Early war British 37mm A/T gun

Started by Orcs, 11 February 2017, 09:30:27 PM

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Orcs

Leon

The Bofors 37mm A/T gun in the Polish list was also used by the British both in France in 1940 and in Early North African engagements to supplement the lack of 2Pdrs.  Unlike the 2Pdr it did have an HE shell. I am not sure if the British has supplies of HE.

So while I know you would do a custom order are their any plans to add it to the catalogue properly, with both BEF and 8th army crew?

It was also used  as a Portee as well in North Africa, although that's another model rather than just packaging with a different crew.

Mark
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Orcs

Thanks Lemmy,  I thought that was the case
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John Cook

The Bofors Ordnance QF 37mm Mk1 is an interesting bit of kit.  These antitank guns were taken over by the British from the Sudanese after 1940 and used in N Africa and Somaliland in small numbers – just two regiments as I remember.  They had AP, HE and WP rounds.
Used by the Republicans in the SCW, the Poles, the Finns, the Danes and Romaninas as well as the Swedes.   

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

I do wish people would look at the sources. The 2pdr DID have HE, it just wasn't issued to tanks, the gunners certainly had it. Same applies to 6pdr, which WAS issued to tanks, as was the 17pdr HE round.

One of the rgts with the Swedish gun was a Liverpool TA unit.

IanS
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John Cook

Ian, Did not production of the 2pdr AP Shell round ceased in 1938 after which they had the Lyddite replaced with an inert filling?   As far as I know 2pdr ammunition produced from that time was all AP.

Do you know if any AP Shell was issued to BEF units in 1940?


Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

AP  shell is NOT HE, the British drew on their naval experience and went for AP, not APHE. To give you some idea of how useless APHE was with this size of weapon the PaK 36 AP shell had about a 1/2 oz of desensitised explosive in it.

Reason tanks didn't get HE was simple, the Co-Ax and hull MG's had the same or longer effective range that the 2pdr HE, so it was thought that there  was  no need to issue HE.   

IanS
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John Cook

Thanks for that Ian.  So the 2pdr HE you mention is that produce in small quantities from 1942.   I was thinking more about the ATk guns rather than tanks.  Anyway my BEF will only be 'issued 'with AP rounds for tanks and ATk guns.

As an aside, why did HE appear in 1942 when the 6pdr was about to enter service, and continue in production until 1944?

John

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