2 Pounder Anti-Tank Gun
 

well, after a couple of years of nagging and negotiation I have just Acquired this little Gem ,It requires and will get a full restoration next year at some point but fills a void in my collection.
A very welcome addition ! :D

I will be selling the 2 pdr barrel and breech assembly I have shortly ,all in great condition.

Rob....................rnixartillery

Congrats Rob...
 

and well done, a beautiful piece. Nothing wrong with a little nagging, I also do it on occasion. I hope you are not flooded out there up in the North country! Cheers Rob Fast

Well done indeed! I assume he finally succumbed, good for you, definitely your missing link.

I was down south this morning and it was quite mild ,got back up north after a 300 mile drive and what a different story ,all the Rivers have burst and we have had a couple of large tree's blown over on the farm so it looks like the chain saws will get some hammer tomorrow !

Rob.....................rnixartillery.

Well done Rob and congratulations. I notice the barrels do not have the same profile? The one on the stand is noticeably more stepped than the one on the carriage. As I need measurement for my Daimler Armoured Car to make up a dummy barrel could you please take measurements of the barrel when you take the gun apart? The DAC manuals always show the smooth profiled barrels as on your carriage. Thank you in advance!

Cheers,

Very nice.

I was after one of those when my first 75mm Pack howitzer came along instead.

Definitely worth whatever effort it took to get.

Tim

Rob,

Nice haul, now you DO need a CMP truck to go with it :D

Attachment 77935

Hanno.

You must know by now about my collection policy of NO engines :nono:
Which is the benefit of Artillery, low maintenance and no running costs ,more pennies in the pocket to buy more Artillery ! :eek:

Seriously though John Bellfield has his 2 pdr portee up for sale ,complete with Gun and the same as in your picture, Australian pattern.

Rob......................rnixartillery

A few better pictures, I have stripped the breech which required the usual amount of heat to move things and I made a frame up from RSJ to use as a press with the use of a hydraulic jack to push the block out.
Need to pull the barrel back through the slipper next to remove the Ring,dont think its going to be easy !

Rob..................rnixartillery

Rob...
 

Looking at Hanno's post again, he DOES mention your need of a CMP TRUCK, but he DOESN'T mention it has to have an engine…;)

Nice 2 Pdr by the way!


David

:doh: now why didn't I think of that.......................... :thup:

Rob.................rnixartillery.

Barrel Removal
 

I have just spent the day removing the Breech and barrel from the slipper which was a bit of a bitch but to be expected after 70 years or so.
Rigged up the usual set up to force the barrel out with the help of some heat.
I also cleaned the bore with some steel bore brushes and it has come up as good as new.
still need to remove the slipper from the recouperator so that's the next job,I wasn't going to do much to this before next year but things have snowballed so I might take it to bits and store it until my current project is finished.

Rob....................rnixartillery.

more pictures ;)

Rob...
 

Were the upper shield hinges inoperable? They look to have undergone some serious heating?

David

Nothing moves freely on this Gun ,everything seized with rust,crap and paint.
It was a Gate guardian for decades and recently sandblasted and painted in situ several years ago to tidy it up.
Heat is the number one tool at the moment and I have freed most of the movable component's and very pleased to have it traversing. The 2 pdr has a very unconventional traverse gear and quite over engineered considering the size of the piece ,typically British of the period.

The shield has now been removed and I am in the process of getting the foot pedal firing linkage freed up but ultimately it all need to come apart to be cleaned.

Rob.....................rnixartillery

Ordnance removed
 

A few pics of todays progress, the ordnance is now off the Carriage so I will get everything sandblasted and cleaned for repainting etc.

Rob..................rnixartillery

Great project there Rob! Very lucky to get such a complete gun. Are the road wheels on the 2pdr the same as anything else, or are they particular to 2pdr?

wheels
 

Alex ,I have seen this Wheel fitted to the later Mk's of British 3.7" Mountain Howitzer.
The earlier 2 pounders were on a different type of rim a bit like an easy clean with holes stamped in.
I don't know if any vehicles used the later rim ?

Rob........................rnixartillery.

Hi Rob,

Have you come across any 2 pounders with a split trail like the 6 pounder in your travels?

Cheers,

David

As far as I am aware there are non in the UK, I think the best place to see these are in Canada but they were built in very small numbers over there as it was in the transition time when the 6 pdr was replacing the 2 pdr.
However the pressed steel tags on the 6 pdr carriage and shields are stamped 2 & 6 pdr.

Rob.....................rnixartillery.

Thank you for that information, got a set of trails stamped 2 pdr and was wondering.

David

If only.....
 

A very nice early Christmas present to yourself, if only I had the money, the storage and the contacts! Ian

A few more pictures of progress ,I have a big pile of component's that are ready for sandblasting .
All the parts have been stripped, unseized cleaned and reassembled with the odd repair .
Some tin work needs reproducing as it is beyond repair so Mr Barrell has kindly taken this on. :thup:


Rob.......................rnixartillery

Rob,

Thanks for the pictures, only now I realise this guns traverses on some sort of turntable, rather than on a pivot as I understand most guns do.

H.

Yes ,I thought I would post some pictures because you don't see any pics of the internals of this sort of thing ,its all new to me !
I have learnt that it is quite a complex little thing .

Rob......................rnixartillery.

Marc,

email sent in reference to measurements.

Rob.....................rnixartillery

Slowly working through the pile of parts ,repairing, sandblasting and priming.
Note the two handspike attachment's in the foreground, these were fitted to the handspike so four members of the gun detachment could manoeuvre the gun.
The bar with the loops incorporated shoulder harnesses.
These two attachment's are quite rare and seldom seen ,the Only reason they were still on the gun was because they were literally stuck fast with rust and were surprisingly hard to get off without damaging them.

Rob....................rnixartillery.

Getting down to the last component's, just removed the ring and you can see the rust and shite underneath. I need to fabricate some new carriage tie bars and then the axle and spring can be removed.
I have sourced some new tyres with a similar tread pattern so need to get those ordered.

Rob......................rnixartillery

Todays offerings ,axle and spring removed so pretty much there with breaking it down. I have had a delivery of new fabricated parts courtesy of Adrian Barrell and an excellent job he has done .I have also renewed the tie bars as the originals were beyond straightening.
We have an original pattern for the seat pan if anyone out there needs a seat making.

Rob...............rnixartillery.

After scouring the net I finally managed to find the tread pattern I was looking for so £500 later I now have wheels and tyres !
Next job is to buy some paint and then I can crack on putting things back together. The gun is going to be Service Brown.

Rob....................rnixartillery.