65-696: Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, with the remainder being divested as Vickers plc in 1977. It featured among Britain's most prominent armaments firms. Vickers merged with the Tyneside -based engineering company Armstrong Whitworth , founded by William Armstrong , to become Vickers-Armstrongs. Armstrong Whitworth and Vickers had developed along similar lines, expanding into various military sectors and produced
130-458: A 1.9x magnification telescopic sight with a 21 degree field of view, graduated from 600 yd (550 m) to 1,800 yd (1,600 m) at 300 yd intervals. The gunner also had a notch and bead sight above the telescopic With the Vickers carriage, the gun could also be fired from its wheels, at the expense of limited traverse. The shield was 5/16 inch armour plate. Typically it was towed by
195-518: A 15-cwt (3/4-ton) truck with 68 rounds on the truck with a further 14 on the carriage itself. It could also be carried "portee" on a 30-cwt truck. 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 significantly outclassed 25mm and 20mm weapons of that era. A drawback of the 2-pounder was that it was nearly twice as heavy as
260-406: A German counter-attack of about 60 tanks. Three of the guns were knocked out, and all bar one gunner killed or fatally wounded. Despite the truck being on fire, Gunn manned the gun himself with a sergeant as his loader, engaging the enemy at 800 yards, he fired 40-50 rounds knocking out two tanks and damaging others before he was killed. The battery commander then took over. From mid-1942, the 2-pdr
325-544: A manufacturer of large aircraft at its main factory at Brooklands in Surrey. In the interwar period , the company produced the Wellesley , designed by Rex Pierson using the geodetic airframe principle of structural engineer Barnes Wallis . This would later evolve into the famous Wellington bomber , a mainstay of RAF Bomber Command and RAF Coastal Command during World War II . The Cold War -era Valiant V bomber
390-553: A semi-automatic rifle between World War I and World War II. Vickers made a British version of the rifle, and their version of the Pedersen rifle usually goes by the name "Vickers Pedersen Rifle". The company was also involved in the manufacture of 6,000–10,000 (6181 is often quoted) Luger pistols in 1922–24. These 1906 pattern pistols were in 9 mm calibre and part of a contract for the Dutch military. The Lugers are identifiable by
455-602: A suite of ordnance. In 1901 the Royal Navy 's first submarine, Holland 1 , was launched at the Naval Construction Yard. In 1902 Vickers took a half share in the Clyde shipyard John Brown & Company . Further diversification occurred in 1901 with the purchase of Herbert Austin 's embryonic car manufacturing plans, and Austin himself, from The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company . The new business
520-625: A whole suite of military products. Armstrong Whitworth were notable for their artillery manufacture at Elswick and shipbuilding at a yard at High Walker on the River Tyne . 1929 saw the merger of the acquired railway business with those of Cammell Laird to form Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon (MCCW) ; Metro Cammell. In 1935, before rearmament began, Vickers-Armstrongs was the third-largest manufacturing employer in Britain, behind Unilever and ICI . In 1956 Dorothy Hatfield became
585-690: The Airship Guarantee Company Limited was formed under Sir Dennis Burney from 29 November 1923 (lasting until 30 November 1935) specifically to participate in the building of a massive six-engined experimental airship , the R100 , in competition with the government-built R101 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme . Their buildings were at Howden in Yorkshire. Barnes Wallis and Nevil Shute Norway were on
650-654: The Barrow-in-Furness shipbuilder The Barrow Shipbuilding Company in 1897, acquiring its subsidiary the Maxim Nordenfelt Guns And Ammunitions Company at the same time, to become Vickers, Sons & Maxim . When Sir Hiram Maxim retired in 1911 the name of the firm became Vickers Ltd. The yard at Barrow became the "Naval Construction Yard". With these acquisitions, Vickers could now produce a complete selection of products, from ships and marine fittings to armour plate and
715-468: The Daimler , throughout the war. As the armour protection of Axis tanks improved, the 2-pounder lost effectiveness and it was gradually replaced by the 57 mm QF 6-pounder starting in 1942. It equipped infantry battalion anti-tank platoons replacing their anti-tank rifles until in turn replaced by 6-pounders but remained in service until the end of the war. This QF 2-pounder was distinctly different from
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#1732782567515780-659: The LZ.216 , and information freely provided by the German manufacturers of non-rigid airships. Some models featured floating cars slung beneath them. Much experience in mooring techniques and swivelling motors was gathered despite the pressures of wartime. The last airship built at the Walney Island hangar was a small non-rigid reconnaissance machine for the Japanese government that first flew on 27 April 1921. A subsidiary called
845-669: The Maxim machine gun , forming a partnership with Hiram Maxim , its inventor. They later took over the company and improved the design as the Vickers machine gun , which was the last major design Hiram Maxim himself worked on. It became the standard machine gun of the British Empire and Commonwealth , serving for some 50 years in the British Army . Vickers produced the machine gun in dozens of cartridge sizes and sold it all over
910-482: The North African Campaign the army had to rely on the 2-pdr, augmented by the 25 pounder gun-howitzer functioning as an anti-tank gun—a role for which it was capable (at the expense of diverting it from its main artillery role). As German tank design evolved, anti-armour performance of the 2-pdr gradually became insufficient; however, the gun owes a large part of the bad reputation it gained during
975-649: The QF 2 pounder "pom-pom" gun naval anti-aircraft gun used by the Royal Navy which was a 40 mm autocannon. The gun was developed as both a tank weapon and an anti-tank gun. For reasons of economy and standardization, it was accepted - as the 2-pdr Mark IX - for both purposes in October 1935. Carriages for the gun were designed by Vickers and the Design Department at the Woolwich Arsenal . Vickers
1040-705: The Second World War . It was the main anti-tank weapon of the artillery units in the Battle of France and, due to the need to rearm quickly after the Dunkirk evacuation , remained in service during the North African campaign . In its vehicle-mounted variant the 2-pounder was a common main gun on British tanks early in World War II, as well as being a typical main armament of armoured cars , such as
1105-417: The Tyneside -based engineering company Armstrong Whitworth , founded by W. G. Armstrong , to form Vickers-Armstrongs Limited . This merger was to take effect on 1 January 1928 and would give Vickers shareholders ownership of two-thirds of the new company. Metropolitan Carriage Wagon and Finance Company and The Metropolitan-Vickers Company were not included in the merger. Vickers manufactured and sold
1170-585: The Vickers machine gun of 1912 used in World War I from Vickers Limited. There were other Vickers machine guns aside from the regular water-cooled model (known universally as the "Vickers"): the Vickers-Berthier (VB) machine gun used by the Indian Army , the Vickers "K" .303 aircraft machine gun developed from it, and the Vickers "S" 40 mm aircraft gun. An unusual machine gun also made
1235-840: The 1980s. Vickers-Armstrong also built the VA-3 hovercraft . The company was also known for its tank designs, starting with the widely used Vickers 6-Ton . It also produced the influential, if never actually produced, Independent A1E1 tank. One of the company's most important designs was the Valentine Infantry Tank, produced in the thousands in World War II. The military vehicle manufacturing interests were divested into Vickers plc , and would later pass to Alvis Vickers , now part of BAE Systems Land and Armaments . Notable Vickers-Armstrongs military vehicles include; Vickers formed its Aviation Department in 1911. The aircraft interests of Armstrong Whitworth were not acquired in
1300-520: The 6-pdr, it remained in use with armoured cars. Its performance as an anti-armour weapon was improved later in the war with the development of more sophisticated ammunition and got an additional boost with the introduction of the Littlejohn adaptor , which converted it to a squeeze-bore design firing specially-designed shells at much higher velocities. However, the Littlejohn adaptor prevented
1365-516: The Belgian Army). Although Woolwich Arsenal had already designed a successor to the 2-pdr, the 6 pounder gun , it was decided in the face of a possible German invasion to re-equip the army with the 2-pdr, avoiding the period of adaptation to production, and also of re-training and acclimatization with the new weapon. Consequently, 6 pounder production was delayed until November 1941 and frontline availability until spring 1942. Thus during most of
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#17327825675151430-616: The British doctrine, especially when the 2-pdr was the main gun of a tank; this was very important when a tank was being used for infantry support, intentionally leaving it with only its machine gun for anti-personnel use. The doctrine was slow to change even in the light of battlefield experience, and the high-explosive shell was not produced until late 1942. The 2-pdr gun became a part of the Royal Artillery in 1938, when five field brigades were converted to anti-tank regiments. In
1495-784: The FB5 (fighting biplane) Gun Bus . During World War I it produced the Vimy heavy bomber. An example of the latter became the first aircraft to cross the Atlantic Ocean non-stop, a converted Royal Air Force bomber (see 1919 in aviation .) The Vimy was later developed into the Virginia , a mainstay in the RAF during the interwar years. Vickers was a pioneer in producing airliners , early examples being converted from Vimy bombers. Vickers brand aircraft were produced from 1911 to 1965, when BAC ended
1560-620: The German invasion of the Low Countries and the subsequent rear-guard actions at Dunkirk . Most of the British Army's 2-pdrs were left behind in France during the retreat, stripping most of the army's infantry anti-tank capability. Those guns captured at Dunkirk entered German service under the designation 4.0 cm Pak 192 (e) or 4.0 cm Pak 154 (b) , the "e" and "b" referring to the origin (English or mistakenly attributed to
1625-583: The PaK 36 and had a higher profile. The gun was first put into use on armoured fighting vehicles as the main armament of the new lines of cruiser and infantry tanks - the Cruiser Mk I and the Matilda II which entered production in 1937. The Light Tank Mk VII designed in 1937 also had the gun, as did the Daimler armoured car developed in the following years. To improve performance a squeeze bore system
1690-804: The Second World War, Vickers built large guns and tanks; the Valentine tank was a design that they had developed privately. Vickers began work on Britain's first rigid airship (for the Admiralty ) in mid-1909 in Cavendish Dock , Barrow. Through a lack of experience HMA No. 1 , then the largest airship, broke up on its second trip out of a floating hangar on the evening of 23 September 1911. Further designs and difficulties followed, although non-rigid machines including "Sea Scouts" (popularly called blimps ) proved generally less troublesome than
1755-676: The business. In 1863 the company moved to a new site in Sheffield on the River Don in Brightside . The company went public in 1867 as Vickers, Sons & Company and gradually acquired more businesses, branching out into various sectors. In 1868 Vickers began to manufacture marine shafts; in 1872 they began casting marine propellers and in 1882 they set up a forging press. Vickers produced their first armour plate in 1888 and their first artillery piece in 1890. The company bought out
1820-513: The campaign to the open terrain, which made the high-silhouette piece hard to conceal, and to poor tactics. In North Africa, it was found that the 2-pdr was damaged by being towed long distances across rough, stony deserts. Starting in 1941, the British developed the " en portee " method of mounting the 2-pdr, and later the 6-pounder, on a truck. Though only intended for transport, with the gun carried unloaded, crews tended to fire from their vehicles for more mobility, with consequent casualties. Hence
1885-563: The company possessed a major yard on each coast of Britain; the Naval Construction Yard of Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria and the Naval Yard of Armstrong Whitworth at High Walker on the River Tyne . Vickers-Armstrongs was one of the most important warship manufacturers in the world. These interests were renamed as Vickers-Armstrongs Shipbuilders in 1955, changing again to Vickers Limited Shipbuilding Group in 1968. The Barrow yard
1950-529: The death of the Vickers brothers were resolved in 1927 by separating Metropolitan Carriage Wagon and Finance Company and Metropolitan-Vickers , then merging the remaining bulk of the original business with Armstrong Whitworth to form Vickers-Armstrongs . The Vickers name resurfaced as Vickers plc between 1977 and 1999. Vickers was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by the miller Edward Vickers and his father-in-law George Naylor in 1828. Naylor
2015-564: The design team. The R100 first flew on 16 December 1929 and made a successful flight to Canada in July and August 1930, before the airship scheme was stopped following the disastrous crash of the R101 in France in October of that year. The R100 was scrapped in November 1931. Vickers formed Vickers Ltd (Aviation Department) 1911 and produced one of the first aircraft designed to carry a machine gun,
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2080-454: The early western campaigns, the 2-pdr was employed by two types of Royal Artillery formations: anti-tank regiments of infantry divisions (four batteries with 12 pieces each), and light anti-aircraft/anti-tank regiments of armoured divisions (two 12-gun AT batteries). From October 1940, separate 48-gun anti-tank regiments were introduced in armoured divisions too. Infantry brigade structure initially included an anti-tank company , though it
2145-585: The first female engineering apprentice at Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), Brooklands , followed in 1958 by Janet Gulland who was the first female graduate apprentice at the company. In 1960 the aircraft interests were merged with those of Bristol , English Electric and Hunting Aircraft to form the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). This was owned by Vickers, English Electric and Bristol (holding 40%, 40% and 20% respectively). BAC in turn owned 70% of Hunting. The Supermarine operation
2210-572: The formation of Vickers Ltd (Aviation Department) . Vickers brand aircraft were produced from 1911 to 1965, when BAC ended use of the name. In 1919, the British Westinghouse electrical company was taken over as the Metropolitan-Vickers Electrical Company , its name often shortened to Metrovick. At the same time Vickers gained Metropolitan's railway interests. Wolseley, now Wolseley Motors ,
2275-412: The gun good stability and a traverse of 360 degrees , allowing it to quickly engage moving vehicles from any approach. The gunner had handwheels for traverse and elevation. Additionally, he could disengage the traverse mechanism and the gun commander could rotate the gun by pushing against the gunners shoulders. The commander was aided by a simple ring and bead sight on the top of the shield. The gunner had
2340-418: The hands of the nationalised British Shipbuilders in 1977, was privatised as Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd in 1986 and remains in operation to this day as BAE Systems Submarine Solutions . Ordnance QF 2-pounder The Ordnance QF 2-pounder ( QF denoting "quick firing"), or simply "2 pounder gun", was a 40 mm (1.575 in) British anti-tank gun and vehicle-mounted gun employed in
2405-417: The inscription "Vickers Ltd" on the forward toggle link. In the interwar period Vickers worked on several tank designs. Medium Mark I and Mark II were adopted by the British Army. The Vickers 6-ton tank was the most successful, being exported or built by other nations under licence. The Vickers A1E1 Independent tank design was never put into production but credited with influencing other nations. During
2470-452: The larger rigid examples. For their second attempt at rigid airships, a team was formed with H B Pratt as "Chief Draughtsmen, Airships". Pratt had left Vickers in 1912 to work for J. Samuel White at Cowes. When he was persuaded to return to Vickers, he brought with him a colleague, Barnes Wallis , to be his assistant. The pair worked incognito from London where they were supplied with the latest intelligence on German rigid airships, such as
2535-678: The merger and later passed to the Hawker Aircraft group. In 1928 the Aviation Department became Vickers (Aviation) Ltd and soon after acquired Supermarine Aviation Works , which became the Supermarine Aviation Works (Vickers) Ltd and was responsible for producing the revolutionary Spitfire fighter. In 1938, both companies were re-organised as Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd , and a new 'art deco' headquarters designed by architect C. Howard Crane
2600-614: The most successful of which were their small-bore .22 rimfire target rifles. These were serious competitors to the Birmingham Small Arms equivalent products, and Vickers .22 target rifles were at the top of the major competitions' results for more than a decade. Initially these rifles were named solely for Vickers, but, after the 1927 amalgamation with Armstrongs, they became Vickers Armstrongs' products. See reference Vickers and Vickers-Armstrongs Martini target rifles and Sporting guns Vickers Limited Vickers Limited
2665-600: The name. Like many other British manufacturers, an enterprise in Canada was set up; Canadian Vickers Limited . This company ceased operations in 1944. Canadair was founded shortly after by former Canadian Vickers employees and later absorbed into Bombardier Aerospace . Vickers entered naval shipbuilding with the purchase of Barrow Shipbuilding Company in 1897, forming the Naval Construction Yard at Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. This yard later passed into
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2730-588: The new company. Westland bought out Vickers interest along with other partners in 1970. Vickers formed a subsidiary, the Airship Guarantee Company, under the direction of Cdr Dennis Burney solely for the purpose of producing the R100 airship for the government. Between 1911 and 1970, just over 16,000 aircraft were built under the Vickers name; together the 11,462 Wellington and 846 Warwick aircraft (which were structurally similar) make up over 75% of this total. Vickers became renowned as
2795-494: The retention of the rolling stock group (Metropolitan Carriage Wagon and Finance Company and The Metropolitan-Vickers Company) and the disposal of: Subsequently, Vickers carried through a financial reconstruction scheme which, after making additional reserves for contingent liabilities, reduced their assets by £12.5 million and their total balance sheet from £34.7 to £22.2 million. In 1927, Vickers agreed to merge their armaments and shipbuilding and heavy engineering activities with
2860-519: The vehicles tended to reverse into action so that the gunshield of the 2-pdr would provide a measure of protection against enemy fire. An infantry battalion anti-tank platoon would have eight guns on 3-ton lorries On 21 November 1941 during battle of Sidi Rezegh Second lieutenant George Ward Gunn J Battery Royal Horse Artillery was earned the Victoria Cross for his action with a 2-pdr. The troop of four portee 2-pdrs under his command engaged
2925-491: The velocity of the round taking penetration from 52 mm to 88 mm. A late-war project was the Canadian David High Velocity to allow 2-pdr ammunition to be fired from the larger-calibre 6-pdr. This was intended to improve the muzzle velocity of the shot. Initial trials carried out in Canada and the U.K. were promising; however the system was still being developed when the war ended, and the program
2990-432: The wheels were lifted up. Woolwich Arsenal had continued to develop their carriage and when re-examined was seen to be superior to Vickers design, and with this carriage the gun was adopted as 'Ordnance QF 2-pounder Mark IX on Carriage Mark II'. It was conceptually similar, although the wheels had to be removed when the gun was emplaced for combat. This carriage was also manufactured by Vickers. The unusual construction gave
3055-441: The world. They also scaled it up to larger calibres, particularly for the Royal Navy as the 0.5 inch model. Vickers & Maxim also introduced one of the first cannon to have an hydraulic recoil absorbing mechanism: in 1900 they produced a small 75 mm cannon that used two cylinders mounted alongside the barrel. Vickers was involved in the production of numerous firearms. The British tested John Pedersen 's design for
3120-401: Was nationalised and became part of British Shipbuilders in 1977, was privatised as VSEL in 1986 and remains in operation to this day as BAE Systems Submarines . Meanwhile, the Naval Yard at High Walker on the River Tyne passed to Swan Hunter in 1968, was nationalised and became part of British Shipbuilders in 1977, was privatised still as Swan Hunter in 1986 but closed down during
3185-408: Was a British engineering conglomerate. The business began in Sheffield in 1828 as a steel foundry and became known for its church bells, going on to make shafts and propellers for ships, armour plate and then artillery. Entire large ships, cars, tanks and torpedoes followed. Airships and aircraft were added, and Vickers jet airliners were to remain in production until 1965. Financial problems following
3250-421: Was a partner in the foundry Naylor & Sanderson, and Vickers' brother William owned a steel rolling operation. Edward's investments in the railway industry allowed him to gain control of the company, based at Millsands near Sheffield, and known as Naylor Vickers and Company . It began life making steel castings and quickly became known for casting church bells . In 1854 Vickers' sons Thomas and Albert joined
3315-534: Was another Vickers product. Military aircraft with the Vickers brand: Vickers also competed for contracts with designs such as: Vickers was a pioneer in producing airliners , early examples being converted from Vimy bombers. Post-WWII, Vickers went on to manufacture the piston-engined Vickers VC.1 Viking airliner, the Viscount and Vanguard turboprop airliners and (as part of BAC) the VC10 jet airliner, which
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#17327825675153380-484: Was better, the 1,295 m/s (4,250 ft/s) shot penetrating 85 mm (3.3 in) of armour at 60 degrees at 900 m (980 yd). Development of this gun was also abandoned when the role of the Saladin shifted towards infantry fire support, and a low-velocity 76 mm gun was selected for it instead. Initially one of the most serious shortcomings of the 2-pdr was the lack of a high-explosive shell resulting from
3445-636: Was bought by the then field engineers, and continues today as UK Calibrations Limited based in Kidderminster . The Vickers Stitcher was still being manufactured in India as recently as 2005. The steelmaking division became part of British Steel Corporation and the remaining interests were divested as the public company Vickers plc , whose various components were later split. The Vickers name ceased to exist in 2003 when Rolls-Royce renamed its acquisition Vinters Engineering . Vickers-Armstrongs inherited
3510-617: Was built at its Brooklands factory in Surrey although the former Supermarine and Vickers works continued to brand their products under their former names. In 1960 the aircraft interests were one of the founding companies merged to form BAC. The hovercraft activities of Vickers-Armstrongs were merged with those of the Westland Aircraft company (including those of Saunders-Roe ) to form the British Hovercraft Corporation in 1966 with Vickers holding 25% of
3575-456: Was closed in 1963 and the Vickers brand name for aircraft was dropped by BAC in 1965. Under the terms of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 BAC was nationalised to become part of British Aerospace (later BAE Systems ). The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act also led to the nationalisation of Vickers' shipbuilding division as part of British Shipbuilders . This division
3640-425: Was developed. The Littlejohn adaptor which screwed onto the end of the gun's barrel was used with Armour-piercing, composite non-rigid (APCNR) ammunition. The round fired a light alloy carrier surrounding a heavy tungsten shot; as it passed through the tapered barrel of the adaptor, the carrier was squeezed from 40 mm to 30 mm diameter. The reduction in cross-sectional area increased the driving force and therefore
3705-513: Was incorporated and named The Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company and works were purchased at Adderley Park , Birmingham. In 1911 a controlling interest was acquired in Whitehead and Company , a torpedo manufacturer based in Fiume , Croatia and at Portland Harbour , Dorset. In 1911, the company name was changed to Vickers Limited and expanded its operations into aircraft manufacture by
3770-575: Was increasingly displaced to infantry anti-tank platoons, to Home Guard units in Great Britain, and to the Far East, where it was still effective against the smaller and more lightly armoured Japanese tanks. It was finally removed from service entirely in December 1945. As a vehicle weapon, it remained in use throughout the war. Although most tanks equipped with it were withdrawn or upgraded to
3835-573: Was privatised as Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering in 1986, later passing to GEC as part of Marconi Marine and survives to this day as part of BAE Systems Submarines . Vickers Container and Packaging Machinery Division, including the Vickers Stitcher and Vickers Hardness Machine business, was bought by Fords Industrial Products, part of Barry Wehmiller in 1986. In 1991 the Vickers Hardness Machinery business
3900-656: Was sold to William Morris in 1926 and he retained it as his personal property. At the sixtieth Annual General Meeting on 29 April 1927 at the River Don Works, Sheffield, the chairman, General Herbert Lawrence, reported that the ordinary dividend would be passed because of the Coal Strike . His review gave the activities of the main groups of operations divided under five main heads: – these two activities were carried on mainly at works in Sheffield, Barrow, Erith , Dartford and Weybridge This internal review led to
3965-479: Was subsequently ended along with it. Another development was the 2-pdr HV 'Pipsqueak', a postwar gun using a 40x438R cartridge originally intended as the main armament for the Alvis Saladin armoured car that was to replace the AEC armoured car . This was designed to fire Armour-Piercing Discarding Sabot (APDS) rounds, which would match the penetration of the 'Littlejohn adaptor' shot while still allowing high-explosive (HE) shells to be fired. The claimed performance
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#17327825675154030-406: Was the Vickers Higson . Vickers produced larger weapons such as the Ordnance QF 2-pounder gun used on tanks. In 1948 Vickers bought the Australian business of Charles Ruwolt Ltd for £750,000 following Ruwolt's death in 1946. During World War II Ruwolt's firm produced armaments for the Australian Government, including field artillery such as mortars and howitzer cannon. After the 1927 merger,
4095-400: 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 travelling 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
4160-424: Was typically equipped with 25 mm Hotchkiss anti-tank guns ; these companies were disbanded later in the war. From 1942, infantry battalions received their own six-gun anti-tank platoons . The organization was different in the Far East theatres. The exact internal structure of AT units was also subject to changes and variations. The gun first saw combat with the British Expeditionary Force (World War II) during
4225-454: Was used in RAF service as an aerial refuelling tanker until 2013. Vickers-Armstrongs was one of the few British manufacturers of marine diesel engines , notably for Royal Navy S , T-class and Estonian Kalev -class submarines during World War II. After the Great War Vickers needed to diversify when the military contracts ended. Between WWI and the Second World War they introduced ranges of target and sporting rifles and shotguns,
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