History
The gun was initially developed as a tank weapon, and made its debut as the main armament of the Vickers-designed Cruiser Tank Mk I. For reasons of economy and standardization, the Director of Artillery accepted it as a basis for an anti-tank gun in October 1934. Contracts to design a carriage were given to Vickers and the Woolwich Arsenal.
Vickers was the first to submit a design, which was accepted as the Ordnance QF 2-pounder Mark IX on Carriage Mark I. A limited number of pieces were built in 1936. The carriage had an innovative three-legged construction. In the traveling position, one of the legs was used as a towing trail, and the other two were folded. When the gun was positioned for combat, the legs were emplaced on the ground and the wheels were lifted up. Woolwich Arsenal's carriage was found to be cheaper and easier to produce than the Vickers design, and with the gun was adopted as Ordnance QF 2-pounder Mark IX on Carriage Mark II. It was conceptually similar, although when the gun was emplaced for combat the wheels had to be removed. This carriage was also manufactured by Vickers.
The unusual construction gave the gun good stability and a traverse of 360 degrees, allowing it to quickly engage moving vehicles from any approach. With the Vickers carriage, the gun could also be fired from its wheels, at the expense of limited traverse. The 40 mm 2-pounder could outperform a typical 37 mm piece such as the German 3.7 cm PaK 36 or the Bofors 37 mm, and hugely outclassed smaller 25 mm and 20 mm weapons used by some forces. On the negative side, the 2-pounder was nearly twice as heavy as PaK 36, and had a higher profile.
One interesting late-war project was the David High Velocity, a Canadian development that allowed 2-pdr ammunition to be fired from the larger-calibre 6-pdr. This was intended to improve the muzzle velocity of the shot. The system was still being developed when the war ended, the program ending along with it. Another was the 2-pdr HV 'Pipsqueak', a postwar gun using a 40x438R cartridge originally intended as the main armament for the Saladin armoured car that was to replace the AEC armoured car. This was designed to fire APDS rounds which would match the penetration of the 'Littlejohn' shot while still allowing HE shells to be fired. In fact the claimed performance was better, the 1,295 m/s shot penetrating 85mm of armour at 60 degrees at 900m. Development of this gun was also abandoned when the role of the Saladin shifted towards infantry fire support and a low-velocity 76mm cannon was selected instead.
One of the most serious shortcomings of the 2-pdr was the lack of a high explosive shell, especially if the 2-pdr was the main gun of a tank; this was a very important item when a tank was being used in the infantry support role, having only its machine gun to rely on. A high explosive shell was designed for the 2-pdr but was never placed in production.
An example of an Irish Army QF 2 pdr resides in the museum in Collins Barracks in Cork City.
Read more about this topic: Ordnance QF 2 Pounder
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