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QF 1-pounder pom-pom
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QF 1-pounder pom-pom
The QF 1 pounder, universally known as the pom-pom due to the sound of its discharge, was a 37 mm British autocannon, the first of its type in the world. It was used by several countries initially as an infantry gun and later as a light anti-aircraft gun.
Hiram Maxim originally designed the Pom-Pom in the late 1880s as an enlarged version of the Maxim machine gun. Its longer range necessitated exploding projectiles to judge range, which in turn dictated a shell weight of at least 400 grams (0.88 lb), as that was the lightest exploding shell allowed under the Saint Petersburg Declaration of 1868 and reaffirmed in the Hague Convention of 1899.
Early versions were sold under the Maxim-Nordenfelt label, whereas versions in British service (i.e. from 1900) were labelled Vickers, Sons and Maxim (VSM), as Vickers had bought out Maxim-Nordenfelt in 1897 -- but they are the same gun.
The Belgian Army used the gun on a high-angle field carriage mounting.
About 60 were built by Finnish company Ab H. Ahlberg & Co O during World War 1 for the Russian army, and when the Finnish civil war ended about half of these were still unfinished and thus remained in Finland. The White Army captured a total of 50–60 guns in the Civil War of 1918. The guns used a column mount designed for naval use. It offered 360-degree traverse and about 70-degree elevation, allowing them to theoretically be used as antiaircraft guns.
The Finns managed to get over 30 of the captured guns to working order and they were used in warships and coastal artillery fortifications. Two of these guns also saw service in armoured trains from 1918 to late 1930s. The weapon was never popular in Finnish use as it was unreliable and had quite a short range. Main reason for the short range was in 37 mm x 94R ammunition (with moderate muzzle velocity of only about 440 m/sec), which did not really have the ballistics needed for proper antiaircraft-use. The reliability of old fuses used in their high-explosive shells also proved questionable.
During World War 2 some of these guns were used in coastal artillery forts, where their unsuitability for anti-aircraft use became painfully obvious. However, the guns proved somewhat reliable when fired with only low elevation. This was likely because shooting with low elevation did not stress their fabric ammunition belts as much as shooting with higher elevation. Their theoretical rate of fire was around 200–250 rounds per minute and maximum range around 4,400 metres.
Finnish coastal defence decided to use them mainly as close-range defence weapons of its coastal forts against surface targets, and these old guns proved somewhat successful in this role. Still, since the coastal forts had rather limited number of anti-aircraft weapons, when needed these guns were also used against enemy aircraft. At least one plane was downed by such weapons; the Humaljoki Coastal Artillery Battery in Karelian Isthmus shot down a Soviet bomber with a 37 mm Maxim automatic cannon on 25 December 1939. By that time they were outdated, so the last remaining 16 guns were scrapped soon after the Continuation War ended in 1944.
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QF 1-pounder pom-pom
The QF 1 pounder, universally known as the pom-pom due to the sound of its discharge, was a 37 mm British autocannon, the first of its type in the world. It was used by several countries initially as an infantry gun and later as a light anti-aircraft gun.
Hiram Maxim originally designed the Pom-Pom in the late 1880s as an enlarged version of the Maxim machine gun. Its longer range necessitated exploding projectiles to judge range, which in turn dictated a shell weight of at least 400 grams (0.88 lb), as that was the lightest exploding shell allowed under the Saint Petersburg Declaration of 1868 and reaffirmed in the Hague Convention of 1899.
Early versions were sold under the Maxim-Nordenfelt label, whereas versions in British service (i.e. from 1900) were labelled Vickers, Sons and Maxim (VSM), as Vickers had bought out Maxim-Nordenfelt in 1897 -- but they are the same gun.
The Belgian Army used the gun on a high-angle field carriage mounting.
About 60 were built by Finnish company Ab H. Ahlberg & Co O during World War 1 for the Russian army, and when the Finnish civil war ended about half of these were still unfinished and thus remained in Finland. The White Army captured a total of 50–60 guns in the Civil War of 1918. The guns used a column mount designed for naval use. It offered 360-degree traverse and about 70-degree elevation, allowing them to theoretically be used as antiaircraft guns.
The Finns managed to get over 30 of the captured guns to working order and they were used in warships and coastal artillery fortifications. Two of these guns also saw service in armoured trains from 1918 to late 1930s. The weapon was never popular in Finnish use as it was unreliable and had quite a short range. Main reason for the short range was in 37 mm x 94R ammunition (with moderate muzzle velocity of only about 440 m/sec), which did not really have the ballistics needed for proper antiaircraft-use. The reliability of old fuses used in their high-explosive shells also proved questionable.
During World War 2 some of these guns were used in coastal artillery forts, where their unsuitability for anti-aircraft use became painfully obvious. However, the guns proved somewhat reliable when fired with only low elevation. This was likely because shooting with low elevation did not stress their fabric ammunition belts as much as shooting with higher elevation. Their theoretical rate of fire was around 200–250 rounds per minute and maximum range around 4,400 metres.
Finnish coastal defence decided to use them mainly as close-range defence weapons of its coastal forts against surface targets, and these old guns proved somewhat successful in this role. Still, since the coastal forts had rather limited number of anti-aircraft weapons, when needed these guns were also used against enemy aircraft. At least one plane was downed by such weapons; the Humaljoki Coastal Artillery Battery in Karelian Isthmus shot down a Soviet bomber with a 37 mm Maxim automatic cannon on 25 December 1939. By that time they were outdated, so the last remaining 16 guns were scrapped soon after the Continuation War ended in 1944.
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