40 mm Bofors AA gun

How many 40 mm Bofors L/60 AA guns did the Romanian Armed Forces have 1939-45. Where were those made?

Greetings,

Stellan
(Stockholm)

Enclosed: Picture of 40 mm Bofors gun (Source: Official 1951 R Sw Army handbook - Vapenregister för armén)

This post has been edited by Stellan on October 16, 2004 06:18 am

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The 40mm Bofors AA guns were delivered by Germany. By 1 June 1941, 54 were delivered out of 79 ordered.

Thank You! Very interesting.

Below I am only discussing Army AA guns.

1. In September 1938 Germany through "Anschluss" of Austria got hold of approx 30 Bofors 40 mm guns and a number under licence production at Österreichische Staatsfabrik in Wienna. The Germans did not want the 40 mm calibre and sold the extant 52 guns to Sweden in May 1939. The Germans later changed their minds and took up production again of what they called 4 cm FlAK 28 (Bofors).

2. In September 1939 Germany captured some 300 Polish guns and a gun factory Towarzystwo Starachowickich Zakladow Gorniczych.

3. In April 1940 Germany captured 8 Norwegian Army guns, 10 privatly owned by A/S Norsk Hydro and another 40 under production in Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk.

4. In May 1940 Germany captured an unknown number of ex-Belgian, British and Netherlands guns. Also the Bofors-producing Farbrique Nationale plant in Belgium.

5. In 1940 Germany sold 92 Bofors guns to Finland. These were ex-Netherlands, ex-Polish and also some new made in Austria.

6. So I guess that the Romanian 40 mm Bofors guns were ex- war booty and/or made in Austria.

Greetings,

Stellan

Are you sure? Could you write anything about your sources, please?

According to Mark Axworthy: "...Germans bartered [to Romania] captured Polish weapons under the Oil Pact. These included [...] 54 Bofors 40 mm AA guns..." (Third Axis, Fourth Ally..., p. 30). You can see also Documents on German Foreign Policy, series 3, vol. 8 (if you are really interested, I could find more detailed data). You can find there information about agreement signed 10 March 1940 between Germany and Romania. This day Romania purchased 10 ex-Polish 40 mm AA guns (40 mm armaty przeciwlotnicze wz. 36) and large quantities of other weapons from Polish booty.
And - in addition - there was a lot of talks between Polish company SEPEWE, Starachowice factory or Polish General Staff and Romanian military authorities from the other side concerning "AA guns case" from 1937 to the second half of 1938. But without success.

This post has been edited by woj on October 14, 2004 04:34 pm

Polish 40 mm AA guns

1. In May 1934 Poland ordered 2 x 2 40 mm AA guns for minelayer ORP Gryf. In Dec 1934 followed by an order for another 4 x 2 AA guns for destroyers ORP Grom and ORP Blyscawica. These were delivered in 1936.

2. In Dec 1935 Poland ordered 60 Army mobile AA guns plus aquired licence rights for making these guns.

Source: "Boforskanonen" i andra världskriget, Stockholm 1961.

3. Now the troubles begin. Based on: Zygmunt Bielecki, Wojsko Polskie 1939-1945, Warszaw 1984, I calculated the number of guns in the Polish Army to be 306. Another 168 Polish made guns exported to other countries.

Yesterday I however received an e-mail from Michal Derela in Poland with slightly different figures. I am now waiting for a Polish book on the subject.

Source / made in Sweden / made in Poland / Export
Bofors 60 na na
Bielecki 68 406 168
Derela 40 414 168

Lt-Cdr Bertil Boström, Sales Manager for Bofors, states in a report (1943) that 60 guns were sold to Poland.

Bofors-book says that Polish guns were exported to Great Britain, Netherlands and Romania. I received mail from Jan Visser in NL that 24 Polish-made guns were received in NL before the war.

So if no guns were exported to Romania before WW 2 this means that 144 were exported to GB.

4. What I think just now:

60 made in Sweden, 414 made in Starachowice, 24 exported to NL, 144 exported to GB.

The Germans thus captured 306 guns (of which probably some mor or less destroyed) plus an unknown number beeing in the production line at Towarzystwo Starachowickich Zakladow Gorniczych.

Greetings,

Stellan

Picture: Polish 40 mm Bofors gun captured by the Germans. (Source: Book "Boforskanonen" under andra världskriget, Stockholm 1961).

This post has been edited by Stellan on October 16, 2004 06:09 am

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QUESTION:

If Romania used in ww2 Bofors and Rheinmetall AA guns, who was better? The 40 m.m. one, or the 37?

Iama

Bofors 40 mm gun versus German 37 mm

I think the Bofors gun was far better. I judge that from the fact that the Germans replaced the 37 mm guns on their ships - for ex cruiser Prinz Eugen - with Bofors 40 mm guns.

Such guns were made by Waffenfabrik Kongsberg in Norway. That factory was destroyed by sabotage 16 Sept 1944.

The German Navy had some 500 Bofors guns.

Greetings,

Stellan

Well-known, but wrong data (probably first time in: Stanisław Truszkowski, Polska Artyleria przeciwlotnicza w dwudziestoleciu 1918-1939, "Wojskowy Przegląd Historyczny", 1973, nr 4, p. 222-223). Poland exported much more 40 mm AA guns to Great Britain, Netherlands, Spain (but not to Romania!)

Information about export - wrong. Made in Sweden - 60 (source: Central Military Archive (Warsaw-Rembertow), Generalny Inspektorat Sił Zbrojnych, 1999 and 2012. The rest - I can check. But 406 or 414 seems too high.

Mention about export to Romania (Polish export, not German from Polish booty) - completely wrong. Both Netherlands and Great Britain purchased much more Polish guns (and even obtained much more!)

Germans couldn't capture 306 guns! It wouldn't be possible to get ALL guns used by Polish army intacted after some weeks of so bloody campaign!

If you like more information (or some documents) send me e-mail, please.

I found! Data from Polish General Staff mobilization tables (is it right term?). Document is archival origin (unpublished so far) - from my collection.
1 June 1939: 292 40 mm AA guns was produced (Bofors + Polish production).
1 November 1939: 308 40 mm AA guns should be produced.

Thank You very much Woi!

The question of Bofors production is complicated. As I understand export orders were given to the Bofors factory in Sweden. Bofors made some guns in their own factory (production rate max 30/month) but most guns were made by sub-contractors that had license from Bofors.

This production was made by (year = when license rights were purchased):

1935 Poland (Starachowice)
1935 Hungary (Mavag)
1935 Austria (Österreichische Staatfabrik)
1936 Belgium (Fabrique Nationale)
1936 Great Britain (Nuffield Mechanisations, Coventry)
1937 Norway (Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk)

How it worked we can see from this example:

In April 1938 the Norwegian Army ordered 8 guns from Bofors. Bofors placed this order with Fabrique Nationale in Belgium. The guns were delivered from Belgium to Norway in 1939.

It took long time to build up production. Of the factories listed above three can be disregarded:

1937 Norway - Only 4 guns (of 40) near completion when the Germans took over.
1937 Great Britain - First gun delivered 15 June 1939.
1935 Austria - 26 delivered to Austrian Army and 24 nearly completed at time for "Anschluss" in Sept 1938. These were in May 1939 sold to Sweden.

So the export production in 1939 rested on:

1935 Poland, 1935 Hungary and 1936 Belgium.

According to Bofors (309) - CORRECTION 509 - guns were ordered by Great Britain from Bofors and several were delivered from Belgium, Hungary, Poland and Sweden.

Of these guns exported to Britain I only know that 24 were never delivered but placed under embargo by the Swedish Government. 8 on 22 Dec 1939 and 16 on 4 Jan 1940.

The official history of Netherlands AA states that the Army (Naval guns thus excluded) on 10 May 1940 had:

12 guns made in Sweden
24 guns made in Poland
10 guns made in Hungary (of 50 ordered)

So:

1. I agree that the Germans could not have captured all Polish guns. Several were probably destroyed during the course of war.

2. The number of Polish guns made in Sweden were 60.

Question:

Did Starachowice factory continue production of Bofors guns during the German occupation?

Thank you very much again and greetings from a sunny but cold Stockholm.

Stellan Bojerud

This post has been edited by Stellan on October 14, 2004 02:38 pm

Bofors guns

Thanks again Woj!

Very interesting - but more questions:

1. As I understand export guns are not included.
2. Are Navy guns included?

Stellan

Below are the complete details of the 40 mm Bofors AA antiaircraft guns (Hungarian type: 4.0 cm Bofors Model 36), manufactured in Hungary by DIMÁVAG:

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on October 14, 2004 01:00 pm

Technical details of Hungarian-made Bofors 4.0 cm AA cannon:

Caliber: 40.0 mm
Length of the barrel: 2,250 mm
Muzzle velocity: 850 m/sec
Range - horizontal: 7,000 m
Range – vertical: 3,000 m
Elevation: -5 o, +85 o
Traverse: 360 o

Weight of the gun: 2,100 kg
Weight of the projectile: 0.95 kg (HE)
Rate of fire: 120 rounds/min.
Magazine: straight, 8 rounds

Towing mode: light trucks

Gen. Dénes

This post has been edited by Dénes on October 14, 2004 01:01 pm

Polish export of 40 mm Bofors AA guns to Spain

I wonder if Poland did export Bofors guns to Spain? It seems unlikely. During the Civil war 1936-39 I cannot think that Poland sent guns to Spain.

When the Civil war in Spain ended in spring 1939 it seems odd that the new Franco regime should start buying AA guns.

And if they had ordered guns in spring 1939 how could these have been delivered before Poland was attacked by the Germans.

So if Spain received guns from Poland it seems to have been ex-war booty or later production run by the Germans.

Or?

Stellan

Gen. Dénes

Fantastic!

In 1938 Sweden bought 68 Bofors 40 mm guns from Hungary. Of these were 38 delivered in May - June 1938. The 1939 inventory for Swedish AA has 62 Hungarian made guns known in Sweden as m/38 (with Gamma sights).

I beleive 6 were given to Finland in 1939. Furthermore I have documents stating that 16 Hungarian-made guns were given to Finland in 1940.

But are there figures conserning export from Hungary?

Thanks a lot!

Stellan