Hello all
Did the U.S. Destroyers in world war 2 have single barrel 40mm AA gun or just dual 40mm. I have looked around the web but could only find pictures of the dual mount 40mm. I am looking to convert the Italeri 1/35 scale 40mm towed version into a ship mounted version.

Thanks
Grant

Are you doing a 1/35 destroyer? What size would that be?

Well I want to build a gun platform with the 40mm kit. Bronco has a good kit and I think I can use warriors 1/35 PT crew to man the gun. But to answer your question no not a whole Destroyer just one AA gun platform.

Grant

Hello Grant, I'm not sure, but I don't think US Destroyers used a single mount for the 40mm. The single mount was used on smaller combatants and landing craft, such as an LST or LSM. Al

Thanks for the information, I saw a few pictures tonight of a landing ship with the single barrel 40mm. I guess its time to start thinking how this will work.

Grant

Hello Grant, I just remembered, they were also mounted on the conning tower of the Gato class US submarines. Some boats carried one gun mounted either fore or aft on the tower, some boats carried two guns, fore and aft. How ambitious are you feeling? Al

Greetings,

As a Navy Chief Petty Officer (Gunner's Mate) I can identify with that question. Go to www.warboats.org / or Navy patrol boats of WWII as I served on a PTF (Patrol, Torpeado, Fast) minus torpeados, this patrol craft was used extensively off the coast of Vietnam as a signal monitoring vessel, as well as having several at Coronado Amphibious base. The single barrel Bofors 40mm mount was a WWII surplus and mounted aft of the bridge. All mechanical controls were featured on this craft much like the PT boats of WWII. As with any post-WWII patrol boat from the late 60's on it was wood hull, with fiberglass and plywood bridge making the displacement at about 86 tons.
Any further details, feel free to drop me a note here.

Happy building,
johncpo