Swedish Antiaircraft Artillery: Bofors 40mm Automatic Gun M1
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 มิ.ย. 2024
- Note: In the video I mistakenly describe this as a two-stamp NFA gun. It is actually deactivated, and thus does not require a tax stamp. Sorry for the mistake!
/ forgottenweapons
Cool Forgotten Weapons merch! shop.bbtv.com/collections/forg...
The Swedish Bofors company developed their 40mm antiaircraft gun in the 1930s, and it would go on to be one of the most successful weapon designs in modern history. Used by both sides in WWII and in all theaters, improved versions of the 40mm Bofors gun continue to serve in military front lines to this very day. In the US, they comprise part of the armament on the AC-130 Spectre gunships, for example.
This particular gun is a WW2 vintage piece, made in Sweden. Most of the examples used by the United States were made under license by Chrysler, the car company. Something like 60,000 were produced during the war, mostly for naval use. These guns would be a mainstay of American vessels' air defense against Japanese Kamikaze attacks.
Contact:
Forgotten Weapons
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Somehow I expected Ian to disassemble this gun.
Yup, dislike for no disassembly 😋
I'm sad he dint
Osmiumwo1f disassemble*
"Let's take a look inside this thing and see how it works."
he'd need a big table
Essential for home defense.
Good for a perfect family father mother and child crew a gun together.
For when you need to blow up the plane carrying a sky-diving burglar.
When your neighbor won't stop flying his drone over your house.
Best used when dealing with 30-50 wild hogs.
@@SonsOfLorgar
LOL.
One of these hangs out of the AC-130U. It basically acts like anti-vehicular sniper rifle because it's so accurate. Really cool memory: we had to swap out a feeding mechanism while we were in Afghanistan and the body was stamped with the year "1942". Easily one of the most reliable weapons ever created
It's also still used by the Swedish CV9040 IFV. Mounted upside down to eject the spent casings out the top of the turret.
“Good kill, I see lots of tiny little pieces down there”
@Kevin Olschesky 105 mm, a 40 mm and a 25 mm, yes. The AC-130 are beasts.
Totally cool
@Kevin Olschesky there are a few variations that carry different armourment
The fact that Ian barely touched the handle and it started moving tells me how well designed and well kept that gun is.
It was a premium handbuilt artwork…until the Americans mass produced them under the same specs in a tenth of time of what Bofors ever have dreamt of
When Ian runs for president, his slogan should be “A Bofors in every garage.”
I'd apply for US citizenship just so I could vote for Ian :P
TacticalLumberjack I would totally vote for Ian!
DesRoin i wouldn't, who would make more videos then?
Well you do have a point Bartek :/
What Bofors? All I see is a "Chrysler" with "Firestone" tires :D
I come from Karlskoga, the town of Bofors. Bofors is still a point of pride for the city, and when it prospers, the town does too.
Karlskoga does love its artillery. There's a monument comprised of a 280mm naval gun called "The Citizen Cannon" and the first Archer to enter Swedish service was celebrated with cake and ribbon cutting. There was a naval artillery shell in the playground where I used to go, which only two years or so ago turned out to be live. It was then disarmed safely by an army technician.
Alfred Nobel worked there for a fair while, mostly in and around Björkborn and Bofors.
Did the city became rich after that deal with the US military?
@@livewallberg Sorry about the lacking reply, but SonsOfLorgar's absolutely right. It did help though, and while the town didn't get rich from it, it did create an increase in employment.
+SonsOfLorgar Belgium had a similar mobilization system before WWII, I guess because it also has a small population.
It was activated when the nazis invaded, didn't work out too well.. it just means you have a mass of undertrained, and probably underequipped. men all over the country.
The y had extensive defense works at the border with Germany (fort Eben-Emael), the idea is that it slows them down while the population mobilizes. Hitler used paras, gliders and shaped charges to take the fort in a day:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Eben-Emael#1940
The Belgian battle plan was to retreat west toward the coast. That meant the Belgian army survived, but it also that it got out of the Wehrmacht's path as it went south to France.
@SgtDrDeath Swedistan*
@@rzomg Zzzzz..... lame.
Royal Thai Navy servicemen here,
The Bofors 40/60 are still being used in the Thai Navy.
Even though the manual says that the gun is manned by 3 crews, what we usually do is we have one extra guy carrying more ammunitions because not only that these thing can fire faster than you can reload, they also only have 7 rounds capacity and the sergeant on the pedal is often one trigger happy bastard.
Oh an fun facts; the 40/60 refers to the 40mm size of the cartridge but the 60 refers to the length of the barrel, as in it is 60 times longer than the diameter
Always keep in mind cabiler means something different when you're talking about large weapons pieces as apposed to small arms it gets people confused a lot
+SALA
Thank god for those trigger happy bastards.
Methani K. น่าจะใช่
Glad to see you're still getting use out of them, albeit a more modern version. The 7 rounds is fairly recent, if I remember correctly. Might even still be in production.
The US also still uses them they're mounted inside the AC130
This gun more anti-everything than just aircraft.
True, these are still used in the Swedish CV9040 IFV. There really isn't anything equivilent around. There is just something so cool about shooting a super quick 8 round burst, with the shells flying 100ft in the air! I and pretty much every other tanker thought that was more badass than our 120mm :)
Would like to see it try and penetrate modern MBT armour 😅🤣😭😂 . 120mm smoothbore all day erry day.
@@AussieLiam93 Indeed, I said cool, not effective :)
@@AussieLiam93 it could if it hits the lower side armour of a mbt
@@AussieLiam93 that's what the swedes have tandem ATGMs for.
Also if you count a busted engine and damaged optics a "kill" then that's possible too.
"We could spend hours talking about this"
Yes, please. Get the boys, some cold ones, and jump both feet first into that!
I wanna know how effective those spider sights are. I mean, it seems they have a good service record, but I'm curious. They don't look that good. It might be that they're spaced so far to the right/left of the gun to 'automatically' lead the gun at certain ranges... I'm not sure, though.
Sod the talk! Let's SHOOT!
One sight for each crew member.
I noticed Ian cut out some of what he was talking about. It was probably just a tangent but it would be interesting to see the version with all the tangents and extra information that gets cut.
Seconded
You know you made a good gun when both sides buy it.
Edward Olson. Like the Maxim .
Browning High Powere comes into that catergory then.
The funny part,
Germany did most the development pre-WWII. Then did nothing with till after the war started.
And when it's still used today.
And all the other sides.
An Iowa-class battleship had 20 quad mount 40mm Bofors guns, so 80 of these per ship. Could you imagine the noise alone?
And add to that the crack of 20-5 inch-38's dp mounts!!
@leonardimas1 Well they are, just not designed there.
Very little noise actually, after they fired you were deaf. Lol
Until the big guns go boom
Really impressive right up until there's a 9 gun broadside from the 16 inchers 😀. Then every gun barrel hangs its head in shame a little. 😂
Ian pats it and says, "Stop that."
It only wants to fire something for old time's sake.
"But..but, my Axis-sense is tingling.."
I think we have discovered where Ian and my areas of responsibility overlap....
If it moves under its own power, it's the Chieftain's. If not it's Ian's?
You both are awesome!! Please team up. Also question to you both. Was or could this be pressed into antitank anti infantry role?
Crossover when.
Copyright infringement?
The_Chieftain Nicholas you absolute legend.
It served us very well in Finland. Hats off to Swedish engineering.
And I thank Finland for beating the pesky soviets! They would've ruined Northen Europe othwerwise.
@country baller not everywhere only in Malmö, but the tides are turning and we'll probably not have the same problems in 2022
@@erikliljeberg1796 I hope so too.
@@erikliljeberg1796 Things are indeed looking brighter in Sweden.
@country baller "sweden has been ruined"
- someone who has never been in sweden
10:10 "Credited with a couple of V1 rocket bombs."
In addition, at least one Me-262 jet fighter. In my early teenage years, I read "Wing Leader", by Johnnie Johnson. the RAF top scoring Spitfire pilot in Europe. In it, he told how he landed, in his brand-new Mark XIV Spitfire, at a forward airfield in Holland, just in time for a strafing run by a Me-262. Johnson hit the deck and watched the 262 disintegrate - an airfield defence Bofors crew happened to have their gun pointed in just the right direction as the jet flew away from the airfield, fired one clip of four shots and blew it to bits.
Ian: "...it has these outriggers here..."
Gun: * moves up a little*
Ian: *points at gun* "stop that."
+
Spencer C
Ian: "...it has these outriggers here..."
Gun: * moves up a little*
Ian: points at gun "stop that."
Gun: Sorry Sir, after these many years I have become self-actualized.
I lol’d out loud.
@@tyvankenyon4964 lol
@@tyvankenyon4964 you laughed out loud out loud?
"Stop that"
"Yes, Ian. Sorry, Ian".
"What?"
"wHaT?"
That's a pretty nice home defence weapon
Edc
Hehe, easy to carry and conceal (with a truck and camo net)
Varmint gun*
Backyard plinker*
For those times you get attacked by a squadron of fighter planes, happened to me last week :P
The biggest question I have... is that do the ejected casings always go Zwheee?
Zwhëëë :DDDDD
They do now.
Angus Goodleaf if you watch old footage from the war you can actually hear e paired zwheee!s as the twinned Bofors fire from American carriers. The zwheee! is actually louder than the shot
Only when Ian fires it
Isn't zhwee a gender pronoun? I'm so confused these days. Shits gettin weird yo.
Did my service on one of those. On the modern versions theres a periscope sight with electrical fire mechanism, one gunner 2 loaders and u can couple it with as many guns as u want without adding more personnel. U can also fire them via remote. On one live ammo drill looking out over the Baltic sea I blew up a small island with 16 rounds. Cost me 2 days of extra work and cancelled leave for a month. Totally worth it
Hehe jag gjorde också lumpen på Lv3! Inte som pjäsman dock (Jag låg i närskyddskompaniet), men man har ju varit ute på LvSS när det sköts skarpt!
Would that have been todendorf by any chance? I was there with 16 Regt RA in the70,s
@@lesallan3181 No i don't believe that you was in Norrtälje Upland Sweden. That air defense regiment had live fire exercise areas out in the archipelago between Sweden and Åland. See tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?language=sv&pagename=V%C3%A4dd%C3%B6¶ms=59_57_N_18_51_E_region:SE
or better
www.google.com/maps/place/59%C2%B056'52.2%22N+18%C2%B054'49.8%22E/@59.9478267,18.913264,168m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x0:0x0!7e2!8m2!3d59.9478264!4d18.9138304
This is one of the emplacement areas.
South of this point is the housing and maintenance areas at Ytterskär's exercise establishment
Jag minns LvSS 85-86. Kallt.
Richard here: We used our twin 40mm mounts on our LSMR for direct gunfire in Vietnam. they were used mainly for fire suppression and against fixed shore installations. Since no antiaircraft was needed, it was also on standby for anti-surface small craft. We went through a fair amount of ammo in addition to 5 inch spin stabilized rockets and 5in/38.
And very effective , always liked having them around
"...whereupon it skips down into this chute and goes ZWEEEEE! right out the front of the gun..."
Made my day and it's only 1245 AM
Dude I read this comment at exactly 1245 AM
Ian, king of eloquence.
Rarely seen such a happy Ian
What do you mean rarely? I see his joy and happiness in every one of his videos. He loves his job.(Who wouldn't though, right?) He just seems like a swell, well mannered gentleman from what I've witnessed in his videos.
Coolio Bob he always seems happy, but he looked especially amused when operating that Bofors. That’s why I used the word “such“ to put it in relation to his other content.
He is excited like a little kid. I would be too.
@@C0SSAC
Ah I see, now! He does seem to have a little more teeth showing throughout this video rather than a just a pleasant grin.
Fired 3 rounds with this during my army days 38 years ago! Hit three 44 gallon drums tied together. Not so difficult you say? Except these drums were bobbing up and down in the sea at 2000 metres!
Says a lot about the build quality and accuracy of the gun then as well as the crew 😁
During a practice off the coast of 'Nam I showed Some gunners how to hit the same type of floating target. I simply showed them to aim where the target was going to be when the bullets got there. Not when they could see the target as it would be behind the waves when the bullets arrived. Not bad for a snipe.
way HEY... we also shot 44 gallon drums... floating in the sea in False Bay, off Simonstown ;) My crew mate and fellow gunner, Warren Collier scored a direct hit on one and it flew up into the air like a flattened piece of foil. He was the hero for the week!
229/5000
Automatic bofors cannons were produced under a Swedish license in Poland. Specifically, in the arms and ammunition factory in Starachowice. In September 1939, the factory crew and anti-aircraft defense burned down several German tanks using these cannons.
They're still great, perhaps not the most modern nowadays but still they pack a punch. Greetings from Sweden!
@@erikliljeberg1796 I mean the 40mm has stuck around it's just stuff around that's changed
That's interesting! Considering that these could ripp through any german tank of the day.
Specifically it was upgraded to the newer L/70 variant in the 50s with nearly twice the rate of fire which is still in production and use today. Bofors also developed a bigger 57mm based on it.
You know, this is the kind of in-depth information I come to this channel for.
I never would have known the spent case went ZWEE by just looking at it.
Just when you had it all figured out.
The USAF still uses this gun in the AC-130. They just found original spares in Greece this past year to be put in the inventory. And there was just a contract to refurb ammo, the brass was still 1944 stamped, and they put new projectiles on the end. Amazing.
Yup, I was a first loader on quad 14 @ Iwo Jima and Okinawa and further missions on the USS Missouri and because my sleeping quarters was close to quad 14, I was always the first man to appear on the gun and it became my job to turn on the motors and grab my helmet to wear for protection and assume my first loader position on barrel #3 and quad 14's gun captain was Mr Caron from Sanford Maine whose appearance on the gun began the program of Air Defense and his instructions were followed by all members on that gun.....STATIONS.....STAND BY....LOAD......AUTOMATIC FIRE......COMMENCE FIRING ......CEASE FIRE.......and upon the order CEASE FIRE, the reversal of those instructions were caused if the danger ended.! and the sounding of air defense was a hyper activity time when all gunnery personnel or members scrambled to their respective air defense positions.!......And I remember sleeping with my clothes on as we had to answer air defense eight times in one night.!!...........THIS SHOULD GIVE YOU SOME IDEA OF WHAT IT WAS LIKE ON A BATTLESHIP DURING THE WAR YEARS.!.......Leonard Brodt, First Loader ..........of course this information is for the 40mm bofors guns.
My Uncle was on the New Jersey during the war. Thank you for your service.
Salute to you sailor
Many Thanks to you sir from England.
Thank you so much for your service & your recollections of this time in your young life. I love reading info like this. You really are part of the greatest generation.
Hell, I didn't even read any of the previous posts before I submitted mine. We all kind of sound like a broken record, but I suspect that's because we all truly mean what we're saying.
Thank you for sharing your story.
They're still in use today. Not this specific version but modern automated versions of the cannon. The older version still sees use today as well however, though not as an anti air weapon (probably used against infantry I'd imagine)
There seems to have been a lot of Scandinavian guns lately, me like.
What's it like being a gun?
@@tritech Glorious.
Most importantly, does the helmet come with the cannon?
It comes with Ian.
It does
Go to most Army Surplus stores and you can find those steel helms. I got 2 of them as a kid. I am not sure what they are selling for these days.
My grandfather in the french free army in 1944 manned one of these in Elsaß :)
(I just showed him the video)
He had to tell the gunners how far away and how fast the airplanes were flying so that they could best adjust where they aimed in their spiderweb reticles.
@Zachary Durocher It's called Elsaß in German.
Yeah, that's one thing Ian didn't mention. The reccomended use of a fourth crewmember as an extra loader and rangefinder.
In 1990 I saw a "sales/instruction" film from Bofors, featuring this line of gun. At the end of this film, there was a reliability test of a prototype, which I seem to recall to be called "Trinity"(?). It was loaded with a magazine of 100 rounds, to be emptied. Now, 100 divided by 4 is 25, so the test only took 25 seconds, but I must say, that those 25s were a looong 25s. It "just kept going". "Will it not end?" Impressive.
This one? th-cam.com/video/WdhewPo0Ur8/w-d-xo.html
@@fratercontenduntocculta8161 Thx, but no.
Proof that these are used everywhere: The Canadian Navy STILL has these as the primary anti-ship weapon on their MCDVs. I've sat in one. They're awesome.
Not anymore, sorry.
@@domovie1 ????
@@domovie1 what
I would watch that long video about you talking about all of those details.
Hardly a forgotten weapon! My Dad was stationed on these in WW2. He was on home defense AA initially, then shipped to Europe later in the war. Mum hated him telling me stories about the war so all I knew was the type of gun and its name. Videos like this do help to fill out the knowledge of what he had to work with. One thing he did mention was that these guns were used for just about anything not just AA!
(Australian) My grandfather was the gunner battery of 159, he shot down a A6M Zero near Hughes airfield on his first day of deployment in the Northern Territory in late 1942.
haha I was browsing the RIA catalog and saw that they had a Bofors and was about to ask if Ian could do a piece on it in the comments of the video on the Steyr M95 Sniper Carbine. looks like i don't have to, nice work Ian.
Not only is this Auto-cannon a pretty cool AA gun but its also pretty cool they used dual 40mm L/60 BOFORS in some varients of the AC-130 gunship (taking it from an AA role to a ground attack role)
They had to withdraw those gunships from service in Vietnam due to a lot of casualties.
They found that when you get close enough to shoot at ground targets they're close enough to shoot at you.
Maybe your talking about the earlier gunships like the AC-47 "Puff the Magic Dragon" but todays AC-130 gunships can stay at a moderate alltitude and fire on targets with their 25mm Rotary Cannon, 40mm BOFORs and 105mm Howitzer. The modern AC-130J now only has air launched cruise missiles, 25mm Bushmaster auto-cannons and I think a 105mm Howitzer
Its great to hear Ian discussing the electronic aiming the quad bofors mounts had on ships, but by the end of the Pacific war the US capitol ships were using radar guided targeting systems for not just the 5' batteries but bofors day or night all weather. It is crazy to think how fast tech progressed from 1942-1945.
It's amazing when you see the cables for power and control of one mount and then add all of the other 40mm and 5" gun mounts that were on a central control.
When i did my mandatory military training back in the eighties.(Sweden)
I were in an artillery observer/fire control role.
Ofc this were on the updated version called 40/48, 4 shells per second.
One time we had to dig trenches around the gun to defend it.
I ended up in a trench some 4-5 meters from the muzzle.
When the gun crew started firing, that thing pushed the air out of my lungs and with every shot i had less air left.
The gun crew didnt stop firing until they expended something like 30-40 rounds.
(We had two loaders so they could really put clips in fast.)
When they finally stopped firing i was gasping for air.
An awesome experience that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
What a powerful gun!
Have you seen Tank Moses around?
Next comment up the list.
I thought chieftain would be more like tank John first cousin to gun Jesus
The Bofors case edjector goes: "Suuiiiih!"
Love u Ian.
Until the advent of CIWS, these things were pretty much in every Navy. It still amazes me how so many countries still use this, I also appreciate the finer details about the ammo that Ian provided.
Although Bofors don't make the guns anymore, the Italian defence contractor Leonardo produce a version of it as the OTO Marlin which is a fully integrated and fully automatic (100 or 300rpm) naval gun turret which incorporates an angular stealth design and its own gun director with optical/IR cameras and a laser rangefinger. Lethality is even better than it was now that these guns have muzzle velocity radars and can fire smart ammunition which can be set to airburst right over targets even if they're behind cover.
The Bofors L70 cannons were an integral part of the Sgt. York (M41) AA gun system. I worked on the Sgt. York project through the early 80s. I remember in changing out barrels that each weighed at about 365 lbs. The twin cannons were part of an ammo feed system that allowed the fire unit to fire 10 rounds/second.
What, no field stripping to show us the innards? :)
@@bmstylee of course it would work... It's a universal tool after all...
Imagine how far the springs in that bad boy would launch themselves...
Maybe an Ikea hex key would work being Swedish and all?
well he kinda did "field" strip it, since they would almost never have striped it any further than removing the feed tray cover. :P
LOL :]
From what i understand the Strf 90 (Original Swedish version of the CV90) uses a slightly modernised version of this cannon, one variant with a very modern radar and targeting system to make any helicopter and ground attack pilots thinking twice about where to fly.
Yeah. It's pretty modernized though, including flipping the entire action 180 degrees so thay you feed from the bottom and eject from the top.
Yes it does. It uses the L/70 version that Ian mentions at the end of the video. It is actually placed upside down inside the turret, so that the magazines are underneath the gun and it ejects through the turret roof.
What? You are saying they didn´t have programable on-the-fly ammo in ww2? I been lied to!! ;)
There were TV guided bombs, so they were getting there. Many happy Sea Cadets , got a lot of fun blowing hell out of splash targets with these using up old WW2 Ammo stocks in the 1960's 70's. .
Also a lot of swe navy ships use them
I have actually played with these weapons on the Battleship Massachusetts years ago when I was young. It was a quad mount, and I actually got to try rotating them and elevating and lowering the barrels. Thanks for the video. It brought back happy memories.
Excellent CCW.
@@dimapez Ford F-350.
Good point... Also well tried and tested by every single terrorist group in the ME, they seem happy with it lol
If i had a gun store this would be a perfect center piece just as you walked in. I wonder how long he played around that thing before they said he had to stop? Closing time maybe ?
If they told him to stop I bet he would tell them to go piss up a tree. I would.
My grandmas late sister worked as a quality control manager in the factory the gun was produced.
Had one of these on our River Class minesweeper HMS Spey in the early 1990’s. Our gun was built in 1943, and originally used by the Royal Artillery. In a curious twist of fate my stepfather was in charge of anti-aircraft bofors guns in the Royal Artillery in 1943 to 45. It could easily have been one of his guns. Interestingly, though the earlier Ton Class Sweepers had powered mounts, our later River Class (HMS Spey) had its original WWII manual mount.
The gun is used in the swedish spec of the ifv cv90. An awesome gun that will be in service for many years to come!
You can tell how excited Ian is, just by how many different angles he filmed from, just so he can climb all over the thing. :D This is really cool.
That centralized control system was very well used on the Iowa class battleships. It could use the main turrets, aa guns, and secondary guns.
When I was four (1952)I picked up the unexploded shell from a Bofors AA gun on the newly opened beach at Calshot (near Southampton) Before I could throw it my father grabbed it from me , and went very white. He handed the shell in at the nearby RAF station.
Apparently my father had been trained on the Bofors during his time as an Artilleryman and knew what they could do.
So your father brought you 2 times to life ....
Deadly radius is 40 Meters ...
Was my weapon in the German Navy ...
They should have gotten a cheap little drone to fly around the showroom and have Ian and a friend try to follow it to show how it worked!
@@SonsOfLorgar Oh wow that's actually kind of cool
I am from sweden and OH MAN I LOVE THIS GUN
Another excellent video - I was impressed to learn (at 8:40) that Ian reads the manual ahead of time. A lesson there for us all, I think !!
Walks into 1944 Chrysler dealer. “How can I help you sir? Yes I would like to order a 40mm cannon also does it come in any other colour?”
Yes, infact it does come in a range of coulors. Olive green, dark green, khaki, feldgrau, ligth blue, brown, sand, white. And a whole range of fugly improvised camoflage patterns!
Like a kid in a candy store.
Well, he is testing out the new GunJesusmobile.
amin johari that would be some weird rare French tank.
@@jackandersen1262 naw, that would be the GunJesus campervan.
I was waiting for him to giggle while moving it.
"kid on christmas morning"
This saying is now replaced with "Ian on a Bofors".
Same Gun in the CV9040 combat vehicle. Installed upsidedown. Awesome. Thx great vid!
The CV 90 has the 40/L70, larger round with lighter shell to hit faster flying jets. The L/70 is NATO standard since the fifties, though.
The US WW2 vintage is a 40/L60.
...
Also, due to jets flying faster and higher, Bofors did experiment with a scaled up version of the gun, the 120 mm LVAkan (Luftvärnsautomatkanon) 4501, which is basically a 40 mm Bofors blown up to 300%, firing 80 RPM.
Only ended up being used by the Finnish Navy, Indonesian Navy, - they kept the prototype around for point air defense of the Bofors factory, with the guns chief designer having the wartime role of gun crew chief.
The naval variant was the TAK 120, details here: www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNSweden_47-46_TAK120.php
@@dimapez Primarily, yes, but the longer barrel is also used for a heavier, longer and more powerful round.
No way near forgotten... Legend by Swedish quality engineering.
Do a video about the M/45 Carl Gustav!! :)
I second that!
You gotta love how Gun Jesus breaks down all the details and technical information for each weapon. He's so engaging.
When he can stop griining that is.
WOW! Largest weapon I've even seen you tell us about, Ian. Love it! Thanks so much for all of your superb work.
I remember sitting in one of these as a kid, at a Swedish military museum that was part owned by my grandfather. Pretty cool seeing it on youtube now quite a few years later :)
They used to have one at a park on the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto and we kids got to sit in it and use the siting wheels.
I'm Swedish and i live 10 minutes away from a V1 missile.
Canada wants their most modern weaponry back, Ian.
ouch
I was in the canadian military and i have to say i would prefer an ak-47 to the C-7 combat rifle, not bad but pretty useless compared to heavier cartrigez
@@wendigo1619 Try an AK-5 or AK-5C
Perfect for this sundays when your neighbor is harassing you with his lawnmower sounds. Open the garage, Fire! and than this beautiful silence. Lawnmower gone, lawn gone, neighbor gone. Perfect!
Totally justified, lawnmower violated the NAP by assaulting your eardrums.
ZStar is correct. Especially if said neighbor is like some of the neighbors that I have had, who chose 6:30 AM as a perfect time to mow, and assault the neighborhood's eardrums! Biatch! We're trying to sleep off this bleedin' hangover! Shut that damn lawnmower off, and NOW! Massive violation of the NAP!
"There goes the neighbourhood..."
- from a magic the gathering card
Just cut my grass today in England. Nothing happened, so I guess nobody over here has the Bofors. To be fair, I waited until 13:00 so that the neighbours could have a lie in, so maybe a bad example.
I want one for my deck. I think it would be a great conversation piece.
I was a radar instructor in the British Army in the '70s and I trained British and Malaysian technicians on an anti-aircraft system using a powered, and armour plated, 40mm Bofors coupled to an EMI fire control radar which used a mechanical computer for auto-tracking. The right hand radar operator (of two) had a foot trigger to fire the gun and a coarse/fine synchro servo system made the gun follow the radar. The radar used the same wheeled chassis as the gun and both were driven by hydraulic swash plate mechanisms giving a fast rotation speed. The gun still had the two seats with the hand cranks (and you're right, they are really cool!), and there were two waisthigh rings for two loaders to stand alternately slamming clips into the breech. There were also two racks of 'one way' clips so loaders behind the gun could fill clips and push them into the racks for the loaders.
I know I'm late but when I did my service in Sweden 1997 we still had 2 of these, heavily upgraded, in my battalion. Laser guided sights, remote control fire, four shots per second, onboard engine so one gunner could control and fire the canon, upgraded sights for air, ground and water targets, magazine for six seconds of fire, ammunition upgrade and so on. We were the last to be trained on this.
"You shouldn't touch the ordnance at all. But more specifically, you should never pull this hand-operating lever to the rear."
"Do not push a clip of ammunition down into the feed rollers here."
"You never restore this lever to firing position. Do not make sure that this cover is completely closed."
"Never depress operator's foot triggers here, here and at the rear here."
"Ian McCullum don't you dare fire that gun in this house"
''Prune juice! Prune juice!!! You ain't gettin' sheeeit outa me!''
Haha. I'll have to watch that movie later. It's silly but, I liked it.
Horrywood! Horrywood!
From the movie ''1941'' with John Belushi, a comedy.
Too much fun! :D
It was also very popular with the Germans.
Many of the naval mounts were also water-cooled. There are tons of video showing them blazing away in essentially barrage fire; you also see teams of loaders struggling to keep up with the guns' voracious ammo appetite.
Excellent video Ian! This is one of my favorite weapons!
My dad operated the trigger and elevation of a 40mm Bofors from the bow of LSM 46 while beached on Red Beach at Iwo Jima. They were being heavily shelled at the time that they were ordered to put some rounds into a few of the Japanese positions on Mount Suribachi. Quite effective at that short range. Thanks for the great video!
Daisy, Daisy give me your heart to do
I'm half crazy, hopeful in love with you
It won't be a stylish marriage
I can't afford the carriage
But you look sweet upon the street
On a Bofors built for two
0:05 "Those woodchucks will regret digging up my garden now!"
3:10 Ian's succinct characterization of the North Atlantic during WW2
The Philippine Military still has some examples of these used in active service! Talk about long service life!
Thanks for showing us this Ian. It really is an iconic gun from WW2. The US even built motorized mounts, usually on tank chassis. One such, the M19, was built on the chassis of the M24 light tank and was used for ground fire in Korea. The M42 used on the chassis of the M41 light tank and was used for ground fire in Viet Nam. In that conflict iit was usually nicknamed "Duster". After Viet Nam the Army was in the process of discarding the Dusters when somebody realized that 1) the attack helicopter had become a real danger on the battlefield and 2) we no longer had mid-range AA weapons that would destroy or deter an attack helicopter. The remaining M42s in the National Guard received a short lease on life, but finally retired. Bottom line is that the original Bofors design stayed in US service until the early 1980s!
I remember reading years ago these were heavily used to defend Antwerp once the Allies liberated the city. Antwerp was an important forward port in the advance so the Germans did everything they could to disrupt it once they lost it. V1 and V2 strikes were a constant occurrence. The volume of AA ammunition needed to defend Antwerp severely interrupted the import of other supplies. A V1 was relatively easy to shoot down due to its constant course especially after proximity fuses were introduced, a V2 was impossible to shoot down once it left the pad.
At one point, a plan was created to use radar to predict a "box" where a V2 would pass and use many Bofors with timed fuses to saturate the box. The reason it was never implemented is the V2 was already on a ballistic trajectory and there was no guarantee the warhead would be destroyed unlike a V1 which could be shot down before being close to the city. Secondly, considering the shear number of 40mm shells needed for an effective kill box and the rate of duds, there would've been more total explosive ordinance raining down from the 40mm than from the V2 itself.
I still have the 1944 dated Bofors stripper clip that my dad got for me. Interesting piece of history.
These are still used in the Swedish CV9040 IFV, I remember burst firing this thing was cooler than the 120mm main gun on my tank! Something so cool about it ejecting the casings 100ft in the air!
Antwerp-X, the air defence of Antwerp against V-1s, was based entirely on anti-aircraft artillery, and was the most effective air defence campaign in history, knocking down something like 98% of the attackers.
Man, I absolutely LOVE this channel!!!
Thanx Ian!
Holy crap!
I had no idea Sweden made these cool weapons on your channel.
I know Sweden is incredibly good at making stuff, sorta like the Germans. Perfectionists. But I didn't know they made so much cool weapons. That is super cool!
I'm learning so much fun war stuff here.
The Australians managed to cram one into a Beaufighter.
john fisk wtf australia
Why
Why you do this
we are crazy bastards
The brits managed to cram an auto 6lb'er called the mollins into the mossies; apparently the recoil caused some pilots to become mildly perturbed ;P
Ooo... Cool... When will the Mud test be posted?! And let's not forget the run n' gun challenge!
What a beautiful piece of equipment. Another great video man thank you
SOO very cool Ian, love everything you do to share firearm history, THANK YOU !
Remember to put the out riggers down when shooting at Japanese submarines.
1941 a classic i forgot about that movie.
A number of E baots got a nasty shock when these were mounted on the Royal Navy's Steam Gun Boats. The Germans mounted them on AA barges called F Lighters along with 88mm guns, gave a number of MTB's and Allied Aircraft a nasty suprise when used for Channel Convoy defence.
That's what I was thinking the whole time I was watching! What missed opportunity for a humorous intro or outro!
Spill the beans !! What movie?
@@51WCDodge 1941
Ian and Carl should use the 40mmBofors in the next 2 gun match...with a side arm as the 2nd gun 😁
@@nubcake67 don't be rediculious 🤣
Of course the sidearm would have to be the 20 mm Lahti 😂
@@154Kilroy but...Ian loves his Balister Malena...🤔
Well, I just figured a nice 20mm Lahti would be a good proportional sidearm to a 40 mm Bofors 😂
@@154Kilroy i see what you did there lol...well played sir. A 20mm would get the job done for sure in a 2 gun match...
Now...the question is...do Ian/Carl read these comments and will they comply with out rediculios demands 🤔
I really appreciate when You show us military equipment from my tiny country xD love your channel Ian.
The Swedes are damn good weapons designers, including the Gripen fighter.
I've been watching your videos for over 4 years now and you still surprise me every time with the enthusiasm and almost childish joy you get out of these things. I mean it's hard not to enjoy a 40mm AA cannon... but I still think you are one lucky dude to have a job this cool ;)
Wow, Firestone and Chrystler each had a hand in making this weapon.
And to think, I buy my tires from Firestone to this day.
Total War is a crazy thing.
Also worth noting that splitting the two positions between Traverse and Elevate allowed the traverse Guy to focus on the Lead compensation and the flight time of the projectile to the target while the elevate guy would be doing the same thing but with the projectiles drop relative to shooting at different angles and distances to the target - the way they divided these two complex tasks is very elegant. What a beautiful piece of craftsmanship these things are. My favorite ever is in 1941 when Dan Aykroyd gives the extensive and well explained list of "things to never ever do with your Bofors 40mm Anti-aircraft gun" after dropping one off on the California Coast and giving the civilian to whom it's been entrusted at least 3 minutes on how to "Never, ever, under any circumstances, employ the Gun" - it was Brilliant! : D Great Video Ian! - MM in Denver CO
I have happy memories of firing one of these (on the Mk 9 mount, electrically driven and controlled by a single gunner) as a CCF Navy cadet aged 16 on a gunnery course at HMS Excellent (then the RN gunnery school). We fired breakup shot, lead balls in a bakelite case, which had a danger area 120 degrees each side of the muzzle for about 50 metres. The cadet loading the thing would get the occasional lead shot pinging off his steel helmet, and there must have been a fine drizzle of lead shot and bakelite fragments falling on the nudist beach below the cliff the battery was sited on.
When I was a kid in the 1960's I took a tour with a youth group of the local Coast Guard training facility and they had one of the twin barrel electrically directed Bofors there. We we allowed to try it and was setup to simulate firing and the director part was like a 20mm remote rig that you used. Really makes an impression on you when your 10 years old!
I always wanted to see how one of these works
Watch the Steven Spielberg movie "1941" with John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd - >Never insert a ammunition clip into the feeder mechanism, never operate the manual breach lever, never depress the trigger pedal...< :D
You know, I can't really call the most famous AA gun in history a *forgotten* weapon...
Serbia shot down several hundred drones with this gun, even some helicopters back in '99.
Nikola Petrović
We are sorry, that war should have been avoided
@@Jakob_DK yes stil many people die from cancer today because of the bombing
LoL guy 27
Then we should help you with treatment of them.
@@Jakob_DK i dont think the usa cares about serbia
Well it's not like UAVs of the time were hard to kill.
The US Navy developed the Mark 57 Gunfire Control System late in the war. It wasn't really a better optical control system than the original Mark 51 director, but it added radar for use in reduced visibility conditions. One Mark 57 then controlled four Mark 51 directors. The Mark 51's were still useful in good visibility, but any massed gunfire lasting more than a minute or so caused the targets to be obscured by gun smoke. That's when the Mark 57 took over and controlled the four 40 mm quad mounts instead of the four separate Mark 51 directors.