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![battle nations aa turret battle nations aa turret](https://i2.wp.com/planetdestiny.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/goliath-tank-strike.png)
50 inch (12.7 mm) machine guns, which were designed to be adjusted to converge at the single point where enemy aircraft were expected to appear at low altitude in conduction of strafing runs directed at large infantry and field artillery units. Army brought truck-towed Bofors 40 mm AA guns along with truck-mounted units fitted with mechanized turrets when they sailed, first for Great Britain and then onto France. Similar types, based on 3-ton lorries, were produced in Britain, Canada and Australia, and together formed the most numerous self-propelled AA guns in British service. This undoubtedly inspired their Morris C9/B (officially the "Carrier, SP, 4x4, 40 mm AA"), a Bofors 40 mm AA gun mounted on a chassis derived from the Morris "Quad" Field Artillery Tractor truck. However, crews tended to fire their weapons from their vehicles for the mobility this method provided, with consequent casualties. This was to prevent the weapon from being damaged by long-distance towing across rough, stony deserts, and it was intended only to be a carrying method, with the gun unloaded for firing. Starting in 1941, the British developed the "en portee" method of mounting an anti-tank gun (initially a 2 pounder) on a truck. Other nations tended to work on truck chassis. The 90/53 was a feared weapon, notably in the anti-tank role, but only a few hundred had been produced by the time of the armistice in 1943. One exception to this rule was the Italian Cannone da 90/53 which was highly effective when mounted on trucks, a fit known as the " autocannoni da 90/53".
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Larger guns followed on larger trucks, but these mountings generally required off-truck setup in order to unlimber the stabilizing legs these guns needed. German Wirbelwind - a 20 mm Flakvierling quadmount on a Panzer IV chassis. Later in the war similar German half-tracks mounted quadruple 20 mm weapons. 10/4 and 6/2, cargo half-tracks mounting single 20 mm or 37 mm AA guns (respectively). By the time of the war, they fielded the Sd.Kfz. And also a twin 15 mm version based on the Light Tank Mk.V was built.Īmong early pre-war pioneers of self-propelled AA guns were the Germans. Later the British also developed a version of the Mk.VI Light Tank armed with four machine guns that were known as Light Tank AA Mk.I.
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This was probably the first tracked SPAAG manufactured in series. About 26 were sold to Siam and saw action as infantry support guns and AA guns during the Franco-Thai war (1940-1941) along with 30 Vickers Mk.E Type B 6-ton tanks. Vickers Armstrong also developed a SPAAG based on the chassis of the Vickers Mk.E 6-ton light tank/ Dragon, Medium, Mark IV artillery tractor, mounting a Vickers QF-1 "Pom-Pom" gun of 40 mm. The gun could be elevated for anti-aircraft use. The British also had a first dedicated anti aircraft weapon, the QF 1-pounder pom-pom Mounted on a armoured truck titled the Pierce-Arrow armoured AA lorry, which was produced in limited numbers and only seeing service throughout 1915.īetween the two World Wars, the United Kingdom developed the Birch gun, a general-purpose artillery piece on an armoured tracked chassis capable of maintaining formation with their current tanks over terrain. The British QF 3 inch 20 cwt was mounted on trucks for use on the Western Front. A predecessor of the WWII German "88" anti-aircraft gun, the WWI German 77 mm anti-aircraft gun, was truck-mounted and used to great effect against British tanks. A World War 1, British, truck-mounted, QF 3 inch gun World War I Īnti-aircraft machine guns have long been mounted on trucks, and these were quite common during World War I.