My father commanded an anti-aircraft battery which was equipped with Bofors. When my father’s battery was based at Manorbier (near Tenby, in south-west Wales), he told me that things seemed to be pretty quiet and so he took most of the men off on a route march or something similar, leaving behind only the cooks and storekeepers and other unfit personnel, with instructions not under any circumstances to touch the guns. When he got back, there was a German bomber sunk in the shallows offshore! Now at the time the War Office was very keen on receiving the complete sequence of predictor readings and fire orders, so they could fine tune this innovative equipment. Unfortunately, the only order that seemed to have been given was “Let the bugger have it!”, at more or less point-blank range. This was duly passed up the chain of command!

My father served In the Canadian Army as layer on a 40mm Bofors in southern England 1943-45. They lived in tents, and he never once went camping back home in Canada. ......I miss the old guy

Worth mentioning the Mk 51 fire control directors that controlled the 40mm powered twin and quad mounts on U.S. ships contributed a great deal to the guns' success. The Mk 51 was mounted on a pedestal and trained manually by one operator using handle bars. Servos linking the power drives on the 40mm gun mount would drive the guns to point where the Mk 51 was pointing. The operator of the Mk 51 tracked the target using a Mk 14 gyro gunsight. Rate gyros in the Mk 14 sensed how fast the sight is moving while tracking the target. They cause the sight reticle to lag behind the boresight - such that putting the reticle on the target would mean that the proper "lead" or forward allowance is applied for accurate shooting. Another WWII "classic" device that made the Bofors such a success ... There is a display at M.I.T. honoring Charles Draper, the gyro expert behind the Mk 14.

10:47: "Who doesn't love the V-1?" Probably any relative of the 23,000 Brits who were killed or injured by them.

Mr. Burchette needs to learn that "casualties" includes injured and killed; only around 6,000 Brits were killed by the V-1, not 23,000. Around 17,000 were injured.

Nice job Matthew. The gun is an artifact that we don't talk about a lot. Hooking that to the Doodle Bug will make a good story when we get to come back and give tours.

We do love that stuff carry on my american friend...from Spain, Madrid, Alcalá de Herares !!!😉

The WW2 US Navy was mounting anti-aircraft guns EVERYWHERE it could fit them on a ship

The Bofors 40mm cannon has not completely gone away. You can still find them used the patrol craft of navies and coast guards around the world. With drone and small boat swarming tactics you’d hope the Bofors cannons would be returned to service in the US Navy

Very informative Matthew. We love this series.

The VT fuse was a British invention passed on to the US for further development, like a number of technologies. Of course the British ended up losing out on the patent, as was often the case.

Single mounts were not common in naval service, usually only added to supplement a ship's AA batteries, when the twin and quad mounts were not really available.

That's why we hit you back with the piratebay;)

There has got to be a better way to get it out that your here now...

6:17 Americans used them on tanks ,the British on trucks,and the Germans? Well let's just say they were behind the curve on that one🤣

I've heard that British pilots would use their Spitfires to shoot down those buzz bombs. The Germans were ahead of their time with the V1 and V2 rockets. But in reality weren't the wonder weapons that was thought. In reality the Germans spent millions in manpower and money to build them for very little effect on the outcome of the war. It had more of a propaganda effect than actual real world combat. Another problem the Germans had was range. After they lost France they had a hard time attacking England that and Allied air superiority destroyed alot of these before they could be used.

FIRST1!