Just thought I would add this spectacular shot of a full 40mm Bofors Battery in action. This is a Bofors Barrage at Heliopolis Airdrome north of Cairo in 1934. View attachment 783
A very nice wind up. The Bofors had a very important role to play in the defeat of German Air power. The 88 had a different role to play. The Bofors gun was an efficient anti-aircraft weapon designed to independently engage aircraft flying below 2,000 feet that were moving at 300 miles per hour. As an Anti Aircraft weapon it was also used in a tactic called the Umbrella Barrage. It was also used in a ground role As a surface to surface weapon, one gun was capable of throwing the equivalent of 120 hand grenades every minute at a target over 4000 yards away. In this role, it was used in at least three different ways. First, it was used as an anti-tank weapon. The 40mm Bofors was of limited use in this role. It was no match for the Panzer tank. Second, it was also used as an anti-personnel weapon. For example, my father William Gamble recalled that he fired the weapon at either retreating or attacking German convoys in both Europe and Egypt. As another example,the Coleraine Battery employed one gun in a ground role on November 23rd 1941. In this action the gun engaged four Italian guns that had the Troop and other units pinned down. This Italian group consisted of two 47mm guns and two 20mm guns. Sgt Currie's second burst of fire hit one of the 47mm guns. All the Italian gun crews then surrendered. The photo shows Sgt Curry standing in the middle of the devistation he created with the Bofors. To your left of the busted 47mm you can see part of the body of one of the five Italian gunners killed in this action. View attachment 793 The Bofors were also used in a rear guard action at Consthum on the 17/18th December 1944 (Elstob 2003 p160). In this situation, the guns were used to stop the advance of German infantry. Despite these successes, the ground role limited the life expectancy of the gun itself. It was designed for short bursts at infrequent and fleeting targets. Sustained fire would have led to the gun overheating and having mechanical malfunctions. Third, the Bofors round was used as a path marker. Tracer fire from the Bofors Gun was used in Egypt to indicate the direction of travel for troops advancing to engage the German Forces. It was also used the same way in Europe to indicate the targets for the rocket firing Typhoon planes in 1944 and 1945. The gun was also very popular with the Germans. There were many occasions when captured guns were turned on the Allied Forces.
Gentlemen, we're writing a book that needs an accurate description of firing a 40mm MK4 on a Navy ship in 1942. What we need is details of the loading, the clips, how many one man could handle, that sort of thing. The specs we have, but exactly how the heck was the gun manned? PLEASE HELP!
