Danish Willys MB with a
106 mm recoilless rifle M40 (Danish designation was M/56)
mounted on a M79 tripod. It's origin goes back to WW II,
where a 105 mm rifle, known as the T19, was launched.
The rifle was a lightweight weapon developed for both
anti-tank and anti-personnel roles. It entered service
with the US armed forces in 1953, and was the first
recoilless rifle to be fitted with a parallel-mounted
12.7 mm (cal. 050) M8C spotting rifle for the gunner.
Practical ranges were up to 1.000 meters for moving and up to 2.000
meters for stationary targets.
Besides the MB, the M40 rifle was mounted on vehicles
like Willys M38A1, M151-series (known as the M825)
and Hotchkiss M201. Only the M38A1 was implemented in
Denmark.
Later editions had the spotting rifle replaced by a laser
sighting device.
The rifle was designed for use with high-explosive
anti-tank (HEAT), high-explosive squash-head (HESH) and
high-explosive plastic tracer (HEP-T) rounds. There was
also a anti-personnel round (APERS-T). Maximum range was
7.700 m, but effective range was around 1.100 m using
HEAT and HEP-T. Maximum sustained rate of fire was one
round pr. minute.
A recoilless round differs from a standard artillery
round in having a perforated casing, which allows the gases to which are used to propel the projectile to
escape.
The rifle was supplied to at least 32 countries, and
produced under licence in Brazil, India, Israel, Japan,
Pakistan and Spain.
To the right a Nimbus MC.
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