My dad would have loved to have seen this. He spent most of WW2 behind a Bofors gun in the British Army. As a kid we had a couple of shell cases by the side of the fireplace lovingly polished.
I do not have any of my Grandads fired empty shells but those of spits and German fighters we had over Ventnor and found them when we were kids in the isle of wight
Thank you, sincerely, for keeping these videos, and thus the Honorable memory of the folks who engineered & produced both the product and the film, alive. God Bless You.
Now that was very interesting! Many people don't realize what went on in the defense industry. Every state and most cities and towns in those states were engaged in all kinds of manufacturing! On a massive scale.
American industry did amazing things during WW II. Once the processes had been fine tuned, Ford's huge, purpose constructed Willow Run plant was able to turn out a complete B-24 Liberator bomber every 63 minutes!!
😏👍 Yeah, if only Ford had been tasked with producing ALL wartime products during WW2.... That would've ensured the weaponry and vehicles would've been more powerful, just as Ford & Mercury cars were always better & faster than Mopar and GM cars! {Sarcasm}
@@HighlanderNorth1 Don't play yourself, all manufacturers had their share of grief. The General Motors Saginaw Gear plant could not make reliable M1 Carbines for the longest time, to the point they had one of the lowest production and acceptance rates for that weapon.
The production capabilities and output of American industry, the women (Rosie the Riveters) and our combined U.S. Forces along with our valiant Allies on the front lines, at sea, and in the air is how America was able to win WWII on two fronts against formidable opponents. As a proud U.S. NAVY veteran I salute them all. ✌💙🇺🇸
Chrysler must have pulled a lot of strings to completely write the York Safe and Lock Company out of this film. It was York that sent employees to Sweden in the late 30s to obtain the license to manufacture, York that arranged for the Navy to purchase said license (N557a-2) in 1941, and York that won the Navy contract do the metric-US conversions and redesign for the guns. Chrysler was brought in by the Army, and was mainly tasked with ensuring their drawings matched what York came up with. Chrysler did phenomenal work when it came to speeding up production, but to simply say the Navy mounts were produced by various manufacturers at 18:55 is to leave out the company that was most responsible for the Americanization of the Bofors gun.
I'm glad I came across this comment because in this movie it's suggested the Navy and Chrysler redesigned a mediocre gun. Krupp's Flak was also developed with Bofors.
@Lew Rodd Of course you have to come here and howl with your relentless sour remarks against anything remotely American. What's new troll? Edit: Looks like his 2nd comment has been withdrawn. That's why I deleted my answer.
It's a real shame we didn't switch to the metric system way back then. As an auto mechanic, trained in the '70s, I had to have two sets of tools for the hybrid metric/SAE vehicles coming into the shop. To this day, I see some friends working on GM stuff which has both metric and SAE bolts on the SAME ENGINE PART! I love these old films.
Crazy shit, different standards. I was an aero engine tech in the Canadian Forces, and worked on the Canadian version of the T-33. It had the Rolls Royce Nene engine. That meant it had metric, Imperial, and Standard Whitworth, all in one machine.
And the imperial system is based on the metric or your industry would be in the stone age. The metric system is a true system of measurement as it references natural constants.......while the imperial system references the metric system.
@@AirCrash1 Actually the metric system is quite arbitrary. The original "metre" was IIRC 1/10,000 of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator, passing through Paris. Unfortunately, they got the wrong and so the metre is itself incorrect. Which means that so are all the weights and volumes. Metric itself, except for Celsius or Centigrade, doesn't reference any physical measures at all.
@@JohnJ469 Nope the metric system references physical constants which have been changed throughout history to enable greater accuracy. The imperial system just references the metric system, it's not really a measurement system at all just a trade barrier.
Without taking anything away from the brave guys and gals at the sharp end of the last world war, WW2 was equally won by the skilled and unskilled factory workers, designers and engineers who had the expertise in the mass production methods needed to keep the war effort moving forward. These guns were so well designed and made, I believe there are quite a few examples still out there alive and kicking!
@@SonsOfLorgar In my years of work, I've come across a LOT of unskilled workers. Some of them had decades of experience which somehow didn't translate to any increase in skill...
I take my hat off to the engineers who redesigned the solutions for mass production. A high focus on quality inspection early in the manufacturing cycle, to avoid defective devices at final assembly.
The Bofor anti aircraft, gun, coupled with the close proximity fuse, was considered the very best defense weapon. But in that combination, wasn't available in large numbers till the last year of the war.
All WWII Naval Guns are impressive and fun to watch in the news-reels and movies, but the 40mm Bofors is still my favorite. Just hammering away at the enemy - pounding them into submission.
Of course the average DIY American can do today on his Bridgeport leftover machine tools during the weekends after a few beers, what specialists did as a lifetime career.
@@BrassLock ; Nah, Bridgeport or any small tool making style vertical mill has nowhere near the rigidity, horsepower, or spindle capacity. Go back to your garage.
That is one of the ways on how America defeated the enemies. Through the wonders of mass production. In the Sherman tanks for example in European theater of operation, they faced a more formidable Panzer and Tiger tanks of the Nazi army. But when they destroyed 10 Sherman tanks, 100 replaced those and if they destroy 100 tanks, then 1000 will replace them and eventually the Sherman tanks overwhelmed the enemy's defenses.
zed zardoz: That's the other amazing part of manufacturing. All those millions of parts for the war effort was made possible by the planning, design, and the manufacture of the machinery that made those parts.
@@gerrycrisostomo6571 and the German tanks were mostly hand fitted, often using slave labour for many components and suffering from a severe shortage in armor critical alloy ores, further increasing the production disparity even before allied strategic bombing raids are accounted for
In Bofors defense I have to say that their production methods were probably more than adequate to meet customer demand in the peacetime prior to WWII and Bofors probably chose lots of hand fitting because of the economics, specialty machine tools are expensive. Chrysler repurposed multiple automobile factories and all the machines in them to pull off the amazing job of ramping up production.
Yeah, but we Swedes also tend to manufacture simple systems to a craftmanship level. An other example of this is the M/45 Submachine gun, or "Swedish K" as it is called in the US. The Swedish version of it look and operates like a simple submachine gun of the time, but if you look at the details you realise it went some effort into how it was made
The over head view at 1:07 is a 1.1in Quad (28mm) used early in the war. The twin mag feed system was the biggest issue,this had to be watched carefully or jams would occur. The 40mm Bofors was much,ore powerful and engineered far better, one of the Best gun designs of anytime !!
Competent industrial management in the USA was no accident. Much effort had been put into design, management and production techniques which ultimately produced excellent results. The responsible attitude to consistent high-quality work was a feature of the same success. "Rosie the riveter" and "Wanda the welder" were essential to winning the war.
Boros Gun---Used as a spaceship weapon in the Star Wars movies. The movie also used 1896 Mauser broom handle pistols, mp-44 assault rifle, mg-34 machine gun, Sterling SMG and other ww1 and ww2 modified guns as futuristic space weapons.
Truly awe inspiring to see the teamwork and coordination necessary to convert civilian vehicle factories into technological marvels that pump these out. Comparing this America to what we see now....just doesn't do what we see here justice.
I’ve been doing it 43 years… still do… a trade handed down to me from my dad.. never the same thing twice… always something new. Very gratifying occupation..
There was a "Duster"...twin 40 's mounted on a tank body ...assigned to our compound for security. It was a sight to behold firing at night...this was 1969.
M42 Duster....Taiwan used the Dusters hull and a Hellcat Turret to form the Type 64 Light Tank with a 76mm M1 gun post WW2 😉 Dusters in Vietnam were used in anti-infantry roles too during that conflict (A very persuasive argument to not be anywhere near one if you were fighting the Dusters owners)
Had a Battalion XO in 1983 that was Air Defense Artillery (ADA) in Vietnam ….as a young Lieutenant he said he was always welcomed in whatever unit’s perimeter he was assigned to because of the massive firepower of the “Duster”. I was in 7th ID assigned to a Chapparal/Vulcan/Redeye BN at the time. Our motto was : If it flies it Dies !
Walter Chrysler would have been proud of the many accomplishments of his engineering staffs during WW2. Chrysler put great emphasis on engineering in developing his automobile products in the 20s and 30s.. That paid big dividends in developing and producing military products for the war. Unfortunately Walter Chrysler died in 1940 and he never got to see this.
Lets not forget that it was because of Americas isolated location from Europe and Asia that they were able to mass produce war equipment unimpeded by constant enemy bombing.
I think most people are aware of where America is. Let’s also not forget Americas vast natural resources (without subjugating many countries and starving millions of their people to feed its troops) and invention of assembly line manufacturing along with the ability to create a vast trained workforce due to minimum education requirements for its citizens.
From Wiki: Mid-Atlantic English was the dominant dialect among the Northeastern American upper class through the first half of the 20th century. As such, it was popular in the theatre and other forms of elite culture in that region. With the evolution of talkies in the late 1920s, voice was first heard in motion pictures. It was then that the majority of audiences first heard Hollywood actors speaking predominantly in Mid-Atlantic English. Radio announcers copied it.
I couldn't ever imagine what it must have been like for those men sitting on the side of a carrier behind one of these guns one of the last lines of defense for kamikaze planes
And an advanced version of the metric original, the 40mm/L70 probably incorporating a lot of the US production improvements is in use on the Swedish competitor to the Bradley, the Hägglunds CV9040 IFVs and AAVs.
I served as a weapons mechanic on the ow retired H model gunships we had the before gun as well as the early A models! Think they might have been on the U model as well but believe they have been completely phased out of all gunships being replaced by the 30mm chain gun!!!
1:08 - Not a Bofors. 1.1" (28 mm.) quad that was overly complex and jammed and seized a lot . Replaced by the 40 mm Bofors to the joy of US Navy gunners.
It was our greatest asset till given to the Red Chinese right off the manufacturing floor by the likes of Romney. Now we will have little when we fight these Communist bastards which will happen.
At 2:35: "Foreign measure" -- like maybe millimeters? As in "40mm"? "Gosh, Marge, the plant's got me working on some dang Swedish thing called a '40 millimeter' gun. I don't know how big that is but the barrel looks about 1.574803 inches in diameter." Good thing the slide rule guys converted all those crazy 'millimeters' to proper measurements. I think they need to re-name it the '1.574803 inch gun'."
It's not so much the workers being unfamiliar, as it was that all the machinery and measuring tools were made with decimal inch, to say nothing of the tooling and fasteners. I remember reading of how a German diesel-hydraulic locomotive was tested in the US, and the mechanics had to get wrenches from the local Volkswagen dealership.
Remember all the emphasis on redesigning existing machines? To save time, money and trouble. What's easier -- modifying the plans to match your machines or buying all new machines to match the piece of paper in front of you?
@@kentix417 Then they would have had to make alterations to the design, which would have necessitated redesigning the whole gun from ground up. The dimensions are all carefully calculated.
Don't know what makes you think quality was lower...It was stronger with forgings instead of castings.The glycol/water cooling jacket was installed giving a longer sustained fire capability .The automatic gun director system,etc.All done in the US.In short more reliable.The ammunition fuze was too sensitive and that was corrected with an eleven point five second self destruct feature incorporated to lessen friendly fire damage.I have personally examined these guns...You? Swedish craftsmanship is of course not second rate to anyone.
Love these videos. The only thing that bothers is that the running time stamp and black bar often interfere with reading the text they are showing in the documentary. It is in a very bad spot. It isn't CC, it should be tucked away in the upper corner. You don't want folks stealing this so you put the time stamp and watermark on it, we get it. But sheesh, move it.
Here's the issue: Tens of thousands of films similar to this one have been lost forever -- destroyed -- and many others are at risk. Our company preserves these precious bits of history one film at a time. How do we afford to do that? By selling them as stock footage to documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. If we did not have a counter, we could not afford to post films like these online, and no films would be preserved. It's that simple. So we ask you to bear with the watermark and timecodes. In the past we tried many different systems including placing our timer at the bottom corner of our videos. What happened? Unscrupulous RU-vid users downloaded our vids, blew them up so the timer was not visible, and re-posted them as their own content! We had to use content control to have the videos removed and shut down these channels. It's hard enough work preserving these films and posting them, without having to spend precious time dealing with policing thievery -- and not what we devoted ourselves to do. Love our channel and want to support what we do? You can help us save and post more orphaned films! Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Even a really tiny contribution can make a difference.
Like almost everything built in the US the production of this gun owes its precision of parts manufacture to US automotive "Production Engineering". Were in all components are made to an exacting tolerance standard being mirror images of one another and require no "fitting" in order to be mounted, or swapped between end items. Something the world at this time, even the fastidious Germans were not doing in any produced item at that time. This allowed any machining manufacture to produce any item as long as they followed the production engineering methods and standards set forth.
This is an old PR movie, not quite accurate. The original guns from Sweden were also made by exacting tolerance. In fact so was it a Bofors engineer that 1901 patented the invention of the key tool that allowed the US automotive industry to develop.
The first product whose entire parts were interchangeable, were muskets made by gunsmith Honore Blanc in Paris in 1790. Bewilderingly, after producing 10,000 muskets a year for Napoleon, in 1806, the French government decided to reject this innovation, and return to the old craftsmen method of gun manufacture.
@@clark9992 Attempts at interchangeability of parts can be traced back as far as the Punic Wars through both archaeological remains of boats now in Museo Archeologico Baglio Anselmi and contemporary written accounts. In modern times the idea developed over decades among many people. An early leader was Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, an 18th-century French artillerist who created a fair amount of standardization of artillery pieces, although not true interchangeability of parts. He inspired others, including Honoré Blanc and Louis de Tousard, to work further on the idea, and on shoulder weapons as well as artillery. In the 19th century these efforts produced the "armory system," or American system of manufacturing. Certain other New Englanders, including Captain John H. Hall and Simeon North, arrived at successful interchangeability before Whitney's armory did. The Whitney armory finally succeeded not long after his death in 1825.
The reason the Finnish handmade these is that they couldn't justify the large expense of starting industrial manufacturing. They didn't need to mass produce these.
@@sarjim4381 tanks-encyclopedia.com/37mm-bofors-anti-tank-gun/ Finland bought the license and set up 2 factories domestically, producing them in 1939. I don't know about further into the war.
The total amount of guns planned for the Swedish armed forces simply did not motivate this kind of industrial setup. And, yes, America in those days was indeed ahead of us Europeans in the game of mass manufacturing.
In this video, we see the engineers converting blueprints from metric to imperial, and there is an interesting little detail about this, and the manufacturing of Bofors guns in the USA; it wasn't really properly licenced... which makes me wonder where the blueprints came from. However, as the war progressed, the USA put an embargo on war materials, including the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp, which Sweden wanted to use in a number of existing, and planned aircrafts. In need of these engines, swedish engineers, re-engineered the blueprints, metallurgy, and manufacturing from a few test examples of this engine that had been brought over to Sweden before the embargo. It was then sucessfully manufactured in quantity under the name STWC-3. Some still fly today. I have been told that the governments in both countries after the war, look at these two instances of "breeching the protocol", shrugged and called it even.
My favorite Anti Gun of WWII...listening to the veterans on the carriers talk about it, the guys below wondering what was happening up top..."First we heard the 5 inchers, then the 40mm, then the 20mm...then we knew we were in the thick of it."
How funny... At 1:07: as they are introducing the “Bofors 40mm Anti-Aircraft Automatic Canon” they shift to an overhead view.... Of the Quad 1.1” AA Mount, or “Chicago Piano.” Oddly, the 1.1”/75 Automatic Canon, was intended to be used as a single-gun, replacing the M2 .50 Machine-Gun as a “Light Anti-Aircraft Canon,” rather than the “Medium AA Mount” it eventually became. The original specifications from the Navy called for a “Machine-Canon” of 25mm to 30mm that had a Rate-of-Fire similar to that of the M2. A RoF that was never even remotely achieved by a single-gun. It required 4 of the guns to achieve the same volume of fire as a single M2. As such, it became an intermediate AA Weapon, while the 20mm Oerlikon Canon eventually replaced the Water-Cooled M2 Machine-Gun as the Light AA outfit of Ships.
Here's the issue: Tens of thousands of films similar to this one have been lost forever -- destroyed -- and many others are at risk. Our company preserves these precious bits of history one film at a time. How do we afford to do that? By selling them as stock footage to documentary filmmakers and broadcasters. If we did not have a counter, we could not afford to post films like these online, and no films would be preserved. It's that simple. So we ask you to bear with the watermark and timecodes. In the past we tried many different systems including placing our timer at the bottom corner of our videos. What happened? Unscrupulous RU-vid users downloaded our vids, blew them up so the timer was not visible, and re-posted them as their own content! We had to use content control to have the videos removed and shut down these channels. It's hard enough work preserving these films and posting them, without having to spend precious time dealing with policing thievery -- and not what we devoted ourselves to do. Love our channel and want to support what we do? You can help us save and post more orphaned films! Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/PeriscopeFilm Even a really tiny contribution can make a difference.
Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack, said he didnt fear USA's fighting men's courage, skill or resolve, because he considered Japan's to be superior, but he did fear the USA's mass production capability, and he said unless they quickly defeated the USA, then Japan would lose the war due to the USA's unmatched production
Do you have any *_Off Duty Brazilian Policemen_* in your family? They feature in many of my favourite videos on *Active Self Protection (ASP) Channel.* They mostly use automatic pistols hidden under their T-Shirts and are very fast on the draw, after feigning compliance, waiting their turn to mount a counter attack. The criminals usually fail the _Room Temperature Challenge._
Luckily WW II didn't happen in the 1970's when carmakers were overrun by dope fiends who were wrecking the American auto industry! But I do agree with your point.
Do you think precision was important in the manufacture of parts for a Bofors gun? The announcer must have mentioned close tolerances and interchangeable parts a dozen times in the last 5 minutes of the film. I imagine this was a point of pride to the converted automotive industries at the time. It was one big advantage the "arsenal of democracy" had in the 20th century. Henry Ford is credited with developing the manufacturing line, and competition between America's Big Three automakers helped hone manufacturing processes to these exacting standards. Growing up in the 1950s and 60s, I felt as if the 4 long years of WWII must have been impossible to bear. I was a small child with our 4 years warring in Korea, but with 11 years of a war in Vietnam, war became very personal. I've since grown numb to the idea of war. We just ended a 20-year war in the Middle East, and except for the first 6 months, I've hardly paid attention. I hope this peace lasts a lifetime, or maybe forever.
Many machines in use show operators with no safety spex - H&S was somewhat lax back then, in UK too. Accidents were not uncommon Life is much safer now . . .
@@tukangiseng then why did you mention octal? (Besides, 12 is not divisible by 8. The Babylonians -- from whom we get 12 hour days and 360 degree circles -- used duodecimal, not octal.)
@@tukangiseng TBH, the only place I've *ever* seen octal used is minicomputers from the 1960s and 1970s, because they were *typically* 18-bit and 36-bit.
My unit in vietnam 2 tracked 40mm anti-air craft guns spotted along hwy 19 QL pleiku very bay puppies. These were used to bust vc base camps and destroy enemy artillery guns. 4th div.