Bofors Gun Query

On Topic. I thought the mounted gun was for a local defence for the gun ie ground attack to your potition and very low flying AC where the Bofors would be completley useless.

I doubt that very much. The Bofors was actually pretty good at short range, and in any case it would have been far better to put the MG on a separate mounting so it could be rapidly swung around by hand rather than cranking away at the handles on the Bofors mounting.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

Hi Colin, slightly off topic, were you once in the music biz?

On Topic. I thought the mounted gun was for a local defence for the gun ie ground attack to your potition and very low flying AC where the Bofors would be completley useless.

Aye and give the troops a real stopper again. At a push I’ll settle for 7.62 as opposed to .303. They always reckoned that at 100 metres you were wasting your time hiding behind a brick wall as 7.62 would punch straight through it anyway.

Mike Curril & Kernoglyn, thanks for the update, Ive been out the “Green Machine” loop for some time and Id forgotten about the laser sight sorry brain fart big time, and too much time firing Ickle bullets, bring back the Lee Enfield No.4 & the Bren & proper bullets LoL Bex

I think you will find that it was the Chieftain tank that used a burst of three .50″ cal tracer slugs as a ranging device for the 120mm main armament. Nowadays with the improved ranging systems fitted to the big boys and the incredibly flat trajectory of the armour piercing shot of the 120mm, the .50″ cal machine gun is not used in that role. the 7.62 mm coaxially mounted MG is used for soft targets, the roof mounted 7.62mm being for ‘air defence’.

Correct, they now use laser sights.

I may be wrong in what Im about to say, but, Challenger 2 tanks use a 7.62mm GPMG as a spotter so based on that I would say yes its a spotting weapon with the added benefit of extra AA firepower and in my own experience of firing an 84mm Carl Gustav AT weapon which had a single shot sighting “rifle” attached to the side of it. Thats my view, if Im wrong then I look forwards to being corrected and educated in this piece of history. Bex

I think you will find that it was the Chieftain tank that used a burst of three .50″ cal tracer slugs as a ranging device for the 120mm main armament. Nowadays with the improved ranging systems fitted to the big boys and the incredibly flat trajectory of the armour piercing shot of the 120mm, the .50″ cal machine gun is not used in that role. the 7.62 mm coaxially mounted MG is used for soft targets, the roof mounted 7.62mm being for ‘air defence’.

I suspect that it may have been fitted for low-cost practice with the sighting system (Bofors ammo was expensive..). This is quite a common practice even today. The trajectory would have been too different from the 40mm rounds for it to be used for sighting in combat, and the effective range of the .303 ammo was too short.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion forum

I may be wrong in what Im about to say, but, Challenger 2 tanks use a 7.62mm GPMG as a spotter so based on that I would say yes its a spotting weapon with the added benefit of extra AA firepower and in my own experience of firing an 84mm Carl Gustav AT weapon which had a single shot sighting “rifle” attached to the side of it. Thats my view, if Im wrong then I look forwards to being corrected and educated in this piece of history. Bex