Romanian Flak in 1940

[CNE503]

According to the following website (http://optdolari.blogspot.com/2011/03/a ... rimul.html), on June 22nd, 1941, the Romanian AAA consisted of:
- 20 batteries of 75mm Vickers or Vickers-Resita AA guns;
- 15 batteries of 76,5mm (probably Skoda L/50 model 1928);
- 8 batteries of 40mm Bofors AA guns;
- 15 batteries of 37mm Rheinmetall AA guns;
- 5 batteries of 20mm Oerlikon AA guns;
- 12 batteries of 13,2mm Hotchkiss machineguns.

So I guess that this 147th Battery was equipped with either 37mm Rheinmetall guns or 40mm Bofors guns.

No mention of these 37mm French guns, probably either because they were too few to be mentioned or because they were used as naval AA guns onboard.

Regards,

CNE503

[Tony Williams]

OK, thanks for the information.

[steppewolf]

Have you tried asking on the "Romanian Military History Forum"?

http://www.worldwar2.ro/forum/

Cheers,

Sid.

It is really slow lately, due to robots have some settings that made your posts appear 1 week later so needs patience. Otherwise an excellent source.

From my forthcoming book, following much research:

Schneider 37 mm Mle 1930: 37 x 296R ammunition.

This little-known gun emerged in 1930 but at first the French Army showed no interest, the gun being made only for an export sale to Romania (but see the note on the 37 mm Hotchkiss below). Official attitudes changed in the late 1930s as a result of the Spanish Civil War, during which the importance of automatic cannon against low-flying aircraft became evident. While preferring the 40 mm Bofors, the Army placed an interim order for 700 of the 'Mitrailleur de 37mm Schneider modèle 1930'. Even this was too late; production and other difficulties at the factory meant that only twenty mountings were delivered by May 1940 and these were allocated to the defence of Paris so saw no action. None of them appears to have survived the war. The gun had an L/45 barrel and was stated to fire at 175 rpm.

also:

Hotchkiss 37 mm: 37 x 208 ammunition (probably).

This rather mysterious gun competed with the 37 mm A.N., the 37 mm Schneider and the 40 mm Bofors for the ACAD contract. This may have been the same gun as the one being considered during the same period for the Hotchkiss zénithaux (zenith), a proposed 37 mm four-barrel naval mounting only capable of high-angle fire, for use against dive bombers. Photos also exist of single and twin land mountings of what is stated to be a 37 mm Hotchkiss sold to Romania (although some sources say that Romania bought the 37 mm Schneider; possibly both were acquired). This appears to have been a scaled-up version of the 25 mm Mle 1938/39 AA gun. The usual top-mounted Hotchkiss box magazines were used, with one interesting addition: a second magazine could be installed behind the one feeding the gun, so arranged that when an emptied magazine was removed, the one behind slid down a pair of tracks into the feeding position, thereby minimising the interruption to firing. Presumably this only worked at rather low elevations. In the naval ACAD trials the gun had a cyclic rate of 144 rpm, or 96 rpm for longer bursts allowing for the rapid magazine change. No further details are known, not even the ammunition used, although scale drawings exist of a rimless 37 x 208 Hotchkiss round from this period, which is the only known candidate.

This is very interesting and it is for the first time I hear about these guns in Romanian use and Romanian AA is one of my interests as my grandpa was in this branch during WW2.

As there's no actual reference in any WW2 Romanian book I've read about French guns of this calibre, I would be very surprised if this was more than a batch for testing or a declaration of intention to buy.

[Tony Williams]

This is very interesting and it is for the first time I hear about these guns in Romanian use and Romanian AA is one of my interests as my grandpa was in this branch during WW2.

As there's no actual reference in any WW2 Romanian book I've read about French guns of this calibre, I would be very surprised if this was more than a batch for testing or a declaration of intention to buy.

I think that you are probably right. It was not uncommon then for small quantities of weapons to be bought for evaluation. Naturally, the manufacturers would want to inflate the importance of the deal!