![]() ![]() ![]() The Mark XVI mounting was related to the twin mounting Mark V for the Oerlikon 20 mm cannon and the "Boffin" mounting for the Bofors 40 mm gun. Single-barrelled mounts, the Mark VIII (manual) and Mark XVI (power operated), were also widely used, mainly in small escorts (such as the Flower-class corvettes) and coastal craft (especially early Fairmile D motor torpedo boats). Guns were produced in both right- and left-hand and "inner" and "outer" so that the feed and ejector mechanisms matched. The mount had two rows each of two or four guns. These multiple gun mounts required four guns and were nicknamed the "Chicago Piano". From 1935, the quadruple mounting Mark VII, essentially half a Mark V or VI, entered service for ships of destroyer and cruiser size. The initial mounting was the 11.8 to 17.35 ton, eight-barrelled mounting Mark V (later Mark VI), suitable for ships of cruiser and aircraft carrier size upward. Known as the QF 2-pounder Mark VIII, it is usually referred to as the "multiple pom-pom". Lack of funding led to a convoluted and drawn-out design and trials history and it was not until 1930 that these weapons began to enter service. Design work for such a weapon began in 1923 based on the earlier Mark II, undoubtedly to use the enormous stocks of 2-pounder ammunition left over from the First World War. The Royal Navy had identified the need for a rapid-firing, multi-barrelled close-range anti-aircraft weapon at an early stage. This "scaling-up" process was not entirely successful, as it left the mechanism rather light and prone to faults such as rounds falling out of the belts. The original models fired from hand-loaded fabric belts, although these were later replaced by steel-link belts. It was ordered in 1915 by the Royal Navy as an anti-aircraft weapon for ships of cruiser size and below. It was a 40 mm calibre gun with a water-cooled barrel and a Vickers-Maxim mechanism. The QF 2-pounder Mark II was essentially a scaled-up version of the QF 1 pounder Maxim gun produced by Vickers. The name came from the sound that the original models make when firing. The QF 2-pounder (QF denoting "quick firing") and universally known as the pom-pom, was a 40-millimetre (1.6 in) British autocannon, used as an anti-aircraft gun by the Royal Navy. Workmen assemble quad 40-mm (2-pounder) naval guns in the Dominion Engineering Works plant, 1942. (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. ![]()
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