bofors manuals

[Andrew Morrison]

Have been reading a book called the Lost Years - the emergency in Ireland 1939-45.

In the book the author decides to join the southern Irish army to defend the country against the expected German invasion. He joins a unit which operates a bofors anti aircraft gun in Dublin.

Where this becomes more interesting is that he states on page 50 - 'trying to explain the complexities of the anti aircraft guns and range finders which we would have to use through the medium of Irish, translated by a not very bright non-commissioned officer, working from a manual originally written in Swedish and translated, presumably by a Swede, into extremely stilted pidgin English.'

I read this as saying that the manual was in English which was being read out in Irish. Or were the manuals translated into Irish ?

There was a policy in the Irish army at this time that all communication was to be in Irish not English. This was though for political reasons rather than like in New Zealand where Maori was used as a code. As politics were involved .......... were maunals translated ?

As there has been some comment on here over the years in regard to the Bofors 40mm gun thought I would put this question here to see if anyone knows more.