Landships II

A number of Mark VII US Navy/Marines 3 inch landing guns ended up in Australia in 1942, where several survive:

See:

http://www.cannonsuperstore.com/1911mark7.html

and:

http://artilleryhistory.org/artillery_register/private_collection/gun_private_collection_019_us_3inch_mark_vii_landing_gun_sn1153.html

What I have found so far is that these guns were intended for or bought by the Dutch for their East Indies forces. They were en route to Java when the island fell and consequently delivered to Australia, like a lot of other stuff for the Dutch forces in the Indies. I have never seen any indication that some of these guns actually arrived in the Dutch East Indies.

A Dutch document from 1940 already lists a request to the US Treasury for the acquisition of 15 pieces 3 inch guns with limbers and ammo, these being possibly the mentioned landing guns.

Originally there had been 50 pieces of this Mark VII with possibly 10 serving in various US Pacific garrisons (as calculated by Nelson Lawry on the Pacific Campaign Forum). That would leave up to 40 in US depots and maybe up for sale.

Who knows more about these guns that apparently served in Australia during WW2 (with Martin Parry high speed system). How many were bought by the Dutch and how many delivered to Australia? Were they Mark VII only or also Mark XI? Or did some of these weapons meet another fate?