Does it say which army the gun is from/for? It doesn't look British, but I may be wrong, but I can also say I haven't seen that photograph before. It looks similar to the French 37mm Trench Gun...but with the barrel under the recuperator and not above it.
By 'not looking British', I was wondering if it might have been Canadian? Still, I haven't seen that image before, so I assume it was something on a trial, as the 2Pdr was in use from about 1936.
Is it British? Look at the collars and ammunition pouches. Could they be American?
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The "OI" registration numbers were issued in Belfast.
Thanks that's interesting about the registration. Would it have been for the gun itself or also for the towing vehicle?
I sent the photo to the Firepower Museum at Woolwich. They said they wouldn't have been surpriseed if it had been a Home Guard expedient, but the 1939 date of publication rules this out. The RA took on responsibilityfor anti-tank defence from the infantry the year before. They do not have a record of such a basic gun platform with a swivel and pivot cradle and machine gun scale sight, and suspect it’s an experiment.
They've also sent the photo to the Tank Museum - if anything comes back I'll post it on my Vintage Wargaming blog (url below in signature).
This is all part of my current interest in the interwar period and in particular the Experimental Mechanised Force/Experimental Armoured Force an 1st Tank Brigade, most recently sparked off again by finding an interesting Pathe news film on Churchill inspecting what seems to be the Mechanised Force at Tidmouth in 1928 which I posted on Vintage Wargaming. Churchill would have been Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time.
-- Edited by Vintage Wargaming on Friday 19th of June 2015 11:56:32 PM
Well, the text on the pic said it fired a shell of a little over 2 inches,so we could be talking here about a rare Krupp 5,2 cm Schnelladekanone, captured in WW1 from the Kaiserliche Marine and now mobilised by Britain as war approaches. Also the vehicle configuration reminds me of a naval landing gun set up. Any chance these troops are Royal Marines or related?
Update: something related to this, Krupp or possibly Ehrhardt (Britain was a Ehrhardt customer before WW1):
Some SOTCW forum members say the webbing on the soldiers is 1908 pattern, (and they are soldiers and not marines), and the registration plate/number is pre-1937. After 1937, the army changed to 'military' number plates.
Thanks. We knew about the 1908 pattern kit. 1939 is the publication date of the book so that gives us an "earlier than" date. It will be interesting to see if the Tank Museum comes up with anything. I had wondered about trying to find out about the photo through the picture agency (Central News) but no luck with this.
I also 'googled' Central News, and found nothing...but there is a Central News Agency in Northern Ireland, and it comes up in the business directory as dealing with/in livestock!!! I found this very weird indeed!!!
Central News Agency was set up in Victoriam times and suspected of making up a couple of things to do with the Jack the Ripper case. In the 30s it was the Central Photo Agency bu I haven't been able to find out more, locate archives etc.
