National Forge 37mm AA gun

[awhalen61]

Hello all,

Doing some research at NARA and I came across some references to a 37mm AA gun developed by National Forge in the mid to late 1930s. Unfortunately, a pamphlet on said gun was referenced in one of the documents, but was not included. I have to presume this is related to the 37mm antitank gun developed by the same company in a similar time frame, which was apparently a 37mm/58 used by the Dutch in Indonesia.

Does anyone have any information about this design?

 

[Apophenia]

FWIW, an image of a National Forge & Ordnance Universal gun preserved in Mexico.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=523282914442033&set=a.437980449638947

 

[awhalen61]

I am currently back at NARA. Unfortunately, the Export Licenses didn't shed light on any of the particulars of the gun itself, other than at least two were built for testing and attempted export to Cuba and Denmark.

 

[DWG]

IIRC the National Forge 37mm AT gun is the gun that went into the Marmon-Herrington CTMS-1TB1 and MTLS-1G14 tanks designed for KNIL, the Dutch army in the Netherlands East Indies. I thought we had a thread on the Marmon-Herrington tanks, but I can't find one. Details of the Marmon-Herrington tanks here.

 

[fortrena]

It might be worth contacting the Lumber Heritage Region in Pennsylvania (https://lumberheritage.org/fun-in-the-region/clinton-e-wilder-museum/) to see if the Clinton E. Wilder Museum, which honoured the memory of the founder of the National Forge, still exists.

As well, is it possible that the 37 mm Universal Gun was a semi automatic weapon available on more than one mount?

If so, might it be similar to the weapon mentioned on http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2218 ? Pages 2 (photos and general specs), 3 (photos and general specifications) and 4 (photos) might be especially illuminating in that regard.

 

[DWG]

might it be similar to the weapon mentioned on http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2218 ? Pages 2 (photos and general specs), 3 (photos and general specifications) and 4 (photos) might be especially illuminating in that regard.

That notes the gun in the Marmon-Herringtons as an AAC design, and so does Tony William's old website, so I'm almost certainly wrong in suggesting it was the National Forge gun.