Myself and a few others are researching WWII era military history. And we've recently stumbled upon a curiosity. It appears that this gun was actually made, but almost no records or information survive of it. we don't even know what it looks like. So I'm asking here if any of you can throw even a sparkle of light on the subject?
Our first clue was when someone reported that Rolls Royce had plans to take a 12Pdr gun and mount it on an aircraft as an anti-tank weapon, in the early 1940's.
Now like you we instantly thought it was the 12Pdr 12cwt gun as mounted on Royal Navy ships. However there was an issue, its give calibre was 70mm (2.75"), the 12Pdr 12cwt is 76mm. The book failed to give any more details.
The other thing that struck us as dismissing the 12Pdr 12cwt, is that its a fairly beefy gun, then I found this at an archive (Don't worry the archivist said these are government papers, and so under Crown copyright and that I was therefore free to post them).
Mounting this mystery gun in a early mark Valentine poses some interesting problems as it definitely rules out the 12Pdr 12cwt, as that's way to large a gun to fit in such a tiny turret.
Equally I found this performance chart. Which shows the performance of APCBC shells at 2200fps. Its interesting to see that it was tested at 1/4 worn barrel, which implies again that it was actually made. We also know that AP and APC rounds were made for the gun.
Past that we know nothing.
So if you've got any information, please stand and deliver, even if its some vague memory of something you read in a book some years ago. We really are dealing with an information dry patch.
Thanks.
Our first clue was when someone reported that Rolls Royce had plans to take a 12Pdr gun and mount it on an aircraft as an anti-tank weapon, in the early 1940's.
Now like you we instantly thought it was the 12Pdr 12cwt gun as mounted on Royal Navy ships. However there was an issue, its give calibre was 70mm (2.75"), the 12Pdr 12cwt is 76mm. The book failed to give any more details.
The other thing that struck us as dismissing the 12Pdr 12cwt, is that its a fairly beefy gun, then I found this at an archive (Don't worry the archivist said these are government papers, and so under Crown copyright and that I was therefore free to post them).
Mounting this mystery gun in a early mark Valentine poses some interesting problems as it definitely rules out the 12Pdr 12cwt, as that's way to large a gun to fit in such a tiny turret.
Equally I found this performance chart. Which shows the performance of APCBC shells at 2200fps. Its interesting to see that it was tested at 1/4 worn barrel, which implies again that it was actually made. We also know that AP and APC rounds were made for the gun.
Past that we know nothing.
So if you've got any information, please stand and deliver, even if its some vague memory of something you read in a book some years ago. We really are dealing with an information dry patch.
Thanks.