Re: [MV] Mosquito vs. B-17G

From: islander (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Tue May 08 2001 - 19:47:46 PDT


>British 6 Pounder was equal to US 57 mm. (why the US went metric on some of
>this stuff who knows!). In anti-tank guns shells were interchangeable
>between 6 Pr and 57 mm.and as I recall, the ammo boxes were marked for both.

The US 57mm M1 AT gun started out life as a contract for the British
Government under Lend Lease. There were many small manufacturing
differences, but the big one was the US made gun barrel was longer than
the British one. This had to do with manufacturing limitations the
British faced at the time, but overcame (I would assume with American
aid) later on. However, the British guns had several additional types of
ammo to choose from.

>80 shots per minute? I have trouble believing that. Firing 80 6 Pr
>shells/minute might equal reverse gear for a poor old Mossie! 8 rounds per
>minute perhaps?

80 shots per minute is certainly wrong. 8 is more like it, and even that
would be under ideal conditions.

We have a guy that brings a 57mm AT gun out my way for a shoot every so
often. The thing is so VERY loud! No wonder why crews started to hate
the things later on in the war. If you have something that is overly
heavy and too often ineffective, the last thing you want to be is loud :-)

Steve



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 23:18:32 PDT