Original Items: Only One Available. This is a fantastic opportunity to add a rather rare gun component to your collections, perfect for a US Navy or Ordnance display! The components are marked accordingly with their respective US Navy part numbers; Front Sight (299342) and rear “peep” sight (299349).

The Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60 is an anti-aircraft autocannon, designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. The gun was designed as an intermediate anti-aircraft gun, filling the gap between fast firing close-range small caliber anti-aircraft guns and slower firing long-range high caliber anti-aircraft guns, a role which previously was filled by older outdated guns. The Bofors 40 mm L/60 was for its time perfectly suited for this role and outperformed competing designs in the years leading up to World War II in both effectiveness and reliability.

The sight assembly is in wonderful condition though it is missing the bracket that would allow it to be attached to the “bicycle handlebar” looking Arm Weldment which would allow for the attachment of another sight assembly.

Much of the original US Navy haze gray paint is still retained with some areas of loss. The assembly is presented without any extensive damage.

Comes more than ready for further research and display.

The United States Navy's Bureau of Ordnance purchased a twin-mount air-cooled example, spare parts and 3,000 rounds of ammunition directly from Bofors, which arrived in New York on 28 August 1940 aboard the Army transport USAT American Legion, which had evacuated 897 people, including members of the Norwegian royal family, through the Finnish port of Petsamo. During that month another Dutch ship, the Van Kinsbergen, demonstrated the Hazemeyer mount to Navy observers. The gun was quickly chosen as the Navy's standard anti-aircraft weapon over the British 40 mm calibre, 2-pounder pom-pom; however, negotiations with Bofors for licensed production stalled when the Swedes requested airplane export and manufacturing licenses in return. Reportedly, the Navy secretly imported a set of imperial designs from Britain and started production illegally. A formal contract with Bofors was reached in June 1941. The resulting Mark 1 and Mark 2 weapons were intended for the left and right side of a twin mount, respectively, and were adapted by Chrysler for water cooling.

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the existing 1.1" (28 mm) quad mount and .50 caliber machine guns were determined to be inadequate against modern aircraft, and their replacement by 40 mm Bofors and 20 mm Oerlikon weapons was accelerated. The water-cooled version was used almost exclusively by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard. The 40 mm quadruple mount was developed by essentially mounting two twin mounts side by side. A major improvement was the addition of power operation to both twin and quadruple mounts. Essentially all US naval mountings were twin or quadruple. 40 mm weapons were eventually mounted on virtually every naval and armed auxiliary vessel larger than a small landing craft. After the war, the 3"/50 caliber gun Mark 27 twin mount began to replace the Bofors, because the "VT" proximity fuse would not fit a 40mm projectile, and the 40 mm weapon was considered inadequate against the emerging anti-ship missile threat. The twin 3" mount was intended to be the same weight as the 40mm quad mount, but was somewhat heavier in practice, which had to be compensated for. Except on destroyers and new construction, the Navy was slow in phasing out the 40 mm gun, and it continued in active Navy service through the Korean War. It remained on inactive Reserve fleet ships at least through the early 1970s.

The Navy's satisfaction with the weapons was demonstrated by their practice of telegraphing Chrysler Corporation with the serial numbers of guns when they shot down an aircraft.