Swedish artillery

[ludvig]

Hello Sturm78,
The Swedish AA gun is an 7,5 cm Lvk M/15 L /53 .
The nimh-beeldbank.defensie. nl mentions the gun as German 10,5 cm /50 , which is
not correct at all .
Digitaltmuseum.se claims the gun to be 76,2 mm Luftvärnskanon L/50 Modell 1928 , in my
view is not right .
There are two preserved 7,5 cm M/15 - 23 guns outside the Vaxholm Fortress Museum .

You can find correct drawings in digitaltmuseum.se , type in Kr121 and Kr122

ludvig

[ludvig]

hello Sturm78 ,
Here is an link to the 7,5 cm Lvk M/15 - 23 outside Vaxholm , notice the Url :

https://bilderochfakta.se/militar/artil ... non-m15-23

ludvig

[ludvig]

Hello Sturm78 ,
Another photo from Vaxholm :

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cate ... Castle.jpg

ludvig

[Sturm78]

Hello luvdig,

I am increasingly confused about Bofors AA guns.

The gun seems too much modern for a WWI-era desing, is it not?
Which is the different between M15 and M15/23??

See also this link https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cate ... -gun01.jpg

This gun is identified as an 7.5cm Bofors M24.... http://forum.skalman.nu/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=44058 but I think it is the same gun that you identify it as 7.5cm M15-23....

Sturm78

[ludvig]

Hello Sturm78,
The Bofors guns are confusing , many variants both inside Sweden and
for export .
7,5 cm M/15 was modified to 7,5 cm M/15 - 23 with rangeclocks
Have seen the link with the 7,5 cm M/24 at Göteborg harbour , this
is the same gun as in the forum.skalman.nu .

The 7,5 cm M/24 is a problem , but it could not mixed with the 7,5 cm M /15 - 23 due
to the missing rangeclocks .

But the 7,5 cm M/15 and 7,5 cm M/24 looks similar , need more photos

ludvig

[John T]

Digitaltmuseum.se claims the gun to be 76,2 mm Luftvärnskanon L/50 Modell 1928 , in my
view is not right .

It looks much like the Finnish m/28 and the picture from Bofors typical sales documents.

Jaegerplt got a nice photo:

cheers
/John

[Sturm78]

ñudvig wrote
Hello Sturm78,
The Bofors guns are confusing , many variants both inside Sweden and
for export .
7,5 cm M/15 was modified to 7,5 cm M/15 - 23 with rangeclocks
Have seen the link with the 7,5 cm M/24 at Göteborg harbour , this
is the same gun as in the forum.skalman.nu .

The 7,5 cm M/24 is a problem , but it could not mixed with the 7,5 cm M /15 - 23 due
to the missing rangeclocks .

But the 7,5 cm M/15 and 7,5 cm M/24 looks similar , need more photos

Thanks for your answer, ludvig....

John T wrote
It looks much like the Finnish m/28 and the picture from Bofors typical sales documents.

First I thought an 76.2mm M/27 gun but this gun seems to have two recoil cylinders atop the barrel....

Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

Another Bofors AA gun to identify. Any idea ??

Image from Ebay
Sturm78

[ludvig]

Hello Sturm78 ,
The gun is an Swedish 7,5 cm Lvk M/27 - 30 L /51 .Only 3 x guns bought
Here is an old link ( hope it works ) :

http://ifokus-assets.se/0b22e3039c6a08e ... 579jpg.jpg

ludvig

[Sturm78]

Thank you very much for your help, ludvig...

Sturm78

[phu2000]

Hello, this is my first reply in this forum this account has just been created recently.

This topic is quite old but it has the same content to what I'm researching about.

My home country is Siam/Thailand...in 1930s, Siam ordered a large number of Swedish artillery, every piece were made by Bofors, some were mentioned in the very fist page. Many of those guns ordered by Siam has actually been delivered (but large number wasn't due to Swedish seizure, thus it was in service only in the elite artillery battalions, forcing most lower-tier units to rely on earlier Japanese 75mm mountain gun and Krupp 75mm mountain gun), and were used against French Indochina during 1940-41 Franco-Thai war.

It should be noted that our army's artillery at that time was heavily influenced by German doctrine, as the best artillerymen were traditionally sent to study in Germany during the Kaiser's era...many of them became most senior officers, even General Phraya Phahon, the Minister of Defence (and also Chief of Army) in 1934 (which probably was the year that majority of the Swedish artillery were ordered) was also German-graduated artilleryman (some sources stated that he studied in the same generation as Hermann Göring at Preußische Hauptkadettenanstalt ) and used to be Inspector of Artillery, reporting to the General Staff.

These pics and information come from the Royal Thai Army's Artillery Division article "วิวัฒนาการทหารปืนใหญ่ (Evolution of the Artillery)".
http://artydiv.com/%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%B4%E ... B9%88.html

Note that Siam/Thai artillery designation consider the type, barrel length and weight. "ปืนใหญ่ภูเขา" or "Mountain Gun" was a distinct type, the "Gun" and "Howitzer" designations are based on the barrel length while the "Light" or "Heavy" designations are based on the gun's total weight (not caliber).

The first one is "ปืนใหญ่หนักกระสุนวิถีราบแบบ ๗๘" or "Heavy Gun, Type 78"...this gun was accepted into service in B.E.2478, which is equal to 1935. The caliber is 105mm.

There is no mistake, this is definitely the Bofors 10,5cm m/34. It was in service with 16th Artillery Battalion, an Army-level (Siamese army at that time has no Corps-level unit) heavy artillery battalion of the Burapha Army (Eastern Army). It was later modified to accept US 105mm round and served until 1975 (as the Army-level gun within the 1st Army Region, successor of Burapha Army, outranging any gun in service including the M114). It was replaced by Israeli Soltam M71 (as Heavy Gun, Type 20...from B.E.2520 (1977))


Next one is "ปืนใหญ่หนักกระสุนวิถีโค้ง แบบ ๗๘" or "Heavy Howitzer, Type 78", same as mentioned before, this was accepted into service in 1935. The caliber is 150mm.

It was also in service with 16th Artillery Battalion, the howitzer's fate is unknown.

However, I don't know which model this thing is...but it does looks like either 15cm Haubits m/38 or m/39.

This is "ปืนใหญ่เบากระสุนวิถีราบ แบบ ๘๐" or "Light Gun, Type 80", accepted into service in 1937.

This gun is a divisional gun in service with some divisional artillery battalion. It was later modified to accept US 75mm round.

I guess it is 7,5cm Kanon m/40, maybe?

The most interesting thing about this gun is it's still in service, although only as a salute gun.

Latest usage of the gun was during a Royal Cremation Ceremony in October 26th, 2017. Four guns fired a total of 368 rounds (one round per minute during the ceremony, or 347 round, and 21-round Royal Salute at the end)



Last but not least, "ปืนใหญ่เบากระสุนวิถีโค้ง แบบ ๘๐" or "Light Howitzer, Type 80", accepted into service in 1937.



This is a divisional howitzer in service with some divisional artillery battalion. It was later modified to accept US 105mm round and able to use same firing table as US-made M101 howitzer Thailand received in 1952. The article stated that this is L23 gun, so it doesn't match any Bofors 10.5cm gun that was mentioned in the first page...though it looks like 10,5cm Haubits m/40.

In 1975 it was mounted on the M3 Half-track as a self-propelled artillery, serving with 30th Artillery Battalion.

The year of retirement is unknown but it was used for training as late as 1985.

[John T]

Hello, this is my first reply in this forum this account has just been created recently.

Thanks for your post,
Just a note on Bofors, it was more of a large workshop, than a standarized massproduction, especially prewar.

So it was no problem for Bofors to make changes to an order, like the 8 15 cm Howitzers that's not identical with the Swedish m/38.

Any thing more particular you want to know about the Thai guns?


Cheers
/John

[phu2000]

Thank you for reply.

At first, I just came here to share some information I found. But if I have any other question about this matter I will make sure to ask here too

Also, thank you for the information about Bofors. I've also talked with an artillery guy and he also said that these guns were almost certainly custom-made.

[nuyt]

Dear Phu2000,

great pictures and keep them coming if you have more!

The Thai Bofors guns were also discussed on The Overvalwagen Forum before (but pictures have disappeared): http://www.network54.com/Forum/330333/thread/1148478247

Note Siam also bought AA guns and naval weapons from Bofors. Complete numbers can be found there as well (info from the late S Bojerud):

INFANTRY GUNS
8 - 75 mm L/20 M/1929 Mountain Guns (ex-Turkey)ordered 1934 delivered 1934

32 - 75mm/47 mm M/1934 Dual purpose Guns ordered 1934 delivered 1935

FIELD GUNS
52 - 75 mm L/40 M/1934 Field Guns 80 ordered 1937 for delivery before 1940 but 28 placed under embargo in Sweden 1940 and used by the Swedish Army as m/40 S.

4 - 105 mm L/42 M/1934 Field Guns ordered 1934 delivered 1935

FIELD HOWITZERS
20 -105 mm L/22 M/1936 Field Howitzers 36 ordered 1936 for delivery before 1940 but 16 placed under embargo in Sweden 1940 and used by the Swedish Army as m/40 S.

8 - 150 mm L/24 M/1934 Field Howitzers ordered 1934 delivered 1936.

ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS
8 -75 mm L/50 M/1930 AA Guns ordered 1934 delivered 1936.

10 - 75 mm L/50 M/1930-36 AA Guns ordered 1937 delivered 1939.


Kind regards,
Nuyt

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

Any idea about this gun ?

Sturm78