question 3 inch AA on 4 wheeled carriage

To complete my list of wants, has anyone any info on the 4 wheeled carriage that mounted the 3"HA 20cwt AA gun, early WWII vintage.

I have:

Photos from ebay of captured/abandoned guns in France 1940. Generally poor quality

Photos fron a shoot Life magazine did of them in service with the Egyptian army, good quality but needed the photographer to have moved a little to the left.

The scale drawings by Ken Musgrave done in the 80's. Ok but lack details of front axle/actual chassis layout. A lot of guesswork resulkted in these drawings.

The Manual dated 1940, which gives a great lube diagram plan of the chassis, but lacks detail. There is a description in the text, but it leaves a lot out.

Basically, the rear axle was cranked, I think the front axle as well, but its difficult to make out how the springs were attached.

What I have so far is shown.

By the way, there is an excellent preserved example which I got access to, at Pendennis Castle, Cornwall, WELL worth a visit, as they have a number of artillery pieces, I think a 5.5 and a 3.7, plus some 25pdrs.

if the weather is good, a nice day out too.

George.

Did the 4 wheel platform have springs on both axles?

I looked at the photos I took some years ago of the 3in 20cwt at the RAA Museum at North Fort in Sydney; the platform carriage there only seems to have had leaf springs on one axle.

I did some more research, and it seems that the 3inch 20cwt on the 4 wheel platform displayed at North Head was one of 24 units locally made in Australia just prior to the outbreak of WW2.

It is quite possible that the platform on this gun was built to a slightly different pattern from the older UK-made ones.

Or it may have been "restored" using limited resources with readily available steel beam sections before being put on display.

Either way, I can now see plausible reasons why the platform doesn't match photos from IWM and other places.

I did some more research, and it seems that the 3inch 20cwt on the 4 wheel platform displayed at North Head was one of 24 units locally made in Australia just prior to the outbreak of WW2.

 

It is quite possible that the platform on this gun was built to a slightly different pattern from the older UK-made ones.

Or it may have been "restored" using limited resources with readily available steel beam sections before being put on display.

 

Either way, I can now see plausible reasons why the platform doesn't match photos from IWM and other places.

Hi there, and thanks for the response.

Any chance you can scan he photos so I can see what was there ?

I have the Manual, dated 1940, in which there is a basic description, a lubrication diagram and a drawing of the rear axle, the book says " the front axle was attached to the spriings in the same manner as the rear axle", so I have to assume that both axles were cranked.

Photographs I have do not show much of the detail.

Do you have any others ????

Thanks and regards,

George.

Hello George

Attached pics of 3inch 20cwt formerly at North Fort, Sydney

Fantastic,

Just what I needed.

I agree there are some differences, but the "cranked" axle seems to have been used on this version and the spring mounts are the same.

Thanks for this, I can (hopefully) proceed with with a bit more confidence that I might be getting it right.

Thanks again.

George.:thumbsup:

Glad to be able to help.

Some more pics of the 3in guns at North Fort.

Both of these had the vertical sliding breech block. Pity that no sights are fitted.

Double helping of thanks due.

I note the interesting feature of guns fitted with the sliding breech as opposed to the Wellin type breech.

The base of the gun platform is "hollowed" out to clear the open breech, that is interesting, and a feature I had not considered.

As before, these are fantastic.

George.