Bofors 75 mm mountain gun


The Bofors 75 mm mountain gun was a German-designed and Swedish-built mountain gun of the interwar years that was used during the Second World War.

History

In 1919–1920 Krupp designed a new 7.5-cm L20 mountain gun, but the Treaty of Versailles and German disarmament banned manufacturing guns under 170 mm in calibre at the company, so it licensed the product to Bofors. Under a 1921 agreement the company agreed not to export any Krupp-derived materiel to the victors of WWI: the UK, US, France, Italy and Japan.
Bofors, which had never build mountain guns before, had to set up a saddler's workshop which worked until 1980s, and buy donkeys and mules to carry the pack guns. After a Swedish-made prototype passed field tests in Java, KNIL became the first customer in 1923, ordering 30 guns with ammunition and other auxiliary equipment; orders from Turkey and other countries followed starting from 1928.

Design

The Bofors 75 mm mountain gun was built in two main versions, one had a barrel of 20 calibers in length and the other a barrel of 22 calibers in length. Both had a two-wheeled single-axle box-trail carriage with shield, which could be towed by a horse team or broken down into eight mule loads for transportation. In addition to its use by Sweden it was widely exported.

Users

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