What is this Britsh WW2 AA Gun

[old smokie]

anybody know what type of AA gun in the picture this is, I am thinking an US M15 on a bofors style carriage ?



http://www.ebay.com/itm/WWII-Color-Photo-US-Army-Anti-Aircraft-Gun-Crew-WW2-World-War-Two-US-Army-/351959916336

[NTM]

Polsten

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_mm_Polsten

[fred.]

And they would be British crew too.

I hoped the eBay link would be to an actual gun, not a photo. Oh well.

[fsn]

I think they're Canadian.

[old smokie]

thanks NTM 

[fred.]

I think they're Canadian.

How can you tell? Genuine question.

I must admit I was being lazy and using British to mean Commonewealth, and really to say definately not US as the person listing the photo had described them as.

[Leon]

It's a staged shot from the Canadian archives, public domain.  I had it in my folder of images for use in BKC-III, this is the caption/info I've got for it:

"Canadian personnel man a portable Triple Polsten 20mm anti-aircraft mount, a descendant of the Oerlikon design. France, Jun 1944."

Looks like the chap on eBay is just printing up various images he's come across and selling them, as several of the ones he's got listed I recognise from the WW2 photo database I used for BKC: http://ww2db.com/

[fsn]

How can you tell? Genuine question.

I must admit I was being lazy and using British to mean Commonewealth, and really to say definately not US as the person listing the photo had described them as.

I think only the Canadians used that triple Polsten on a towed mount.

I may be wrong.

http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6473

[fred.]

Ta chaps, thats two good reason for thinking its Candadian! I was assuming their was some obscure uniform or marking that showed the nationality of the unit. I hadn't thought about the weapon system itself!!

I do find it interesting that the allies had a large number of multi-barrel mobile AA weapons, that generally just weren't used. Whereas the Germans seemed to press theirs into use in both AA and ground support roles all the time - much to the delight of wargamers who love the effect of multi-barrel weapons in game systems. It would be nice as an allied player to be able to field some of these a bit more often!

[Ithoriel]

Field a Polish force fred. They used their multibarrel AA extensively against ground targets in NW Europe.

[fred.]

That is a cunning idea.

I didn't realise the Poles operated in a more direct way with their AA, though it shouldn't be a surprise.