History, Development, and Use
of the M-1939 37mm Anti-Aircraft Gun
 

This section will cover the history, development, and use of the M-1939 anti-aircraft gun. In this section you will find where the weapon has been used, when it was designed, its limitations and abilities, and how the functions.

  

Brief Operational History

The M-1939 anti-aircraft gun was developed by L.A. Loktev and M.N. Loginov who were working at Artillery Plant No. 8 at Kaliningrad near Moscow.  They did this by creating a modified version of the Swedish M-1938 40mm Bofors gun that would fire the Soviet 37mm cartridge.  It entered production sometime between 1939 and 1940.

The 37mm gun of the M-1939 is recoil operated and features a rising breech system that uses ammunition fed from the top in five round clips.  The weapon ejects the spent cartridges though a curved chute underneath the breech.  To dampen the recoil of the weapon, the M-1939 makes use of a hydraulic recoil buffer and spring recuperator.  When traveling the gun can be secured by a lock on the rear of the carriage.  The gun also can be fitted with a gun shield to give the crew additional protection.  The shield weighs around 100 kilograms and has been removed by most nations early during the Cold War.

The carriage that the M-1939 is mounted on is a typical four wheeled design.  It uses one of two different types of wheels, a five hole type and a two hole type.  When moved into firing position the wheels are removed and four jacks are deployed.  Two of these jacks are on outriggers that are swung out from the sides of the carriage.  The remaining two are at the front and rear of the carriage.

The M-1939 saw a great deal of use during the Great Patriotic war.  It was used in the defense of cities and troop formations alike.  It was also used by the navy for air-defense in both single (70-K) and dual liquid cooled mounts (designated the V-11M).

 
M-1939 37mm Ammunition
  OR-167 OR-167N BR-167 ?
Type HE HE AP HVAP
Fuze MG-8 B-37 ? None
Weight 0.732 kg 0.708 kg 0.77 kg ?
Explosive RDX RDX/Aluminum None None
Velocity 880 m/s 880 m/s 880 m/s 960 m/s
Penetration
(500 meters)		 ? ? 47mm 57mm

After the war the weapon was widely exported to Communist allies around the world.  China, Poland, and Egypt both produced the weapon under their own domestic programs.  The Chinese version is known as the Type 55.

     

Tactical Use and Limitations

The M-1939 was a fairly typical light air defense weapon of its day, but became more dated as time went on.  The weapon was used to provide anti-aircraft protection to troops in the field and to fixed sites.  Against the propeller driven aircraft that it was designed to fight, the gun proved quite effective.  It was also easily transportable and could advance with the troops.

But by the end of the war the limitations of the M-1939 were becoming more apparent.  The weapon lacked all weather capability.  It also lacked the range (altitude) and stopping power to shoot down enemy strategic bombers.  When jet aircraft came into service in the late 1940's the weapon's slow traverse and lack of radar fire control limited its ability to shoot them down.  Its low rate of fire was yet another limitation, and the weapon was soon relegated to the close air defense role only.

     

Deployment Chronology

The M-1939 gave the Soviet army its first true light air defense capability.  Here you can see what weapons the M-1939 replaced and what anti-aircraft gun eventually replaced it.  You will be able to find more about each weapon if we have them on our site by clicking on the links below.

The M-1939 replaced... M-1939 37mm
Anti-Aircraft Gun		 The M-1939 was replaced by...
Uncertain at Present S-60 57mm Anti-Aircraft Gun

  

Sources Cited

Here are some of the most informative sources that we have used in compiling this information for you.  We hope you can find them as useful as we have.