To put into perspective how much flakk late war american navy had, fleet amassed near Iwo-ijma could throw over a ton (literaly) of lead into air every minute from AA guns alone.

@eugeneoliveros5814

2 жыл бұрын

so what im hearing is, If you could collect the shrapnel of all the flak rounds fired in the pacific, i could make multiple warships out of it?

@hongo3870

2 жыл бұрын

@@eugeneoliveros5814 you could probably make a destroyer out of it yeah. Kinda... makes you wonder what all that lead has been doing in the sea since then. Probably gonna bite us in the ass in the future, lead-lined fish.

@einundsiebenziger5488

2 жыл бұрын

... literally* a ton, but not lead, since projectiles were made out all sorts of metal like steel, brass or copper, never lead.

@5RndsFFE

2 жыл бұрын

Flak shells wouldn’t use lead, as lead has a low melting point and the point of flak is not a direct hit but rather a cloud of shrapnel. Flak shells had a thin shell wall with a modest HE filler, which when the fuze functioned caused the shell to rupture into fragments ranging from a fingernail to a hand. The whole idea being you would destroy control surfaces, ignite fuel tanks, kill crew etc.

@tazzydevil6638

2 жыл бұрын

May I say... That's a lot of flak.

The Bofors 40mm is one of those weapons systems that are just _perfect._ It sits in a place occupied by the Browning M2 and only a handful of other weapons, being old as the hills and yet still so fantastically reliable and lethal that nobody sees a need to create a flat-out replacement.

@Jamesbrown-xi5ih

5 ай бұрын

The old M1 and M2 L60 40 mm BOFORS are still valid, and the L70 variants are absolutely amazing as a modern weapons platform. Especially when used with modern ammunition and fire control. 3P and APFSDS rounds for the BOFORS are very capable.

@Loli4lyf

3 ай бұрын

i mean from what I've seen in movies and documentary it can literally fire nonstop without jamming so I don't see any reason to replace it

@simonnachreiner8380

3 ай бұрын

The Maxim water cooled machine gun is the grandfather of that list. Came into service twenty years after the American civil war and is still seeing service to this day In militaries around the world. Literally the only downside to it is that It’s an anti-infantry weapon.

@PolymurExcel

Ай бұрын

The 105 mm and 155 mm howtizers are more or less the same when they were first pushed into service. Sure the model has changed, but the concept and mechanism are virtually unchanged.

Here in Crete , you can easily spot bofors AA guns that took place in th3 defence of Crete, even more suprisingly is that the elevation and rotation still works fine

@QuietFromMetalGearSolid

2 жыл бұрын

Would go there every weekend to play with the guns

@thomaslad1929

2 жыл бұрын

Ok I'm moving to Crete just to mess with that

@Dave-jj3fk

2 жыл бұрын

Do you know where in Crete? I’m tryna look at them from google maps but they don’t have any war memorial or gun locations pointed out like some other countries do like Japan and america

@einundsiebenziger5488

2 жыл бұрын

... AA guns that took part* in the* defense of Crete ...

@AremStefaniaK

Жыл бұрын

in my hometown the garden maintenance teams welded the controls shut so that kids dont play with them in the woods:(

A version of the bofors is still in use on Swedish CV90 IFVs, it’s the main gun.

@doso4782

2 жыл бұрын

I think it is also used on som Swedish mine clearance vessels.

@justsomehaatonpassingby4488

2 жыл бұрын

And as CIWS on some ships... The Italians slapped 2 bofors, increased its fire rate to 300-450 rpm, and made it a CIWS... I dunno how effective it is against modern aircraft and munitions, but at least against modern ships, which is lightly armored as compared to their ww2 counterparts, and small boats this thing is very effective against

@mike-hunt3527

2 жыл бұрын

also the k21 ifv!

A classic anti aircraft gun that is on pretty much any US museum ship you can visit. Watching this video reminded me the story how during the Battle of Samar, as the Japanese bore down on Taffy 3’s escort carriers, an American officer on one of the carriers shouted to the ship’s anti-aircraft gunners, “Just wait a little longer boys, we’re suckering them into 40-mm range.”

@EligibleBubble

2 жыл бұрын

That battle definitely needs a movie adaptation. Just the amount of courage and the audacity of the crews needs to be told

@zephyr6877

Жыл бұрын

@@EligibleBubble I still cant believe there isnt a modern movie about it. If people didnt know the real life story they would say its unrealistic if it happened in a movie. Such an incredible story

@awldune

Жыл бұрын

I had a lot of fun as a kid turning the handwheels on these on the Yorktown (CV-10)

@Yamato-tp2kf

Жыл бұрын

@@EligibleBubble But without the Hollywood useless spice of things that didn't really happened... That would be great!!!

@johnkearns2444

10 ай бұрын

I believe that for sure.

A good testimate to how much fire the US navy could put up, the USS Enterprise once asked the USS North Carolina if she was on fire while the latter was providing a heavy AA barrage. The only fire on North Carolina was that spewing from her AA guns, the smoke of which to Enterprise looked as if the battleship had caught fire. And this was in 1942. American anti-aircraft defenses would only get stronger as the war continued.

@Yamato-tp2kf

Жыл бұрын

Yep, I remember some veterans talking about that in videos but also in the 10 episode of Battle 360 Enterprise, I think it was in the battle of the Eastern Solomons or the Battle of Santa Cruz

@The-python-guy

3 ай бұрын

boy I thought you were talking about star trek

@42meep13

3 ай бұрын

@@The-python-guy where do you think NCC-1701 got it's name?

@megalodon7916

2 ай бұрын

Yeah. The ships of the US Navy ships had the best anti-aircraft defenses amongst the warring nations by the end of the war. AA guns were installed everywhere they could be on ships of all types. The bigger surface ships like battleships and cruisers were covered bow to stern with Oerlikons, Bofors, and of course the 5-inch/38 caliber dual-purpose guns. It really did look like the ships and the skies around them were on fire when they were firing all their AA guns. I’ve heard interviews from veterans describing the sight.

I was a gun commander of a 40mm Bofors L-70 gun in the Norwegian Air Defence in 1990. It was electro-hydraulicly powered and coupled to the whole NATO tracking/targeting radar system and fired proximity-fused shells at a rate of 240/min (if memory serves) - it made a hell of a racket on auto. We also had a coupla quad-mounted Browning M2 12,7mm pieces supporting each cannon - for really low flying aircraft and close ground support (you do not want to be at the point where those 4 streams of lead converge, very unhealthy). These quads were also radar guided (on 'auto-mode' -- everything could either be manually sighted or even hand-cranked in case of total power failure).

During the raids on Darwin, a single Japanese pilot had picked up the habit of flying down the local airbase's runways, emptying his ammunition into anything that took his fancy. This was, of course, something of an annoyance to RAAF personnel. Then a Bofors and its crew were reassigned from the Middle East. They were set up at the intersection of the two runways. Having gained plenty of experience knocking down Stukas in the desert, they made pretty quick work of the intruding Zero the next time he showed up.

@ShortArmOfGod

Жыл бұрын

Citation required.

@keithw4920

Жыл бұрын

@@ShortArmOfGod pretty unlikely I think? The IJN did not raid with single fighters.

@Spudtron98

11 ай бұрын

@@keithw4920 It was an escort for the bombers.

@damndirtyrandy7721

11 ай бұрын

@@keithw4920 No where was it written that the Zero was attacking the airfield alone, just making a gun run alone. This tactic correlates to other documented gun runs by Zero pilots at Henderson Field during the Pearl Harbor attack and Clark Air Base in the Philippines. One Zero attempting this maneuver at Henderson Field, flying at approximately 10’ was shot down by a soldier firing a M1 Garand. He dropped that playboy for getting cocky.

@nursestoyland

11 ай бұрын

⁠@@damndirtyrandy7721what year was this, 1942 or 1943? And was the person an army or marine, because Ik that the marines used M1903s before the army arrived

I worked and instructed on the Bofors from 1993 to about 2006. As a weapon, I loved it. As a basic introduction to more complex weapon systems it was ideal. In that it was easy to strip down, and gave trainees a basic insight into how any naval gun worked.

@jacobmccandles1767

2 жыл бұрын

It's very cool to me that my Dad's weapon from WWII is still in use today. Well...his *crew served* weapon at least. His Winchester '97, not so much, although it'd still be capable.

A couple of side points. The Bofors ammunition self destructed after about 7 seconds making is a great weapon for city defence, you didn't have unexploded shells raining down on the city. Most AA rounds were also a form of tracer so that the gunner could adjust their lead. Commonwealth Bofors, UK, Canadian and Australian were/are a bitch to get parts for as they were virtually hand made. It wasn't until the USA geared up that all their guns came out the same with the machine heads drilling multiple holes in exactly the same places every time. Another odd fact is that the breech units came in left and right hand versions. It's a notch in the breech casing where the ammunition clip falls out. This was originally on the left of the breech but when ships started mounting the guns in pairs they needed both a left and right hand version as the two breeches were hard against each other. This meant that there were three different breech castings; a left side notch, a right side notch and some with a notch on both sides. Because of all this the rear ammunition feed also came in a left and right hand version too.

I love that the US navy’s motto during WW2 was basically “If it floats, stick and AA gun on it!”

@ComissarYarrick

2 жыл бұрын

To be honest, land army had exatly the same mindset with M2 .50 cals :D

@nylkul9933

2 жыл бұрын

Well it was in response to Kido Butai's motto of "If it floats, we will bomb/torpedo the living shit out of it".

@DeltaDarbyLiberator

2 жыл бұрын

...and much of that is down to Admiral Willis 'Ching' Lee. He instructed them to put as many guns on the boats and ships as possible...

@cameronnewton7053

2 жыл бұрын

Drachinifel once said that if the US navy could put AA guns on the keel of ships they would. That way even if the ship rolled over and sank they could still fire back!

@derekr1282

2 жыл бұрын

@@cameronnewton7053 I also remember Drach mentioning in one of his videos that during one of the early battles in the Pacific (I think it was Midway) an officer on one American capital ship was so impressed by the effect of the increased AA of his ship that in his report of the battle he inquired into the possibility of removing the ship's belt armor to free up displacement for even more daka.

My uncle served WW2 in RN. He topped his gunnery course and was immediately assigned to 40 Bofors corvette navy. And not the heavier main deck gun. He asked why and was told they always desired thier best gunners to anti aircraft best armament. Ship often may not survive just one aerial attack.

the 40mm bofors is capable of firing a wide array of ammunition. not only HE. And later variants are also still in-service both in its ww2 role on modern ships today, in the form of the DARDO CWIS. but also in SPAAGs and IFVs, outside of it also being in some variants of AC-130.

@brudnick39

2 жыл бұрын

It looks like all the versions of the AC-130 with the Bofors have been retired...all the ones flying now have the 30mm/105mm gun package.

@DominusRexDK

2 жыл бұрын

@@brudnick39 might be, im not much of an air guy, I knew that the later versions are being equipped with the bushmaster 30mm, but dont know if they have retired or refitted all the earlier versions.

@Tealice1

2 жыл бұрын

Not entirely true. Most post war and contemporary 40mm guns are using the L/70. The gun discussed in this video however is the L/60 an older and not the same model.

@DominusRexDK

2 жыл бұрын

@@Tealice1 "later variants"

@Riceball01

Жыл бұрын

@@Tealice1 A lot people don't realize that there's more to a gun's caliber than just its bore diameter. Many people, when they see a gun that's chambered for, say, 40mm, and they see another that's 40mm automatically think that since both are 40mm they fire the exact same caliber round not realizing that the projectile or the shell casing could be dirrent lengths or the round itself having a slightly different shape. A good example of this is the 88mm gun mounted on the Tiger I (KwK 36 L/56) and the 88 on the King Tiger, (8.8 cm KwK 43 L71) both were 88s but they have different barrel lengths and fire different shells, with the shells of the 88 on the King Tiger being longer than those of the Tiger I.

It should also be noted that Sweden would develop a version usable in tanks for use in the CV90-40 IFV, a multi-role platform capable of firing proximity fused HE shells and APFSDS rounds in the post-war period.

@alltat

2 жыл бұрын

They're still in service as the strf90, though most of the vehicles built were for intended export and are armed with lower caliber Bushmaster autocannons.

@AnonyMous-ql9nj

Жыл бұрын

@@alltat Thats mainly because Norway/Denmark which were the main users of those wanted them to have lower caliber for other purposes.

My father used these during the second war with the Canadian Army. What l remember him telling me in particular was if you turn this against ground troops, you've got the biggest machine gun in the world. Whenever they came across Germans dug in under cover on woodlines, they would aim about 10 feet above their positions and go for the trees. The resullting splinters would turn them into human porcupines.

@SilliamWilliam-xb7sl

10 ай бұрын

Cool

@swampfox1776.

4 ай бұрын

Yes...get some. Ooouurahhhh

I like it when you talk about the lesser known equipment/vehicles of WW2. Lots of things are overshadowed. I am personally hoping for a B-24 video.

@kylegendreau1801

2 жыл бұрын

That would be awesome!

@JohnnyJohnsonEsq

2 жыл бұрын

B-24 is absolutely on my list

@slapper360

2 жыл бұрын

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq WOOOOOOOOOOOOO

@kylegendreau1801

2 жыл бұрын

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Heinkel too!!!!!

@CreamTheEverythingFixer

2 жыл бұрын

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Looking forward to it then, like I do for any video you make.

The 20mm orlikon should come next.

@nicethings3844

2 жыл бұрын

Yep

@SRV2013

2 жыл бұрын

@@nicethings3844 To this very day, the US is blowing up all the 20mm rounds made for WWII in McAlester, OK. I have witnessed this personally.

@keegantripp1245

2 жыл бұрын

@@SRV2013 let me guess…too old?

@tuscanyjc

2 жыл бұрын

It came out of Spain!

@jacobmccandles1767

2 жыл бұрын

@@tuscanyjc the Swiss made it actually work!

Later versions of the Bofors are still available today but fully automatic. As a Midshipman I was gun captain of a Bofors aboard an Australian destroyer. The ship also carried radar controlled twin-barrel STAAG mounts

@kullenberg83

Жыл бұрын

the 40mm have allways only been fully automatic, lower rate of fire was dictated by the gunners foot while the max rof was 120/240.

The 40mm Bofors would be used on SPAAG (Self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon) such as the M19 MGMC and M42 Duster and would be used in Vietnam.

@WandererRTF

2 жыл бұрын

Finns had 40mm Bofors on a Swedish build SPAAG during the WWII: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landsverk_L-62_Anti_II

@ffjsb

2 жыл бұрын

I think a Sherman with twin 40's would've been a great infantry support vehicle.

@NevilofMars

2 жыл бұрын

@@ffjsb The M42 Duster served that role in Vietnam.

@Revener666

Жыл бұрын

@@WandererRTF Hungary made a version of that too, called Nimrod.

My great grandfather aimed a Bofors gun on a destroyer in WWII and fought in the battle of Leyte Gulf. Appreciate you making this video.

Fun Fact: Japan captured several Bofors guns after the fall of Singapore and were made operational. They tried making a copy of the gun but was too late to see service, having never resolve the issues such as fuse charges.

Something I also enjoy about Johnny's channel is the comments section. I invariably end up learning facts there, too, and (no jinx!) the conversations are pretty civil even when there are disagreements.

@JohnnyJohnsonEsq

2 жыл бұрын

Me too! KZread can be a harsh place but I'm lucky enough to have a majority of good comments with excellent info. I'm learning from the comments everyday.

I have lost count of how many small, rural towns I have seen in Australia that have a war memorial that, usually along with a cenotaph, has a deactivated Bofors on display. That legendary gun is ubiquitous!

My old 40/60 is retired on HMAS Vampire (DD11). Currently in the maritime museum Sydney Australia. I can go and sit in the gunner’s seat any time I want. Under electrical motors it was useful against surface targets and I enjoyed firing it. The sea state was critical in whether we could hit anything and she had a 5 man crew twin barrels. I have a photo of me sitting in the aimer’s seat when I was a young man.

@jacobmccandles1767

2 жыл бұрын

That's neat that you can do that. My Dad's ship was scrapped in El Salvador, 1959.

The development of the proximity fuse made AA fire 5-10 times more effective.

@grizwoldphantasia5005

Жыл бұрын

Yes, but only the 5" shells. There were 3" VT shells eventually, but I don't think during WW II. The 40mm was way too small.

4:11 Refers to a Bofors shooting down a Me262. In my early teenage years, I read "Wing Leader", by Johnnie Johnson. In it, he told how he flew to Holland late in the War to take command of a Spitfire Wing. He landed at the airfield in his brand-new Mark XIV Spitfire, just in time for a strafing attack by a Me262. The jet was leaving at high speed and flew right into the line of fire of a Bofors that just happened to be pointing in the right direction. The gunner fired a four-round clip and that was that. I wonder if that was the incident referred to in this video?

There's a very good old British black and white movie starring a young Richard Attenborough called 'Guns at Batasi'. It featured a pair of Bofors in the middle of an African parade ground playing a very important role in the story. Worth a watch. Thanks for another very good video!

@himoffthequakeroatbox4320

Жыл бұрын

Do they get caught up in the middle of revolution? Think I've seen it.

Yet another great vid, I really appreciate the work you put into finding so many different film clips, and the way in which you share facts is so smoothly integrated half the time I don't even realize that I'm learning new stuff.

Awesome video!! During 1970s-1980s, the US Army was working on a SPAAG (Self Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun) known as the M247 SGT YORK. This was to be a divisional asset and fitted with 2ea 40mm Bofors. Due to budgetary constraints and numerous testing failures, the vehicle was canceled sometime around 1985. Something like 30 or so were made for testing purposes, but since the project was canceled, only a few survive in either museums or static displays on some Army installations, most of the other vehicles were utilized as targets.

Sweden has many a lot of models under the Bofors name. Some were large 120mm guns that had higher rates of fire to others, to their model 57mm Bofors used like the 5in on US destroyers.

The proximity fuse was the greatest improvement in the effectiveness of the Bofors.

@jimpolk2652

Жыл бұрын

The VT proximity fuse was not used on the bofors during WW2. The fuse was too large for 40mm shells. The smallest caliber it could fit was the 3 inch.

Thank you for all your efforts, J (and your listing in the description of all the films in the video)!

Not sure if it is featured in any movies but the M19 GMC was used extensively during the Korean War as an anti-personnel weapon. The "Twin 40" consisted of two 40mm Bofors mounted on a M24 Chaffee chassis originally designed for air defense. It was soon used to break up human wave attacks employed by the Chinese People's Volunteer Army. During the Vietnam War, the updated M42 Duster, which was twin Bofors mounted on a M41 Walker Bulldog chassis, was also used against infantry.

I hired in Chrysler as a mechanical engineer in 1977. Someone took me over to the building that was next to ours. He said that bofor guns were manufactured there during ww2. That was in highland park michigan. In the early 1990s we moved out to auburn hills. The whole highland park engineering center was demolished.

Finland also used the Bofors guns as very effective anti-tank weapons in the Winter War 1939-1940 against the Red Army. Also, I think the Israelis did the same thing in 1948-1949.

The bofors are great weapons. As they’ve been shown to hold up in situations like the AC-130 which uses them very effectively.

@brudnick39

2 жыл бұрын

Sadly, the Bofors is no longer flying in the current AC-130 fleet...it looks like all the version that had it have been retired.

@kylegendreau1801

2 жыл бұрын

@@brudnick39 bruh no way. That’s wack

@brudnick39

2 жыл бұрын

@@kylegendreau1801 I gather they had been having trouble finding parts and and ammo for the Bofors for quite a while now, and had been looking to replace it. The 30mm is new and shiny, and they seem to be happy with it.

@kylegendreau1801

2 жыл бұрын

@@brudnick39 I’m sure some other countries would have quite a few still in service today no?

@brudnick39

2 жыл бұрын

@@kylegendreau1801 Not a huge number of nations use them, but there are signing users still. Although I am pretty sure the older model L60 WW2 guns are now pretty rare in service. Most countries that use Bofors use the newer L70 model.

Minor correction, I think...it looks like the current models of the AC-130 that are in service now finally do NOT have the Bofors 40mm cannon in their armament packages anymore. The AC-130W and AC-130J both use the 30mm and 105mm cannons...no more Bofors. (Taps plays sadly in the background) 😪😪😪

@jamesharding3459

2 жыл бұрын

But it’s still in use on CV90 variants and several small naval ships.

@jamalwilburn228

2 жыл бұрын

Bofa is also used on the AC-130

@jamesharding3459

2 жыл бұрын

@@jamalwilburn228 Not any more, thankfully!

@brudnick39

2 жыл бұрын

@@jamalwilburn228 Yeah, the 40mm Bofors was finally not used in the latest variants of the AC-130...all the older versions that had it were retired.

@brudnick39

2 жыл бұрын

@@jamesharding3459 That is true...though, I think those all use the newer L70 version from the 1950s, don't they?

i had the chance to sit on one at a museum for the navy here, my friends and i were on a school trip and all of us were super into world war 2 weaponry, so you can imagine how a bunch of 15 year olds instantly crewed the thing. we tried our best not to slam the barrel into the walls but uhh, well it has an amazing horizontal rate of travel

Well made this one! Nice that it also includes Soldier of Orange (1977 ) at 01:25 . The bunker scenes were filmed in Herenduin in Ijmuiden in Holland, so real Atlantic Wall bunkers.

I've seen many of those weapons in person and they are my favorite AA gun to be honest. I even got to watch one fire off a few blanks once. It was mounted on LST 325 while she was docked in Dubuque IA.

Twin Bofors were also mounted on tank chassis and used in both Korea and Vietnam with great effect.

Not only was this a great watch it's also given me a couple of films to check out that I've not seen before...... good work sir.

My Dad's Legion Hall has a 40mm Bofors twin donated by the USN back in the 70's. When I was a kid you could still turn and elevate the barrels and I was fascinated by the long, curved troughs that spent shells slid down and out the front. One 4th of July a friend and I were shooting fireworks around it and some teenagers in a pickup fired some bottle rockets at us. We waited and stuck a Saturn Missile battery in both barrels and trained the gun on them as they passed. They took cover in the bed of the pickup and never came by again!

@jgold2813

8 ай бұрын

I got to go see uss Alabama back in summer july 1969ish they had got the sub Drum had just got there next door but i stayed on the big boat playing and moving the 40mm Bofors like 2 or 3 hours till it got too hot fun times😎

Excellent video. I like how you give us the history of the gun as well.

Good commentary. Held me all the way through!

I was in Yugoslav Army gunner on Bofors 40mm/L70 very good AA Gun for low jets, helicopter ....

In the Philippines, the Philippine marines mounted the 40mm Bofors to an armored truck

My father was part of a twin Bofors 40 mm bow mounted gun on LSM312 in the Pacific in WW2. It was the largest weapon on this small ship.

There was a 1968 movie starring Nicol Williamson, Peter Vaughan, Ian Holm, and David Warner titled, "The Bofors Gun"

I got to sit in the gunner's seat of a real Bofors 40mm twin mounted anti-aircraft. It was at a veteran's memorial. The guns came of the USS Polk County which was an LST landing ship

In 1972, with John Pertwee, Dr who and the Sea Devils features a Bofors 40mm. In filming they did not have use permission, but the actor playing Captain Hart was in uniform and told a seaman to show him how to use it. The seaman obliged thinking he was a real captain. So, they got it in the program. Not exactly military but I thought it might interest a few anoraks😀

Thanks for the informative but still highly entertaining vid about the bofors 40mm. Off tangent, I wonder if bofors 40mm was also used by ships on the Atlantic convoys against the U-boats.

@JohnnyJohnsonEsq

2 жыл бұрын

I believe so! I think it even highlights in the movie Greyhound which I forgot to explore for this video.

@angloirishcad

2 жыл бұрын

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Yes, in the book the Cruel Sea by Montserrat (who served in the battle) AA fire is used on a rising u boat

@42meep13

2 жыл бұрын

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq Ah yes when a German U-boat decided it was a good idea to get into a gunfight with a Mahan Class destroyer (played by a Fletcher-class destroyer)

My father was in the Navy in WWII in the Pacific. He referred to these guns as twin shooters.He was a signalman so he spent a lot of time on the bridge which gave him a front row seat!!!! So to speak........

There is a Bofors at Juno beach, I got to stand up close and touch it! Also saw the Bofors on the HMCS Haida when it was in Toronto. Really cool. There are actually quite a few around in static displays!!

@jamalwilburn228

2 жыл бұрын

There are Bofas coming to see your girl tonight

My grandpa "helped with the 40mm guns" on the USS Wasp (the cvs-18) during WW2. In retrospect, I'm surprised he could hear as well as he did!

Surprised you didn’t use footage from Greyhound of Bofors 40mm peppering surfaced uboats.

@JohnnyJohnsonEsq

2 жыл бұрын

I have no idea how I overlooked that movie. I always overlook something glaringly obvious every video =/

@MaxwellAerialPhotography

2 жыл бұрын

@@JohnnyJohnsonEsq may i suggest something. You should set up some sort of content advisory group, 3-10 people who will preview a video 24-48 hours before release, to look for this sort of thing, along with basic editing or recording mistakes and fact checking. I would make sure that whomever is included in this group, you instruct explicitly on what you are, and are not asking to them to look for and comment upon. Cheers Johnny, great work as always.

1:50 there's something very satisfying about how the L/70 launches its spent shell casings

There is an interesting story in Mike Carleton's excellent book 'Flagship' - a heavy treaty cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy, H.M.A.S. Australia was an early casualty of the Kamikaze in 1944. It was realised that the 20mm Oerlikon guns were not that effective against a plunging kamikaze and that the ship needed further 40mm Bofors mounts (preferably dual or quad). It would take some time to return to Sydney and have them fitted etc. Do, the Gunnery Officer provided the United States Navy Base at Truk with several cases of Scotch and H.M.A.S. Australia received a number of Bofors mounts in less than a week! Such was the logistical strength of the US during WW2

@jefferyindorf699

Жыл бұрын

Also the strength of Scotch. 😆

I had horrible allergies from the wind today. Thanks for the cheer up

Thanks Johnny again. Very interesting, and as usual I get some new movies to check out. Cheers

Fact: the Bofors 40mm was used during the Vietnam war in the M42 Duster with dual mounted 40mm Bofors

@AlleyCatGhost

2 жыл бұрын

Duster wasn't very effective if I remember correctly

@dukecraig2402

2 жыл бұрын

@@AlleyCatGhost Oh yes it was effective, in the 80's I was a Vulcan Air Defense Gunner, my Sgt Major had been on a Duster Gun in Vietnam, they used them for firebase security, what they'd do is load one barrel with the self destructing air defense rounds, when the NVA would attack they'd fire that barrel and then the NVA would move their mortar positions up to just outside the range where they'd self destruct, then they'd cut loose with the other barrel that didn't have self destructing rounds in it and like he said "Turn 'em inside out". Later he was on one of the 5 self propelled Vulcan guns sent over there, they used them to replace the quad .50's that were mounted on truck beds to escort convoys that'd been getting harassed, they put one at the front and one at the back of a convoy, he said as soon as an attack would start they'd "Turn the jungle into tossed salad", harassment of the convoys in that area fell to zero shortly after. It never made the press but Vulcans were also used to great effect against ground targets in the first Gulf War.

@AlleyCatGhost

2 жыл бұрын

@@dukecraig2402 that's super neat lol.I was just reading an article that the Duster was much more effective on infantry too

@dukecraig2402

2 жыл бұрын

@@AlleyCatGhost The North Vietnamese didn't fly anything over South Vietnam to speak of, they needed all their aircraft to defend their cities up north, this freed up any air defense guns in the south for ground work. Another trick they did with the Vulcan inside of firebases was to feignt loading it. It didn't take the NVA and VC long to figure out that when a Vulcan was being loaded it was vulnerable, loading one is quite a process that takes a good crew about 10+ minutes to complete, while it's being loaded it isn't easy to return to firing condition at a moments notice either, and the gun has to be turned to the 9 o'clock position to do it. What they'd do with a Vulcan inside a firebase is already have it loaded and ready to go but turn the gun to the 9 o'clock position and drop the ramp on the back and stack up a bunch of the 90 round ammo boxes around the back, this gave the appearance it was going through the loading process and was vulnerable giving the NVA a false sense of security, if they'd attack at that part of the perimeter the gunner would simply swing the gun around and cut loose.

@AlleyCatGhost

2 жыл бұрын

@@dukecraig2402 sneaky sneaky 💀 and very clever. I love war stories like this

I love the movie clips you have included in the presentation. I, who is a man saw the 1941 with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, and the naked gun with OJ and Nielsen in the therater when opened, am very impressed with your research on the subject. I must be an ancient now. Thanks for sharing.

@JohnnyJohnsonEsq

2 жыл бұрын

Well thanks for leaving some kind words

"Put up a wall of AA, I don't want a horse fly getting through!" American commander for Battlestations Pacific during the Okinawa mission

An iconic gun truly deserving of being immortalized in warhammer 40,000s 'autocannon', which in some cases is carried as a firearm by a lone infantryman in an exo-suit such as a terminator. Now THATS something I'd like to see irl.

Loving your videos mate! Learning a lot of things I never knew about the weapons you're presenting & also about a bunch of war movies I hadn't heard of! Please keep up the great work!

@JohnnyJohnsonEsq

Жыл бұрын

Thanks man! Half the fun is just exposing new movies forsure

Interesting video. The D-Day museum at Castle town, Portland has a Bofors 40mm on display. Also, I live near to two pairs of AA towers which had a Bofors on one of the towers and the predictor on the other. These were protecting the cordite factory at Holton Heath.

Dude this is so cool to learn about my mentor was a the gunner on one of these in the navy back in ww2

Just a couple of additions: 1) By the end of the war the Bofors 40 mm gun performance increased due to the use of proximity fuzes, however the kamikaze threat led the US Navy to replace the Bofors 40 mm by the heavier punch of the Mk.33/Mk.34 DP 3 in gun . That replacement would be effectively done after the war ended. 2) To my knowledge, the Bofors was previously used at least in the Spanish Civil War, as the Republicans imported 24 guns from Poland.

My father was a gunner in the Swedish army. They used radar controlled sights with their Bofors 40mm. The problem as often described, was to keep it fed with ammunition due to its firing rate. The sound of a bunch of these at full bore sent chills down the spine he said.

Have had the pleasure of firing one at a range day it was great

The US Navy had a good deal of pre-war interest in this weapon and BuOrd purchased a sample of an water-cooled twin version from Bofors in early 1940. Bofors instead sent an air-cooled version and this arrived in New York from Sweden on 28 August 1940. During the same month, the Dutch escort vessel van Kinsbergen demonstrated these weapons and their Hazemeyer control system to USN observers in a test off Trinidad. The observers were not impressed by the control system, but were favorably impressed by the guns themselves. BuOrd formally obtained Swedish licenses in June 1941, although some manufacturing had actually started prior to that time. Terms of the license included a $500,000 payment for the manufacturing rights plus $100,000 for two Bofors engineers to help set up production. The two engineers were never sent, so as a result this $100,000 was not paid. Bofors delivered a complete set of metric drawings as part of their end of this contract. It should be noted that the US Army and Navy considered the original Bofors Model 1936 design to be completely unsuitable for the mass production techniques required for the vast number of guns needed to equip the anti-aircraft batteries and ships of the US military. First, the Swedish guns were designed using metric measurement units, a system all but unknown in the USA at that time. Worse still, the dimensioning on the Swedish drawings often did not match the actual measurements taken of the weapons. Secondly, the Swedish guns required a great deal of hand work in order to make the finished weapon. For example, Swedish blueprints had many notes on them such as "file to fit at assembly" and "drill to fit at assembly," all of which took much production time in order to implement - there is a story that one USA production engineer remarked that the Bofors gun had been designed so as to eliminate the unemployment problems of the Great Depression. Third, the Swedish mountings were manually worked, while the USN required power-worked mountings in order to attain the fast elevation and training speeds necessary to engage modern aircraft. Fourth, the Swedish twin gun mounting supplied to the USA for evaluation was air-cooled, limiting its ability to fire long bursts, a necessity for most naval AA engagements. Finally, the USN rejected the Swedish ammunition design as it was not boresafe, the fuze was found to be too sensitive for normal shipboard use and its overall design was determined to be unsuitable for mass production. US manufacturers made radical changes to the Swedish design in order to minimize these problems and as a result the guns and mountings produced in the USA bore little resemblance to their Swedish ancestors. For example, all but the earliest US guns were built to English measurement units rather than to metric units. To give one additional example of the design differences made for USA produced weapons; the Chrysler Corporation redesigned ten components to suit mass production techniques and this was claimed to have saved some 7,500,000 pounds (3,402,000 kg) of material and 1,896,750 man hours during a year's production, as well as freeing up 30 machine tools for the production of other components. One firm rule adopted early in the redesign process was that any new Allied munition for these weapons needed to be completely interchangeable with existing designs. This allowed ammunition produced by any American or British ordnance manufacturer to be used with any weapon produced by either country, thus greatly simplifying the logistics problems of a world-wide war. In accordance with this rule, the USA originally adopted the British fuze design with the understanding that both the US Army and Navy "would be free to substitute components of proven reliability which would speed production." The fuze designed and produced in Britain was adopted as an interim measure by the USA, but this was considered to be of an unsafe design and unsuitable for mass production techniques. Fortunately, this fuze was almost immediately replaced by one designed by R.L. Graumann of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory. This fuze was simple in design and "ideally suited to mass production." Designated as the Mark 27, this new fuze was found to be 99.9 percent efficient in ballistic acceptance tests, a record not equaled by any other fuze of the time. Both the US Army and the British adopted this fuze for their own production lines. The USN estimated that the adoption of the Mark 27 saved some $250,000,000 during the war. Overall, the USA spent over $700,000,000 on 40 mm ammunition. The first USN pilot twin was completed in January 1942 and the first quad in April 1942. The first shipboard quad installation was on the gunnery-training ship (ex-battleship) USS Wyoming (AG-17) on 22 June 1942, and the first twin installation was on the destroyer USS Coghlan (DD-606) on 1 July 1942. The USA started a massive production program for these weapons and a monthly production rate of 1,600 Army guns and 135 Navy twin-barrel guns was achieved by December 1942. Production continued to ramp up in the following year, so much so that the Army found that they had more guns than they could field and production of air-cooled single guns fell from a peak of 13,485 in 1943 to 1,500 guns in 1944 and then halted with no guns for the Army being produced during the last year of the war.

On the USS Massachusetts, a South Dakota class battleship, you can operate 2 quad bofors on the fan rail of the ship.

“So effective was the bofors gun, it remains in service to this day” 50 Cal bullets: hey

My dad would have loved to see this. Thank you.

Thanks for sharing such videos with us.

*BOFORS yes thank you Johnny*

In Canada Bofors guns which were originally mounted on the aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure, built in WW2, were removed and put into storage when the ship went to the wreckers. They were pulled out of storage and sent to Germany for airfield defence in the 70s/80s. They were replaced in that roll by the Oerlikon Skyguard system with 35 mm AA guns and went back into storage. They were pulled out of storage in the 90s to equip the newly built Mine Warfare Coastal Defence Vessels, and AFAIK they are still in service in that roll. That's partly because they're good guns, but mostly because Canada is stupid cheap when it comes to defence. Also the limiting factor on the range with high explosive ammo is the self destruct function initiated by the tracer element burning through to the explosive charge.

@JohnnyJohnsonEsq

2 жыл бұрын

Excellent clarification on the range self destruction factor. I wanted to add that so I appreciate it.

@dukecraig2402

2 жыл бұрын

Same way the self destruct ammo worked on the 20mm Vulcan I was a crewman on.

@darkraven8103

2 жыл бұрын

The Kingston class ships actually had their 40mm bofors guns removed in the mid-late 2010s sadly. Though luckily all were placed ashore as museum pieces at bases and such.

I love the chunky sound and rate of fire of this weapons system.

Never seen much about the bofors, if anything nothing as detailed as your video on it, nice work 👍🏻

@jamalwilburn228

2 жыл бұрын

Never see much about Bofa either

@JohnnyJohnsonEsq

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks as always Rismarck

That the barrel could be switched easily is a bit of an understatement lol

The 40 mm Bofors were also installed on the sterns of American PT boats and on the conning towers of some American submarines too. They replaced the 20 mm Oerlikons and were favored by the crews for their greater firepower.

The stock footage can always come handy as training films and the tv show battle 360 uss enterprise and the battle of midway as well and the battle of pearl harbor was the opening round

Can I just say as a secret admirer of "1941", I love the clips from the movie, plus the ones earlier of John Belushi in his P40,

@JohnnyJohnsonEsq

2 жыл бұрын

It's a silly and fun classic.

@alessiodecarolis

2 жыл бұрын

It's a movie vindicated by history, bombed in 1979, now it's a classic! 😜

Bofors still in use in the Falklands war. Probably still used in minor RN ships. In 1982 it proved very effective at putting fast jets off their aim and saved many ships.

In the Pearl Harbor clip you can see AR-4 vestal a repair vessel that did quite a lot of work in the USN sitting next to USS Arizona

The 40 mm Bofors gun was used in many armed forces. It was also introduced into the German Wehrmacht as the 4 cm FlaK 28 after Austria's "annexation" in March 1938. Numerous batteries of the army anti-aircraft defense were equipped with it. In Germany, it was reproduced under license by the Rheinmetall-Borsig company.

While on a Section Commander's course at Australian Army Royal School of Artillery, North Head, Sydney in early 1969, we were often able to watch participants in another course running through gun drills on Bofors 40mm while we had our smoko break. Australia at that time did have anti-aircraft units, part territorial, part Regular Army.

A family friend was very proud to have damaged his hearing manning a Bofors gun on HMAS Belfast during WW2

@JohnnyJohnsonEsq

2 жыл бұрын

I've had the pleasure of touring that beautiful ship.

@ArenBerberian

2 жыл бұрын

*HMS. Belfast isn’t Australian lol

@alankohn6709

2 жыл бұрын

@@ArenBerberian Neither is my family friend

@ArenBerberian

2 жыл бұрын

@@alankohn6709 You said HMAS not HMS

@alankohn6709

2 жыл бұрын

@@ArenBerberian This is why I shouldn't make comments after watching several videos on the Australian navy but my family friend is an Englishman who immigrated to Australia does that count.

Bofors being used the most in the Pacific makes a lot of sense because since the pacific con prized of Amphibious assault and Air dog fights since they on a bunch of islands

Great job, Johnny

In my Danish military service in the Danish short range air defence i was a Gunner and s loader on a Bodies L/70 in the early 1980's

American PT boats sported a Bofors 40mm on their stern as standard armament by middle to late war, as well as 20-mm Orlikon guns, fifty-caliber machine guns, and two to four torpedoes. Examples of these boats can still be found at Battleship Cove in Massachusetts ((PT'S 617 and 796), PT 305 at the WW II museum in New Orleans, and PT 658 in Portland, Oregon.

While in Vietnam at a small firebase, a " duster" ( two bofers on a tank frame) was working out on the tree line. Bigest,fattest green tracers you ever saw!! A plesent memory.

Great Gun, did my service with it, both the 40/36 and the 40/48.

The bofors is probably the first gun I think as an anti aircraft gun. Back when I was a kid, I would visit the USS Massachusetts for overnight trips, and me and all the other boys loved to play around on the bofor mounts that could move, acting like we were an AA crew.

In contrast, the Royal Navy’s own 2-pounder Pom-Pom was also made in the octuple configuration

An Army vet told me that the Bofors trigger was a foot pedal operated by the "pointer," and the gun commander tied a rope to that man's ankle. During a raid, the noise was so intense, a lot of guns were going off, the man couldn't hear an order to cease fire, so the commander yanked the rope to pull his foot off the pedal.

It's an incredible successful design, as the Browning M2HB, it's strange how a nation that haven't a war for 200+ yrs it's so good on making weapons!

@JH-lo9ut

2 жыл бұрын

It's for home defence.

@jefferyindorf699

Жыл бұрын

One of the reasons that Sweden has not been in a war for so long of time is Swedish arms industry is so good nobody in their right mind wants to invade. Even the lunatics don't want to invade. I'm looking at you, AH.

@alessiodecarolis

Жыл бұрын

@@jefferyindorf699 Well, also Belgium weapons ' industries are very good, but this fact didn't help them against Germany (twice!)😬

The Bofors 40MM, even now, May, 2023, is still a very effective gun. I know, 'cause back in May, 1967-1969, I was the 'LAYER'. I was the bloke who looked through the 'Peanut Graticule' electric sight, and, as just another member of my Gun Crew, we shot down TWO air-towed targets in two years.

correct me if I'm wrong , but towards the end of the war , notably the pacific war , proximity fused ammunition was made available to American AA gun crews , which significantly increased the chance of hitting and destroying an enemy plane

@michaelgrant6018

Жыл бұрын

not for the 40mm .