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C.O.W gun case 1942

earni74

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
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I picked up this 1942 C.O.W gun case last week but I cannot find anything in my documents or here on the forum as to weather it has a different projectile than the ww1 type, can anyone enlighten me
Thanks
 
Very interesting - I didn't know the ammo was made that late. I recall reading that early in WW2 use of the c. 75 available COW guns was discouraged because the available ammo was getting too old to be reliable.

It hardly seems worthwhile restarting ammo production for such a small number of guns only used for last-ditch airfield defence, with no modern sighting aids - basically "scare guns".
 
These late COW Gun cases are interesting. I have two headstamp drawings only in my files.
1 1/2 Pr Mk1V Gun 1 RL. 1933. CF. Lot A. (I noted the Mk1V for some reason with a ?)
1 1/2 Pr Mk111 Gun 111. ICI 1942 Lot 3M.

Now I have to find a case . I have never seen a projectile.
 
These late COW Gun cases are interesting. I have two headstamp drawings only in my files.
1 1/2 Pr Mk1V Gun 1 RL. 1933. CF. Lot A. (I noted the Mk1V for some reason with a ?)
1 1/2 Pr Mk111 Gun 111. ICI 1942 Lot 3M.

So - does anyone know the differences between the different Marks of COW Gun, and how many of each were made? I do know that the Mark III was the first successful variant but I hadn't realised that there was a Mark IV. At the end of WW1, about 450 guns were on order for the RAF but probably only a few dozen had been delivered when the whole project was cancelled. Only those under construction were completed, giving an eventual overall total in the region of 76 guns.

The interwar years were spent trying to find a use for the guns, mostly by fitting them into various aircraft (and in some cases designing aircraft specifically to mount them), but without success.

I have checked my notes (AVIA 15/536) about RAF plans in June 1940 "for attacking enemy tanks from the air with cannon guns" as an emergency anti-invasion measure. One suggestion was to fit the available COW guns into suitable aircraft - the Blenheim was suggested. However, the DTD responded that there were only 45 of the 37 mm Mark III COW guns now remaining with 10,000 rounds of ammo "of doubtful age" and installation would be difficult, so the Hispano was regarded as a better solution (with twin 20 mm proposed for the Blenheim fighter).

Edit: So, it looks as if minds were changed with respect to making more ammo in WW2. This is puzzling since the evolution of the COW gun - the 40mm Vickers Class S - was already in production using normal 2 pr Pom-pom ammo, so why bother with the ancient and inferior COW? It would also be interesting to know what the "Mk IV" was.
 
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seem to remember reading some where the COW gun was fitted to Sunderland flying boats for anti submarine. What we think would make sense in terms of 'new' gun production must be viewed from the start of WWII terms, what could they actually make and who needed it the most.
 
seem to remember reading some where the COW gun was fitted to Sunderland flying boats for anti submarine. What we think would make sense in terms of 'new' gun production must be viewed from the start of WWII terms, what could they actually make and who needed it the most.

The COW gun was certainly fitted to half-a-dozen different flying boats during the 1920s and early 1930s, but not the Sunderland as far as I'm aware. The nearest to it in WW2 was a single B-17 Fortress Mk IIA fitted with a Vickers 40mm S Gun in the nose for anti-sub work, but it isn't clear whether that was actually used in action.
 
Thanks to all who commented, but no one has answered my question, in ww2, what projectiles were loaded into the c.o.w gun cases, I have searched here and in all my documents
 
from memory (often faulty) I think someone told me that the COW gun round was used WWII for armour plate testing as there had been a lot of data established for it prior. Looking in my records I did have a solid shot for it marked AP 1 1/2Pr I N&S 3/42 LOT 9 it had the double band like the French 37mm in fact when I picked it up at an antiques fair in 1987 I thought it was a French practice shot which seemed ok for £1 it was only when I got it home and cleaned it did I see what it really was.
 
thanks 2pounder, that goes someway to answering my question, I will continue to try and find a definitive answer, if I do, I will post the findings
Mick
 
HaHa,I must have been posting in my sleep Tony as I don't remember doing that many and I still have my full fingerprints
Mick
 
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