Vickers Flak

[Jens Andersen]

Maybe Italians got Danish Vickers guns?

The Italian guns were most certainly Danish.

The Danish Vickers-guns, 75 mm L/49 L.K. M.1932, were built on license by "Hærens Vaabenarsenal" in Copenhagen.

In April 1940 the Germans "borrowed" all 24 guns that had been produced up till then. Further 12 were produced until the end of 1942, and the rest were probably also taken over went the Danish army was liquidated on 29th August 1943.

Until the beginning of 1941 the guns were used in Denmark, then it would seem that they came to Italy. So, in early May 1941 a Danish diplomat reported that a number of guns in Mid April 1941had come the artillery depot of 1st Regiment in Vercelli. He got knowledge of this when an Italien came and aksed for translation of the brass plates from the guns.

I would be very interested in knowing what happend to the guns later on.

Jens

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

A blurry image from Ebay

Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

Another image from EBay:

Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

Another one:

Image from EBay
Sturm78

[ErwinZ]

Deployment of a Vickers at M.Fl.B Termunten.

[jopaerya]

This document is from 1942 so very early , but it looks that the 7.65 cm V.A. Mounting was placed on a truck ??

Regards Jos

[Manuferey]

7.65 cm V.A. Mounting was placed on a truck ??

Jos,

The caliber of 7.65 cm is weird since the only 7.65 cm Flak beute guns were Skoda's 33(t) and 37(t), not Vickers'.

I think it is the 7,62 cm Flak (e), ex-3 in. 20 cwt QF AA Gun, mounted on the dual axle trailer, which looks like a truck (lorry in British English) i.e. LKW for the Germans. Many BEF's dual axle trailer-mounted 3 in. guns were captured in Belgium and northern France in May-June 1940.

Emmanuel

[jopaerya]

Thanks Emmanuel

But if you see page one of this Topic , according to these documents there was a 7.65 cm gun or it could be a slip of the pen/typewrither ??

Regards Jos

[Manuferey]

Jos,

If the documents mentioning "7,65 cm" were written in the same general geographic area, it could indicate indeed a typo that was reproduced multiple times, just like errors on the Internet today.

We can also assume that the Germans captured enough 3 in. rounds in 1940 to last for a long time and did not have a need to modify 3 in. guns to fire 7,65 cm rounds from Skoda guns.

But these are just assumptions.

Emmanuel

[Alexander Taper-Bore]

I think the 7,65 cm VA was in fact the Dutch 8tl, formerly serving with 102 battery at Den Helder. These were Vickers-Armstrong built 13 pounders. These were offically 3 inch but if you read the Wiki page on this weapon (that appears to be quoting Hogg) you find out that the barrel and breech were adapted (the 18 pndr breech was used and other stuff). Possibly the Germans measured them correctly or they had the AI insert 7,65 cm barrels from Skoda??

[jopaerya]

Thanks Alexander

Very good option , the 8 tl was 76 mm and was placed on a Thornycroft-truck .

Regards Jos

[Clive Mortimore]

Is the gun you are on about Jos? It was the British 18 pdr field gun converted to AA use by relining with a 3 inch A tube to fire the 13 pdr shell attached to an 18 pdr cartridge. Called QF 13pdr 9cwt.

https://www.nmm.nl/zoeken-in-de-collect ... il/378278/

There is more information of it in British service on the Landships site http://www.landships.info/landships/art ... cles.html# Including a nice bit of video of one being fired. Also Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QF_13-pounder_9_cwt

As for 7.65 cm, it does sound a bit odd. They were very worn out barrels so would have given a greater measurement than 0.3mm of wear had the Germans examined the barrels.

[jopaerya]

Here a British gun in German service , looks to me the gun from page 1 ( 7.62 cm Vickers Mounting )

Photo = Ebay

Regards Jos

[Sturm78]

Jopaerya,

It is an 76.2mm 3in 20cwt british AA gun

Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Hi all

An image from Ebay

Sturm78