Machine Guns and Cannons (Ground, Vehicle, and Aircraft Mounted Weapons)

[Weaver]

Necro-thread.
About summa them Nazzie era aircraft MG and MK designations.

MG81 - 8mm caliber, first of type, MG "eight"-"one".
MG131 - 13mm caliber, first of type, MG "thirteen"-"one".
MG151 - 15mm caliber, first of type, MG "fifteen"-"one".
MG151/20 - caliber increased to 20mm, MG "fifteen"-"one"-"twenty".

Cannon, official policy as of May 1942:
MK1XX - Rheinmetall Borsig
MK2XX - Mauser
MK3XX - Krieghoff
MK4XX - Krupp
As to the assignment of the rest of the numerals in the designator, still trying to find how it
was done, a master list like RLM 8-? or ??

Then, of course, being German, you have the Mauser MG215, 15mm aircraft
machine gun. Ok 2 for Mauser, 15 for caliber, which sort of futzes with the
former pattern. MG215/20 is the MG215 increased to 20mm, which does track
with the MG151/20 and other cases of a change in caliber to an existing design.

And then you had the MG FF, which was derived from the Swiss 20mm Oerlikon FF F by Ikaria. Presumably they just carried the Oerlikon designation over.

[Mossie]

Fixed Mace has the look of one serious SPG. Can you imagine a wheeled tank with a fire rate of 96 rounds per minute??? Nothing would stand in its way, at least for the twenty seconds or so until it ran out of ammo...     

[Rick Lowe]

Then it retreats to reload and the second rank moves up to continue the onslaught... Volley fire at its' peak! 

[jcf]

[Later] A bit of googling tells me there was a smaller, 4 wheel version, called a Fixed Mace, or similar.



That looks a bit more like the one I saw at FH.

Only one Green Mace was completed, and I'd think that if the Fixed Mace aka Green Maid test mount had survived that the folks at Ft. Halstead would know what it was, seeing as it was built there.

Perhaps it was an American 120mm AA gun in its folded up travel mode?

[PR19_Kit]

I don't know, I was there in the early 90s so the staff would have changed a few times by then I guess.

And it was a long time ago for me too, I was more concerned with trying to keep their actuators in one piece, they had a habit of overloading them and scattering bits all over the test lab! 

[Old Wombat]

I was more concerned with trying to keep their actuators in one piece, they had a habit of overloading them and scattering bits all over the test lab! 

Ah! Proper testing! Push it until something breaks - if it's the test rig, you know you're getting somewhere!       

[Rick Lowe]

I was more concerned with trying to keep their actuators in one piece, they had a habit of overloading them and scattering bits all over the test lab! 

Ah! Proper testing! Push it until something breaks - if it's the test rig, you know you're getting somewhere!       

      

[jcf]

I don't know, I was there in the early 90s so the staff would have changed a few times by then I guess.

And it was a long time ago for me too, I was more concerned with trying to keep their actuators in one piece, they had a habit of overloading them and scattering bits all over the test lab! 

The majority of the 120mm stayed in the US with two exceptions. Thirteen
were sent to the Panama Canal Zone and, interestingly, four were sent to Northern Ireland.
🧐

[PR19_Kit]

Why ever would they have been sent there? 

Hardly a target rich environment I'd have thought, not for a heavy AA gun anyway.

[jcf]

Why ever would they have been sent there? 

Hardly a target rich environment I'd have thought, not for a heavy AA gun anyway.

Perhaps they thought that the "commies" might try to come in from the Northwest.

The 120mm M1 had a rated effective ceiling of 60,000', the operational ceiling of the
Tu-16 and early Tu-95 was around 40,000'.

[zenrat]

Why ever would they have been sent there? 

Hardly a target rich environment I'd have thought, not for a heavy AA gun anyway.

Depends who they were sent to.  There were donations to "the cause" from the United States...
 

[PR19_Kit]

Depends who they were sent to.  There were donations to "the cause" from the United States...
 

Sure, but a 120 mm AA gun is a tad OTT for a Puma or a Wessex or an Islander or three. 

[zenrat]

Depends who they were sent to.  There were donations to "the cause" from the United States...
 

Sure, but a 120 mm AA gun is a tad OTT for a Puma or a Wessex or an Islander or three. 

It'd make quick work of a Saracen, Armoured Landrover, or Police Station...

[Old Wombat]

Depends who they were sent to.  There were donations to "the cause" from the United States...
 

Sure, but a 120 mm AA gun is a tad OTT for a Puma or a Wessex or an Islander or three. 

120mm is only 4.7", so not really OTT for a helicopter of any form - AAA isn't meant to hit the target, it's meant to fill it full of holes from shrapnel.

[Weaver]

Depends who they were sent to.  There were donations to "the cause" from the United States...
 

Sure, but a 120 mm AA gun is a tad OTT for a Puma or a Wessex or an Islander or three. 

It'd make quick work of a Saracen, Armoured Landrover, or Police Station...

Bit tricky to sneak it up to an RUC police station without somebody noticing though. I suppose you could disguise it as a mobile crane...