 different nations and even being accepted as NATO-standard in November 1953. It is still being produced and sold, and several variants exist for both field and naval applications. A notable variant is the Bofors 40/70B "light armoured vehicle variant" which is in use on the Swedish Strf 9040 and Korean K21 infantry fighting vehicles.

M41 Walker Bulldog

M41 Walker Bulldog

The M41 Walker Bulldog, officially 76-mm Gun Tank, M41, was an American light tank developed for armed reconnaissance purposes. It was produced by Cadillac between 1951 and 1954 and marketed successfully to the United States Army as a replacement for its aging fleet of World War II vintage M24 Chaffee tanks. Although engineered as a reconnaissance vehicle, the M41's weight and armament also made it effective in the close infantry support role and for rapid airborne deployments. Upon entering US service, all M41s received the designation Little Bulldog and subsequently, Walker Bulldog after the late General Walton Walker, who was killed in a Jeep accident in 1950. The M41 was the first postwar American light tank to see worldwide service, and was exported in considerable numbers by the United States, particularly to Asia.

Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The conflict began on 2 April, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, followed by the invasion of South Georgia the next day. On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with an Argentine surrender on 14 June, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders were killed during the hostilities.

Icelandic Coast Guard

Icelandic Coast Guard

The Icelandic Coast Guard is the Icelandic defence service responsible for search and rescue, maritime safety and security surveillance, and law enforcement. The Coast Guard maintains the Iceland Air Defence System which conducts ground-based surveillance of Iceland's air space and operate Keflavik airbase. It is also responsible for hydrographic surveying and nautical charting.

Irish Army

Irish Army

The Irish Army, known simply as the Army, is the land component of the Defence Forces of Ireland. Approximately 7,300 people served in the Irish Army on a permanent basis as of May 2016, and there were 1,600 active reservists, divided into two geographically organised brigades. By late September 2020, this had reduced to 6,878 permanent army personnel.

Irish Naval Service

Irish Naval Service

The Naval Service is the maritime component of the Defence Forces of Ireland and is one of the three branches of the Irish Defence Forces. Its base is in Haulbowline, County Cork.

LÉ Aisling (P23)

LÉ Aisling (P23)

LÉ Aisling, now known as Al-Karama, was a patrol vessel in the Irish Naval Service from 1980 to 2016. She was built in Verolme Dockyard, Cork, Ireland in 1979 and originally named after Patrick Pearse's poem, "Aisling" to commemorate the centenary of his birth. During her career, Aisling participated in the Sonia and Marita Ann incidents, and was one of the first ships to arrive on the scene of the Air India Flight 182 disaster, and subsequently participated in recovery operations. She was the adopted ship of Galway, and officially decommissioned in her adopted city in June 2016.

Attack-class patrol boat

Attack-class patrol boat

The Attack-class patrol boats were small coastal defence vessels built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and operated between 1967 and at least 1991. Following their Australian service, twelve ships were transferred to Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Users

Discover more about Users related topics

Algeria

Algeria

Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in North Africa. Algeria is bordered to the northeast by Tunisia; to the east by Libya; to the southeast by Niger; to the southwest by Mali, Mauritania, and Western Sahara; to the west by Morocco; and to the north by the Mediterranean Sea. It is considered part of the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has a semi-arid geography, with most of the population living in the fertile north and the Sahara dominating the geography of the south. Algeria covers an area of 2,381,741 square kilometres (919,595 sq mi), making it the world's tenth largest nation by area, and the largest nation in Africa, being more than 200 times as large as the smallest country in the continent, The Gambia. With a population of 44 million, Algeria is the tenth-most populous country in Africa, and the 32nd-most populous country in the world. The capital and largest city is Algiers, located in the far north on the Mediterranean coast.

Argentina

Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of 2,780,400 km2 (1,073,500 sq mi), making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourth-largest country in the Americas, and the eighth-largest country in the world. It shares the bulk of the Southern Cone with Chile to the west, and is also bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, Brazil to the northeast, Uruguay and the South Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. Argentina is a federal state subdivided into twenty-three provinces, and one autonomous city, which is the federal capital and largest city of the nation, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system. Argentina claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and a part of Antarctica.

Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

Austria

Austria

Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous city and state. Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The country occupies an area of 83,871 km2 (32,383 sq mi) and has a population of 9 million.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population of around 169 million people in an area of 148,460 square kilometres (57,320 sq mi). Bangladesh is among the most densely populated countries in the world, and shares land borders with India to the west, north, and east, and Myanmar to the southeast; to the south it has a coastline along the Bay of Bengal. It is narrowly separated from Bhutan and Nepal by the Siliguri Corridor; and from China by the Indian state of Sikkim in the north. Dhaka, the capital and largest city, is the nation's political, financial and cultural centre. Chittagong, the second-largest city, is the busiest port on the Bay of Bengal. The official language is Bengali, one of the easternmost branches of the Indo-European language family.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina, abbreviated BiH (БиХ) or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeastern Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and Herzegovina borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to the north and southwest. In the south it has a narrow coast on the Adriatic Sea within the Mediterranean, which is about 20 kilometres long and surrounds the town of Neum. Bosnia, which is the inland region of the country, has a moderate continental climate with hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In the central and eastern regions of the country, the geography is mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and in the northeast it is predominantly flat. Herzegovina, which is the smaller, southern region of the country, has a Mediterranean climate and is mostly mountainous. Sarajevo is the capital and the largest city of the country followed by Banja Luka, Tuzla and Zenica.

Belize

Belize

Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a water boundary with Honduras to the southeast. It has an area of 22,970 square kilometres (8,867 sq mi) and a population of 441,471 (2022). Its mainland is about 290 km (180 mi) long and 110 km (68 mi) wide. It is the least populated and least densely populated country in Central America. Its population growth rate of 1.87% per year is the second-highest in the region and one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Its capital is Belmopan, and its largest city is the namesake city of Belize City. Belize is often thought of as a Caribbean country in Central America because it has a history similar to that of English-speaking Caribbean nations. Belize's institutions and official language reflect its history as a British colony.

Brunei

Brunei

Brunei, formally Brunei Darussalam, is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak. It is separated into two parts by the Sarawak district of Limbang. Brunei is the only sovereign state entirely on Borneo; the remainder of the island is divided between Malaysia and Indonesia. As of 2020, its population was 460,345, of whom about 100,000 live in the capital and largest city, Bandar Seri Begawan. The government is an absolute monarchy ruled by its Sultan, entitled the Yang di-Pertuan, and implements a combination of English common law and sharia law, as well as general Islamic practices.

Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of 181,035 square kilometres, bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, Vietnam to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh.

Canada

Canada

Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's second-largest country by total area, with the world's longest coastline. It is characterized by a wide range of both meteorologic and geological regions. The country is sparsely inhabited, with most residing south of the 55th parallel in urban areas. Canada's capital is Ottawa and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.

Chad

Chad

Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon to the southwest, Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west. Chad has a population of 16 million, of which 1.6 million live in the capital and largest city of N'Djamena.

Chile

Chile

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country located in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. With an area of 756,096 square kilometers (291,930 sq mi) and a population of 17.5 million as of 2017, Chile shares borders with Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage to the south. The country also controls several Pacific islands, including Juan Fernández, Isla Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas, and Easter Island, and claims about 1,250,000 square kilometers (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica as the Chilean Antarctic Territory. The capital and largest city of Chile is Santiago, and the national language is Spanish.

Wars

Discover more about Wars related topics

First Indochina War

First Indochina War

The First Indochina War began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh, and their respective allies. Việt Minh was led by Võ Nguyên Giáp and Hồ Chí Minh. Most of the fighting took place in Tonkin in Northern Vietnam, although the conflict engulfed the entire country and also extended into the neighboring French Indochina protectorates of Laos and Cambodia.

Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts

Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts

Since the Partition of British India in 1947 and subsequent creation of the dominions of India and Pakistan, the two countries have been involved in a number of wars, conflicts, and military standoffs. A long-running dispute over Kashmir and cross-border terrorism have been the predominant cause of conflict between the two states, with the exception of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which occurred as a direct result of hostilities stemming from the Bangladesh Liberation War in erstwhile East Pakistan.

Arab–Israeli conflict

Arab–Israeli conflict

The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing intercommunal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century, but had mostly faded out by the early 21st century. The roots of the Arab–Israeli conflict have been attributed to the support by Arab League member countries for the Palestinians, a fellow League member, in the ongoing Israeli–Palestinian conflict; this in turn has been attributed to the simultaneous rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism towards the end of the 19th century, though the two national movements had not clashed until the 1920s.

Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea from 1950 to 1953. The war began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea following clashes along the border and rebellions in South Korea. North Korea was supported by China and the Soviet Union while South Korea was supported by the United States and allied countries. The fighting ended with an armistice on 27 July 1953.

Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation

Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation

The Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation or Borneo confrontation was an armed conflict from 1963 to 1966 that stemmed from Indonesia's opposition to the creation of state of Malaysia from the Federation of Malaya. After Indonesian president Sukarno was deposed in 1966, the dispute ended peacefully and the nation of Malaysia was formed.

Congo Crisis

Congo Crisis

The Congo Crisis was a period of political upheaval and conflict between 1960 and 1965 in the Republic of the Congo. The crisis began almost immediately after the Congo became independent from Belgium and ended, unofficially, with the entire country under the rule of Joseph-Désiré Mobutu. Constituting a series of civil wars, the Congo Crisis was also a proxy conflict in the Cold War, in which the Soviet Union and the United States supported opposing factions. Around 100,000 people are believed to have been killed during the crisis.

Cambodian Civil War

Cambodian Civil War

The Cambodian Civil War was a civil war in Cambodia fought between the forces of the Communist Party of Kampuchea against the government forces of the Kingdom of Cambodia and, after October 1970, the Khmer Republic, which had succeeded the kingdom.

Nigerian Civil War

Nigerian Civil War

The Nigerian Civil War, also known as the Nigerian–Biafran War or the Biafran War, was a civil war fought between Nigeria and the Republic of Biafra, a secessionist state which had declared its independence from Nigeria in 1967. Nigeria was led by General Yakubu Gowon, while Biafra was led by Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka "Emeka" Odumegwu Ojukwu. Biafra represented the nationalist aspirations of the Igbo ethnic group, whose leadership felt they could no longer coexist with the federal government dominated by the interests of the Muslim Hausa-Fulanis of Northern Nigeria. The conflict resulted from political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which preceded the United Kingdom's formal decolonisation of Nigeria from 1960 to 1963. Immediate causes of the war in 1966 included a military coup, a counter-coup, and anti-Igbo pogroms in Northern Nigeria. Control over the lucrative oil production in the Niger Delta also played a vital strategic role, and was a factor in the strong French support for Biafra.

South African Border War

South African Border War

The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia, Zambia, and Angola from 26 August 1966 to 21 March 1990. It was fought between the South African Defence Force (SADF) and the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), an armed wing of the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO). The South African Border War resulted in some of the largest battles on the African continent since World War II and was closely intertwined with the Angolan Civil War.

Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The conflict began on 2 April, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands, followed by the invasion of South Georgia the next day. On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with an Argentine surrender on 14 June, returning the islands to British control. In total, 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders were killed during the hostilities.

Lebanese Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities and an exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon.

Gulf War

Gulf War

The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led Liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.

Source: "Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, June 7th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors_40_mm_L/60_gun.

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See also
References

Notes

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  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al "Bofors 40mm (Series) Towed Anti-Aircraft Gun / Air Defense Gun - Sweden". www.militaryfactory.com. Military Factory. Archived from the original on 19 February 2019. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
  3. ^ a b c "The Bofors gun that revolutionised air defences". saab.com. Retrieved 25 January 2022. The big breakthrough came at firing tests in Belgium in 1935 against a British competitor. It was found that the Bofors gun could be moved more than twice as quickly as the competitor’s gun and that it scored three times as many hits when firing on aerial targets. The Belgian officers were amazed. The demonstrations in Belgium took place in the presence of representatives from the French War Ministry. It soon resulted in an order from the French Army, which was quite remarkable. Traditionally, France bought no guns from abroad.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ a b "Sweden Bofors 40 mm/60 (1.57") Model 1936". NavWeaps.Com. 14 January 2011. Archived from the original on 21 February 2007. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
  5. ^ a b "Naval Legends: Bofors | World of Warships (timestamped)". youtube.com. 23 March 2017. Retrieved 25 January 2022. In March 1932, the official trials of the automatic antiaircraft cannon L60 were completed, and it was put on the market. In 1933, British and American military engineers studied the gun, and were quite impressed - the Swedish system was more effective than the obsolete British Vickers "pom-poms" and had more firepower than the "Chicago pianos" used by the US.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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  78. ^ Military Balance 2016, p. 417.

Bibliography

  • "Bofors de 40 mm". Encyclopédie des armes : Les forces armées du monde (in French). Vol. II. Atlas. 1986. pp. 1749–1753.
  • Bishop, C (ed.) 2002, Encyclopaedia of weapons of World War II, MetroBooks, New York.
  • Campbell, John. Naval Weapons of World War Two. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1985. ISBN 0-87021-459-4.
  • Gander, T., 1990, The 40mm Bofors Gun, 2nd ed., Patrick Stephens, Wellingborough, Eng.
  • International Institute for Strategic Studies (February 2016). The Military Balance 2016. Vol. 116. Routlegde. ISBN 9781857438352.
  • Rae, CJE, Harris, AL, and Bryant, RK (1987), On target: the story of the 2/3 Australian Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment from formation on 18 July 1940 until disbandment on 14 July 1943 and the subsequent service of 7th Battery, 8th Battery, and 9th Battery, until the end of World War II, 2/3rd Australian Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment Association, [Melbourne].
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