Bofors gun acquired for saluting battery

A light anti-aircraft gun dating from 1943 will soon be added to Upper Barrakka's saluting battery in Valletta after being acquired by Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna.

The Mark 1 Bofors M34 40mm gun was obtained from Swedish manufacturer Aktienbolaget Bofors-Gullspang, which grew to prominence in the inter-war years.

In 1928, the Swedish navy requested Bofors to develop a prototype AA rapid firing gun that could fire a bigger round than 20mm. The project was fully financed by the Swedish government and a prototype was tried in 1932 as a ship-mounted weapon and a water-cooled version came out in 1934.

The weapon soon caught the eye of many countries that were in the process of rearming and the 1934 model was sold to a number of countries, including the UK and the US.

Britain's acute shortage of effective modern weapons led to the purchase and building under licence of the Swedish gun. British Bofors were used mainly by the army - including Royal Artillery crews on defensively-equipped merchant ships.

The first guns built in the UK in 1939 took almost 2,500 hours to build, but a later redesign exercise trimmed this to 1,500 hours. Australia and Canada also produced the gun for the Commonwealth armies. The weapon had an effective range of 1.5 km at the rate of 80-90 rounds per minute.