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Although the Bofors company has produced many weapons during its history, it is most famous for the 40mm anti-aircraft gun that eventually became known simply as the Bofors gun. This was a fully automatic weapon that proved to be more effective that it's British or American contemporaries and ended up serving in vast numbers during the Second World War.
This book looks at the long history of the Bofors gun, from its development in the early 1930s to the latest versions being developed eighty years later. We start with two chapters looking at the development and structure of the gun itself. This is followed by a series of chapters looking at the main customers for the gun - Sweden, the United States, Britain and the Commonwealth, and then by more minor users. This is followed by a series of chapters looking at more modern versions of the gun, starting with the longer Bofors L/70 and finishing with some technically successful but commercially disastrous developments. Finally we look at the various self propelled guns based on the Bofors gun, with a complete chapter on the Swedish CV90.
In some respects this is meant more as a reference than as a readable narrative - this is especially true of the sections on the many variants of gun, mount and sight produced by the UK and US, but these sections are also of great value because of that level of detail (although even here the text is perfectly readable). I found the section on self-propelled mounts of interest, with some very odd designs produced - one US mount carried two guns mounted one above the other with a large gap.
This is a useful examination of a fairly ubiquitous weapon system of the Second World War, and added a great deal to my knowledge of this key naval gun.
Chapters
1 - Beginnings
2 - The Land Service Model 1934 L/60 Described
3 - The Swedish L/60 Guns
4 - British and Commonwealth L/60 Guns
5 - The American Guns
6 - L/60 Licenses and Exports
7 - Bofors L/70
8 - BOFI
9 - Trinity and After
10 - Self-Propelled Guns
11 - CV90
12 - Postscript
Author: Terry Gander
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
Year: 2013