Gun Trucks

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by copeab

The Germans did some work on 35cm and 54cm recoilless (countershot) weapons to be carried under aircraft.

Some WWI British aircraft were equipped with a Davis Gun, which was a counter-shot weapon (explosive shell goes forward, frangible counterweight of equal mass goes harmlessly <?> out the back).

One of the SPAD models had a 37mm cannon firing through the hollow propeller shaft.

In WW2:
The Me109 (some versions, too lazy to track down which) had a 30mm cannon "nestled between the cylinder heads" of the aircraft's engine, firing through the propeller boss.

Back to gun trucks:
I think the penultimate gun trucks were the SAS jeeps used in the "Jeep Raids" on German airstrips in North Africa. Like the eventual evolution of the PT boats from torpedo to gunboats, these Jeeps had more armament per pound of vehicle weight than just about any other weapons system in their class.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by WallShadow

In WW2:
The Me109 (some versions, too lazy to track down which) had a 30mm cannon "nestled between the cylinder heads" of the aircraft's engine, firing through the propeller boss.

There was a version of the Hurricane with a 40mm cannon under each wing that they used for tank-busting in North Africa. Recoil was said to be brutal on the pilot, and that makes me think that maintenance on the wings and wing roots had to be constant and thorough.

[pmulcahy11b]

I want one of those HEMTT gun trucks. Traffic in San Antonio sucks -- it would be nice to clear some of the idiots out of the way...

[natehale1971]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

I want one of those HEMTT gun trucks. Traffic in San Antonio sucks -- it would be nice to clear some of the idiots out of the way...

In our Year of the Zombie campaign we had a couple HEMTT 10-ton cargo trucks, and a fuel tanker as part of our convoy... one of them had been turned into a guntruck with .50cals, 7.62mm general purpose machineguns and two 40mm automatic grenade launchers. Oh.. and a light mortar. It had been designed not to destroy lot's of zombies, but to keep marauders and fleshmongers away from our convoy of civilian survivors... the convoy was divided into three sections with a Grayhound coach full of survivors as the centrepeice of each section and there was a heavily modified Grayhound coach that had been turned into a mobile medical clinic.

[Schone23666]

For what it's worth, since you were talking about weapons on vehicles stripped from aircraft, I remember seeing a pic of a WWII PT boat that had the 37mm autocannon from a P39 Airacobra rigged on a weapon mount on the deck, with traverse and elevation, fire controls, ammunition drum, the works. If they could do it on a boat, pretty sure they could have set up something similiar on a truck as well. Of course, I think you'd find 37mm ammunition to be fairly scarce these days.

Of course, not just guns. If you wanted to get fancier....they were for a while touting around the HUMRAAM, which was basically a Humvee modified to carry a turret rack that mounted (correct me if I'm wrong) 4 AMRAAM's and 2 Sidewinders modified for the SAM role.

Just goes to show I guess that with enough ingenuity, you can, within reason, pretty much mount ALMOST anything from an aircraft onto a vehicle, provided the vehicle is large enough and can handle the weight and recoil of the weapons. Of course, something like the 30mm Avenger autocannon mounted on the A-10 might be a bit problematic.

[Webstral]

Realistically, though, what weapons are one likely to find? Central Europe is littered with suitable heavy weapons by mid-2000. Parts of the USSR, Iran, Iraq, North China, Korea also will have a fair stock of weapons for gun trucks. Australia and New Zealand are probably less blessed than the areas where the armies of the world duked it out. CONUS, where my attention is fixed, won't have the same variety or numbers of suitable weapons as Central Europe. Places like Vermont and New Hampshire, which were stripped of troops, weapons, and supplies so that reinforcements could be sent to the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest, will be very short on weapons for gun trucks. Colorado, on the other hand, should have a fair number.

[natehale1971]

Originally Posted by Webstral

Realistically, though, what weapons are one likely to find? Central Europe is littered with suitable heavy weapons by mid-2000. Parts of the USSR, Iran, Iraq, North China, Korea also will have a fair stock of weapons for gun trucks. Australia and New Zealand are probably less blessed than the areas where the armies of the world duked it out. CONUS, where my attention is fixed, won't have the same variety or numbers of suitable weapons as Central Europe. Places like Vermont and New Hampshire, which were stripped of troops, weapons, and supplies so that reinforcements could be sent to the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest, will be very short on weapons for gun trucks. Colorado, on the other hand, should have a fair number.

Web... there is also a few other sources that you might be able to get retired weapons systems. Tanks, helicopters and the like.. American Legion posts, Veterans of Foreign Wars Chapters, DIsabled American Veterans Chapters and other faternal groups of Veterans. It just hit me that there is a UH-1 Heuy Gunship, a towed howitzer and a Sherman tank sitting in front of the local VFW Chapter. There is a towed heavy AA machinegun infront of the masons Lodge a few blocks away. There are also some field cannons in the park as well.

Some communities might have these kinds of weapon systems that might be able to be refurbished and used.

[natehale1971]

The Autocannon from an A-10 MIGHT be able to be put into an armored vehicle that has an offset or rear mounted engine and only be able to be fired directly forward or directly aft depending on how it was mounted on the vehcile, and i think that the vehicle would need some kind of stablization legs like field artillery to act as a counter balance to it it being fired in a burst shot... Unless of course you're talking about using it as single shot or the like. Then it might be able to be on a turret that could fire to the right or left.

Of course you could use that kind of weapon to make the Cobra ASP from the GI JOE action figures, cartoons and comics.

[Schone23666]

Originally Posted by natehale1971

The Autocannon from an A-10 MIGHT be able to be put into an armored vehicle that has an offset or rear mounted engine and only be able to be fired directly forward or directly aft depending on how it was mounted on the vehcile, and i think that the vehicle would need some kind of stablization legs like field artillery to act as a counter balance to it it being fired in a burst shot... Unless of course you're talking about using it as single shot or the like. Then it might be able to be on a turret that could fire to the right or left.

Of course you could use that kind of weapon to make the Cobra ASP from the GI JOE action figures, cartoons and comics.

Hmm, interesting idea. Still gonna need to be a decent sized vehicle to even mount the weapon, ditto when it comes to trying to handle the damn recoil. Have you seen one of those GAU-8 out of the aircraft? It's HUGE! The A-10 is practically built around it like the old P47 aircraft was built around the Pratt and Whitney engine.

Heh, I do like your idea though, assuming it could work. And I really do miss the old days of GI Joe....sure, it seemed silly, but dammit, it was cool as hell! The characters, the vehicles, everything. In fact, a few of those vehicles I thought had an interesting idea or two. Some of their vehicles were in fact loosely based around real-life vehicles that appeared in some form at some point in time.

And yes, I had a crush on Scarlett, Lady Jaye and Cover Girl, so sue me.

[rcaf_777]

Originally Posted by natehale1971

The Autocannon from an A-10 MIGHT be able to be put into an armored vehicle that has an offset or rear mounted engine and only be able to be fired directly forward or directly aft depending on how it was mounted on the vehcile, and i think that the vehicle would need some kind of stablization legs like field artillery to act as a counter balance to it it being fired in a burst shot... Unless of course you're talking about using it as single shot or the like. Then it might be able to be on a turret that could fire to the right or left.

Of course you could use that kind of weapon to make the Cobra ASP from the GI JOE action figures, cartoons and comics.

Just a little off topic but GI Joe made joined the Army I was dispointed when I arrived at basic and got no cool laser rifle, no cool code name, or a box hand grenades...on the pluse side the food live up to it rep...hmmm chip beef on toast

[copeab]

Originally Posted by Schone23666

For what it's worth, since you were talking about weapons on vehicles stripped from aircraft, I remember seeing a pic of a WWII PT boat that had the 37mm autocannon from a P39 Airacobra rigged on a weapon mount on the deck, with traverse and elevation, fire controls, ammunition drum, the works. If they could do it on a boat, pretty sure they could have set up something similiar on a truck as well. Of course, I think you'd find 37mm ammunition to be fairly scarce these days.

Late-war PT boats had a lot of weapons on them. The 80' Elco boats were best suited for such upgrades.

The two twin-.50-cal turrets were normally retained throughout the war. The 20mm Oerlikon was moved from the stern to the foredeck and replaced by a 40mm Bofors. The 37mm M-4 gun salvaged from P-39's was added in the field and later as a more standard piece of equipment (also on the foredeck). An 81mm mortar was often also added on the foredeck (primarily for firing illumination rounds for night fighting. but sometimes for shelling shore targets with HE). A few also had port and starboard racks for 5" rockets.

The foredeck of a late war PT boat could be a very crowded place ...

The four torpedo tubes were replaced with four roll-off torpedoes (which saved a lot of weight) and late in the war two (and sometimes all four) torpedo racks were left empty on patrols (the torpedoes ran too deep for shallow-draft Japanese barges, then the main target of PT boats). Sometimes the rear racks carried depth charges -- not to attack subs, but to break the backs of pursuing Japanese destroyers.

Finally, the smoke generator, carried at the far stern, was normally carried throughout the war.