The 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun is one of the most successful designs of all time. It was first produced in 1932 and a heavily modernised version is still being manufactured today. Used by many nations, the British first started testing examples in 1937 and it quickly became the army’s standard light AA weapon and by 1942 5,025 were being produced a year. The weapon also saw extensive service with the Royal Navy on board ships as an effective defence against aircraft and light craft. The bofors used a clip of four rounds of fixed ammunition that was fed manually into the top of the gun:
Tonight we are looking at the casing from one of these rounds. This a tall and slender case, made of drawn brass:
A large groove at the base engages with the loading clips and is used as part of the feed mechanism of the gun:
The base of the casing is heavily marked with various marks, dates and proofs:
These all have their own meanings:
Cyril Perkins commanded a bofors gun detachment on the coast of England:
Those aircraft recognition charts crowded into my mind as the silhouettes of ME 109’s momentarily filled my binocular lenses. ‘Engage’ I screamed and back came the response ‘On’ and again ‘On’ as the two aircraft now with swastikas clearly visible came within range but no order to ‘Fire’ came from Bob and I looked across to determine Why ?
The Bofors Gun was depressed below zero degrees and could not be fired until the elevation moved above zero plus five and we waited as precious seconds ticked by.
Some four hundred yards from shore the two planes separated and zoomed upwards to make a circular attack on Sandown and in that instant the elevation moved above zero plus five and Bob yelled ‘Fire’. But it was too late as our tracers screamed skywards our target banked and swung away out of range. We watched and waited helplessly as the two planes swooped on Sandown and dropped the bombs they carried under each wing. Then they were over us again and our tracers joined with others as we concentrated on the plane seawards of us.
I heard the chatter of our quadruple Lewis Guns as Tommy and Toddy blazed away at the second plane as it crossed our dead arc and then it happened. Tracers and aeroplane merged into a huge crimson flame and our target literally disintegrated before our eyes. As we stopped firing bits of aircraft floated seawards dropping into the sea below causing hardly a ripple on the water then disappearing as the ever hungry waves devoured them. I scanned for another target but the one that got away was already a fading dot above the ocean a survivor perhaps to placate a German mother who would mourn the loss of a son that day.
It is a simple pressed metal cover, with a thicker lip soldered on around the base to protect a vulnerable area:
The cover is stencilled around the bottom half of the cone, this indicates that this was produced in 1942:
And is for a No 207 fuze:
This fuze was a clockwork fuze, highly conical in shape, and used with the 3.7 inch anti-aircraft gun:
The 3.7 Inch AA gun was Britain’s major anti-aircraft gun of the Second World War and remained in service until 1957 and underwent development throughout the war with better fuzes, settings and predictors to enable it to keep up with improvements in German aircraft.
Tom Overs was a small boy during the war and remembers:
The heads of each round are crimped, with a waterproofing agent to seal the end of the round from moisture entering:
The head stamp of the round indicates it was made by Radway Green in 2011 and is the L18A1 round:
These rounds were issued in cardboard boxes, each holding twenty rounds. These boxes were broken open and magazines loaded from these. The SA80 has specialist blank magazines that only work with blank ammunition and cannot take ball rounds for safety purposes. In order to load it was typical to empty the rounds out into a safe receptacle such as a helmet or beret so they didn’t get lost or dirty before the magazine was filled.
And a belt of blank ammunition:
Ammunition for both belts is held together with small stamped metal spring clips:
These interlock with each other:
The casings of the rounds themselves hold each together with its neighbour:
The action of the GPMG draws each round out in turn to fire and as each is pulled out a link falls free, disintegrating the belt into its constituent parts.
The baton itself can be seen poking out of the top of the casing and is a black rubber cylinder with a slightly rounded end:
The base of the cartridge has a brass insert where a .38 blank would be located to launch the round:
This can be clearly seen in a cutaway:
The baton round is marked in white on the main body with the words ‘ROUND 37mm AEP L60A1:
A further letter code of ‘BBB’ is on the opposite side of the casing in much smaller white letters:
The official description of the weapons system is:
This particular clip is particularly impressive when laid alongside a charger of five .303 blanks:
These clips were not used to load the rifle with like that of the Lee Enfield, but rather to hold a magazine’s worth of ammunition together in one easy to handle package. The clips are made of brass, with a flat spring in the base to provide some pressure to hold the rounds in place:
This charger is stamped ‘CHP’ and the date of 1941:
CHP stands for ‘Charles Pugh’ who manufactured the clip. Other clip markings include ‘MS’ for Meyer & Sons, ‘MUL’ for Midland Utilities Ltd and a Canadian manufacturer ‘VEP’ which were Villas Enamel Products of Orillia, Ontario.
The dates of these rounds indicate production continued into 1943, long after the Boys was obsolete as an anti-tank rifle. Its continued service came about as it was an excellent anti-materiel rifle that was effective against pill boxes, machine gun nests and lightly armoured vehicles and even the US Army borrowed a small quantity to use in this long range role.
This webbing case is secured up the front with three hook and staple type quick release tab pull fasteners:
Inside is space to hold six two-inch mortar bombs:
The underside of the top flap is marked to indicate it was made by MECo in 1943:
It is on the rear however that things get really interesting:
A pouch is fitted for the drop line:
A cord was tied to the very heavy duty loop at the top, then coiled and fitted into the pocket, the other end being tied to the paratrooper. When the case was released, the cord payed out from this pouch before coming to a stop when all the cord was deployed. Four brass loops are also fitted to the rear:
These allowed the case to be attached to a webbing harness on the soldier’s thigh. When he pulled a quick release tab, these fastenings came undone and the pouch was free to fall. Webbing loops are fitted to the side of the case at the side of each loop as part of this securing process:
The frame attached to the leg was this one, the wire being the quick release pull:
In the end these cases were dropped in favour of larger, more general purpose drop bags that allowed more than just the ammunition to be carried. Wilfred jones was a Sapper armed with a two inch mortar who parachuted into Normandy and he describes the amount of kit he had to carry: