WWII "Trench Art"

[Hal]

Guys, found these at a yard sale yesterday and thought you'd like to have a look. Hal

[vegetius]

The cart cases from Round 40/60mm Bofors. The Navy anchor precludes these from being the Land Service 40/70mm. The top candle holder is a .50 in Browning MG cart case with a cut down 20mm Oerlikon (semi rimmed not rimmed) on the top. All in all a nicely done set of 'Trench Art' candle holders.

R

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Aside from the anchor, the case still couldn't be 40/70 anyway. The date stamped on the case rules this out because the Bofors LA 40/70 was a post war development of the wartime 40/60. The 40/60 case is 311mm in length, with the 40/70 case being 53mm longer. Pictured below is a proper 40/60 instructional round which has been in my possession for a number of years, and I also have a 1950 dated 40/60 case - neither are marked with the naval anchor.

Cheers,
Steve

[vegetius]

Ah, I had to learn both the 40/70 and 40/60 back in the 70's as the 40/60 could still be encountered in the Naval roll. I did encounter the 40/70 again in the 90's used in a light A/Tk role in Bosnia with both AP-T and SAP-T being used and it mounted on a flatbed.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

I was a 1st class layer on the 40/70 and used the gun regularly between 1969 and 1972 before becoming the trials bty for Rapier in 1973.