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"Testing Antiaircraft Gun Barrels in Combat Areas" from Tactical and Technical Trends

The following article on German testing of antiaircraft gun barrels was published in Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 34, September 23, 1943.

[DISCLAIMER: The following text is taken from the U.S. War Department publication Tactical and Technical Trends. As with all wartime intelligence information, data may be incomplete or inaccurate. No attempt has been made to update or correct the text. Any views or opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the website.]
 

TESTING ANTIAIRCRAFT GUN BARRELS IN COMBAT AREAS

Modern antiaircraft guns are more than mere engines of destruction: they are complicated pieces of mechanism that require constant care and supervision. The following data on the maintenance of antiaircraft guns in the combat areas are taken from a translation of an article appearing in a German publication.

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The gunners of the antiaircraft batteries watch the barrels of their guns with the same diligence that the infantryman does his rifle. But this care does not suffice to preserve that fine precision which is the essential thing in the case of the antiaircraft gun. From time to time the initial velocity valves must be measured and tested. It will be remembered that velocity expresses the ballistic velocity at zero meters, that is, on leaving the barrel of the gun. This must be very familiar to the gun commander.

It is necessary to know the initial velocity value of each gun in order to accurately fire the guns so as to have the shells burst in a definitely prearranged target area.

There are fixed stations in Germany for the measuring and testing of the initial velocity valves and in combat areas there is a motorized "initial velocity detail" which goes from one antiaircraft regiment to another to test every gun.

Magnetized projectiles are fired through two coils that are constructed at an accurately measured distance from the barrel of the gun. The time needed by the projectile to go from the first to the second coil is determined by the "Boulanger apparatus", two of which, in a special trailer, are attached to the initial velocity testing detail. As the projectile passes through the coils, its magnetic field generates a magnetic impulse which (over a relay) releases two falling weights, one after the other, in the Boulanger apparatus. The second and smaller weight activates an impact measurer which makes a notch in the first weight. The height of the fall is measured by a gauge. By these measurements the existing initial velocity value for each gun is determined.

 
 


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