Vickers S (40 mm)

Description

Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

• Beaufighter Mk I (40-mm)
• Hurricane Mk IV (Suspended)

General info

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Available ammunition

• Default: AP-T · HEFI-T*
• Armored targets: AP-T
• Air targets: HEFI-T*

Penetration statistics
Belt	Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
	10 m	100 m	500 m	1,000 m	1,500 m	2,000 m
Default	53	52	46	40	35	30
Armored targets	53	52	46	40	35	30
Air targets	5	4	4	4	4	4

Shell details
Shell	Velocity (m/s)	Projectile Mass (kg)	Fuse delay (m)	Fuse sensitivity (mm)	Explosive Mass (TNT equivalent) (g)	Ricochet
						0%	50%	100%
AP-T	570	1.36	N/A	N/A	N/A	47°	60°	65°
HEFI-T*	730	0.76	0.4	0.2	85	79°	80°	81°

Comparison with analogues

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Usage in battles

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Pros and cons

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Pros:

Cons:

History

The Vickers S is an aircraft-mounted cannon from the late 1930s with its origins to before that. The story begins in 1905 with the foundation of the company Coventry Ordnance Works. The company would developed a 1-pounder (37mm) cannon for use on aircraft during World War I, but it arrived only shortly before the armistice ended the war in 1918. After the war, the Air Ministry experimented with mounting the cannon on a variety of aircraft before COW was acquired by Vickers.

Vickers would take the design and scale it up to a 2-pounder (40mm) using the same ammunition as the famous World War I-era 2pdr QF Mk.IIc "pom poms". The Vickers S was first testing on their Wellington bombers as an anti-fighter weapon but it was rejected. In March of 1941, the Vickers S was tested again against Rolls-Royce R cannon on the Bristol Beaufighter Mk I (40-mm), while the Vickers design was suggested for future use in October, it was dropped from future Beaufighters for unknown reasons.

In the North African Theatre of World War II, the Desert Air Force saw in early operations that their existing weapons were not effective against German armor such as the Panzer III so in April of 1941, the Vickers S was tested against the Rolls-Royce Type BF and the American 37mm M4 to arm ground attack aircraft. The Rolls-Royce BF was initially selected for being fed from drug magazines which was viewed as more reliable than the belt-feeding of the Vickers S, but the BF suffered malfunctions and ammunition explosion that resulted in the Vickers S being selected instead and mounted on the Hawker Hurricane, which carried 15 rounds of ammunition in a conformal gun pod. However, the pods along with other modifications made to the Hurricane for desert use slowed it down by 40 mph so the cannon was dropped again in favor developing what became the RP-3 rocket. However in April of 1942, it was accepted for service, though the Hurricane pilots required special training to use gun effectively as the recoil would throw the plane off course. It destroyed 200 vehicles in North Africa including 47 tanks. However the Hurricanes were found to be poorly armored for the ground attack role and the cannon was not effective against the Tiger I tank. In 1943, the Hurricane Mk IV arrived to address the issues of protection and mounted the Vickers S for the ground attack role. In 1944, these Hurricanes would be used in South-East Asia with the Vicker S loading a high explosive shell that in post-war studies was found to be twice as accurate to the armor-piercing shells. These studies would also find the Vickers S had an overall better accuracy than the RP-3 rockets against tanks (25% for Vickers S, 5% for RP-3).

Media

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See also

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• reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;
• references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.

External links

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• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

Britain aircraft cannons
20 mm	Hispano Mk.I · Hispano Mk.II · Hispano Mk.V · Oerlikon KAD-B
25 mm	ADEN 25
30 mm	ADEN · ADEN Mk.4
40 mm	Rolls-Royce Type BH · Vickers S
47 mm	Vickers P
57 mm	Molins Class M
	Foreign:
20 mm	GI2 (South Africa) · Hispano 404 (France) · M61A1 (USA)
27 mm	Akan m/85 (Sweden) · Mauser BK27 (Germany)
30 mm	M230E-1 (USA)