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Manufacture of the Bofors 40mm Anti-aircraft gun during WWII Login/Join 
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Interesting video.

quote:
LINK



Made as part of the WWII war effort by Chrysler, THE BOFORS GUN TEAM shows the manufacture of the Bofors 40mm anti-aircraft gun then in use by the Navy and Army. This was one of the most stunning manufacturing feats of the war, since the Bofors was an extremely intimidating weapon to mass produce and many believed it could not be produced in quantity, in time to make a difference in the war. Within 3 years however Chrysler had shipped over 40,000 complete mechanisms and 75,000 barrels.

At 1:55, the Swedish-designed gun is seen in its "Americanized" configuration -- made for mass production in a Chrysler factory.

At 2:30, new blueprints are made from Swedish originals which were in metric measure.

At 2:45, a diagram shows how the manufacture of the gun was split between Dodge, DeSoto, Plymouth and other Chrysler plants. Production lines are seen for breech casings and other parts in the gigantic plants, which were formerly used for automobile manufacture.

At 8:55, blocks are shown being made through mass production techniques.

At 9:11, quality inspection is made of the blocks. At 13:30, the manufacture of the gun barrel is seen.

At 16:20, breech blocks are assembled and tested. The Bofors 40 mm gun, often referred to simply as the Bofors gun,is an anti-aircraft/multi-purpose autocannon designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors.

It was one of the most popular medium-weight anti-aircraft systems during World War II, used by most of the western Allies as well as by the Axis powers. A small number of these weapons remain in service to this day, and saw action as late as the Gulf War. In the post-war era the original design was not suitable for action against jet powered aircraft, so Bofors introduced a new model of significantly more power, the 40 mm L/70.

In spite of sharing almost nothing with the original design other than the calibre and the distinctive conical flash hider, this weapon is also widely known simply as "the Bofors". Although not as popular as the original L/60 model, the L/70 remains in service, especially as a multi-purpose weapon for light armored vehicles, as on the CV 90.

In order to supply both the Army and Navy with much greater numbers of the guns, Chrysler built 60,000 of the guns and 120,000 barrels through the war, at half the original projected cost, and filling the Army's needs by 1943. Over the lifetime of the production, their engineers introduced numerous additional changes to improve mass production, eventually reducing the overall time needed to build a gun by half; most of these changes were in production methods rather than the design of the gun itself.

York Safe & Lock also produced the weapons, though its attempts to coordinate drawings across the program were unsuccessful, and this responsibility was transferred to the Naval Gun Factory in July 1943.There were many difficulties in producing the guns within the United States, beyond their complexity (illustrated by the use of 2,000 subcontractors in 330 cities and 12 Chrysler factories to make and assemble the parts).





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Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
 
Posts: 31382 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: May 17, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Peace through
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Made from Swedish 01 steel, which was chosen by Bo Randall for his knives.
 
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Non-Miscreant
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Actually, he started with Willys/Overland leaf springs! Smile


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Peace through
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My statement is not incorrect.
 
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Baroque Bloke
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Thanks for posting this. The Kamikazes would've sunk many more U. S. navy ships in WW II if we hadn't had a multitude of these guns.



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Posts: 8854 | Location: San Diego | Registered: July 26, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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An awesome piece of history.




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Glorious SPAM!
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That was awesome. I particularly liked how they mentioned the drawings were in a "foreign measure" lol. Dam metric system!
 
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OMG The political police would have their hair catch fire!
At least we called our enemies out..
"32 Jap Planes in 30 minutes...."


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Its sad to know that the USA could not do a similar thing today.


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goodheart
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There were very few draft-age men in the film--overwhelmingly women and older men.


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Posts: 18017 | Location: One hop from Paradise | Registered: July 27, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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It amazes me how this county built the war machine in WW2. Tanks, planes, boats, ships, rifles, guns, knives and canned food. Factories repurposed from normal consumer goods to war fighting tools.

Could we do it again now? Has too much manufacturing been moved out of country?
 
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If Browning had designed it, it might have had 1/3 the parts. What an amazing effort. One of the puzzle pieces leading to victory. Thanks all who made that possible. I would have never imagined that making a gun like this had such a vast engineering and tooling effort. I wonder how close the various factories were.

How fortunate we had resources and little likelihood of factories being attacked.
 
Posts: 7437 | Location: Over the hills and far away | Registered: January 20, 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
7.62mm Crusader
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Of the 3 guns on a AC130 gun ship, the middle gun is a 40mm Bofors. In some videos the large clips of 4 rounds can be seen dropped into the weapon.
 
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quote:
Originally posted by phydough:
It amazes me how this county built the war machine in WW2. Tanks, planes, boats, ships, rifles, guns, knives and canned food. Factories repurposed from normal consumer goods to war fighting tools.


And nary a computer in sight.

I often think about "What do you produce first? Bolts, tools, what?"

I've come to the conclusion it's pencils.

There is a lot of unused paper around already. Fly leaves from books, newsprint, even TP. But you need pencils to make the paper useful. Once you have the ability to store information in a communicable way, the rest becomes a question of priority.





Nice is overrated

"It's every freedom-loving individual's duty to lie to the government."
Airsoftguy, June 29, 2018
 
Posts: 31382 | Location: Loudoun County, Virginia | Registered: May 17, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by Sig2340:
quote:
Originally posted by phydough:
It amazes me how this county built the war machine in WW2. Tanks, planes, boats, ships, rifles, guns, knives and canned food. Factories repurposed from normal consumer goods to war fighting tools.


And nary a computer in sight.

I often think about "What do you produce first? Bolts, tools, what?"

I've come to the conclusion it's pencils.

There is a lot of unused paper around already. Fly leaves from books, newsprint, even TP. But you need pencils to make the paper useful. Once you have the ability to store information in a communicable way, the rest becomes a question of priority.


Good answer to an interesting question that is worthy of its own thread. Combat boots or work boots might be early on the list also.
 
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quote:
Originally posted by phydough:
It amazes me how this county built the war machine in WW2. Tanks, planes, boats, ships, rifles, guns, knives and canned food. Factories repurposed from normal consumer goods to war fighting tools.

Could we do it again now? Has too much manufacturing been moved out of country?


Even if manufacturing was all here, it would be a near impossibility. Think of all the regulations, requirements, equal opportunity, environmental impact reporting, union work rules, wage and hour laws, the list is endless.

One of the most telling observations of our plight is that of Newt Gingrich, who said that it took the US 6 years to vanquish Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan, and 23 years to add a new runway to Atlanta airport.




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
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half-genius,
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A brilliant reminder of what the greatest industrial nation the world has ever seen can do when the need is there.

tac
 
Posts: 11305 | Location: UK, OR, ONT | Registered: July 10, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
semi-reformed sailor
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I have fired several of the bofors 40mm cannon, but The USCG had stripped them, changed the barrel and are currently using the cannon for a Saluting gun (sometimes in Battery) at select units.

Yorktown, The Academy, Boot-camp, and Elizabeth City are a few I can recall...
I've fired them at Yorktown and E-City..when I the OCS guys used to go there and At E-City for a retirement of a Chief Gunner's mate.

The saluting round uses 200 grains of Black Powder and smells like rotten eggs, and the wind will always blow back at the guys firing to destroy a uniform, hahaha



"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein

“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020

“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker
 
Posts: 11246 | Location: Temple, Texas! | Registered: October 07, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
The Constable
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Early in the War a Sailor dropped a S&W Victory model (M-10) on the deck and it fired, IIRC killing him.

S&W was immediately contacted to modify the guns to have a hammer block so as to alleviate any more discharges when the hammer was struck.

They consulted with their engineers as well as the actual workers who built the guns and in a matter of a few DAYS....Had a good solution to the issue, which works to this day in their revolvers.

I wonder if such a feat could be accomplished today? With Attorneys, HR, Union issues, etc.
 
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semi-reformed sailor
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quote:
Originally posted by FN in MT:

I wonder if such a feat could be accomplished today? With Attorneys, HR, Union issues, etc.


You already know the answer to that.

[/drift]



"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Robert A. Heinlein

“You may beat me, but you will never win.” sigmonkey-2020

“A single round of buckshot to the torso almost always results in an immediate change of behavior.” Chris Baker
 
Posts: 11246 | Location: Temple, Texas! | Registered: October 07, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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