A British marine crew mans the four barrelled two pounder Mark VIII "pom-pom" gun of a battleship while on active service afloat in Scapa Flow. WW2 period
Posted by Sad-Commission2027@reddit | ForgottenWeapons | View on Reddit | 7 comments
Temporary_Border7233@reddit
These look just so comical. Like trumpets.
InitialLandscape@reddit
Those eight barreled "accordion" ones are even crazier!
BigFreakingZombie@reddit
I believe they were occasionally referred to as "Chicago pianos" and weighed 17 tons each. They were a decent AA weapon for the early 1920s but by WW2 it had been eclipsed by probably the most famous AA gun in history: the Bofors 40mm.
JMHSrowing@reddit
Well, they were still one of the best AA guns of WW2. Indeed the US Navy did tests before adopting the Bofors and showed they were surprisingly close with the beltfed nature and the aforementioned octuple mount being extremely effective, and the Bofors only coming in quad mounts until after of the war.
Germany, France, and the Soviets at the beginning of the war only had single shot medium AA, and the Japanese only had their famously bad 25mm magazine fed gun as a major light/medium AA in the war. This highlights how good the 2 pounder was even if showing its age a bit.
BigFreakingZombie@reddit
Yeah I think they were considered better than both the Army's 37mm gun and the awful 1.1 inch gun during trials in the late 30s. I think they weren't adopted because they were very heavy but primarily because it was very difficult to get them to work with American propellants.
RepresentativeFig270@reddit
Britain’s original 50 cal gun(s).
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