Ur good
I like it a lot! It’d be a nice low-tier SPAA for Sweden/Finland. +1
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It’s quite rare to see since it was only obtainable during one of the battepasses, and you can’t find it on the market (at least when I last checked).
I wish Finnish Defence Force would release their pot war photo archive some day soon, so we could get more photos of this and bunch of other rare vehicles.
This month I’ll try to make a suggestion about another Finnish AA milk truck: Sisu with twin 23 ITK 61 or 95 (ZU-23-2). Any info would be appreciated, but these are now my top questions:
-which trucks are most common platforms
-which gun models are used
-official specifications of these trucks
-ammo and crew count
-stories about their usage
Added some more information about both the truck and the gun from additional sources and fixed few little mistakes:
-truck retirement year
-magazine racks on the gun mount
-ammo load
-Finnish made HEF-T
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+1 Milktrucks always welcome!!
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There appears to have been at least one more 20 ItK/40 VKT carrier as well, seemingly some kind of Unimog truck? I’m not sure though. This is from the 1963 parade
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That’s a great find! It’s most likely Unimog S 404.111. It would definitely have way better mobility than the old Ford and the folding cabin could allow firing low to the front. Also there appears to be more technical data about the truck itself. Unfortunately figuring out crew and ammo load would be even more difficult.
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We need this for the SPAA lines!!
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I changed the truck designation from Ford V3000S to Ford 098T vm.40 as the latter was more numerous in Finland and since all of the V3000S were possibly handed to USSR. That part is somewhat uncertain. At any rate these were very much identical trucks as far as I have been able to dig.
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Here is a good look around the gun and the ammo box as well.
The video is mislabeled. There was a small amount of L-39 converted for AA use, but externally the gun didn’t look that much like 20 ItK/40 and it only had a primitive single gun mount.
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There was a second video where they demonstrate usage of the gun, though without firing.
Rotation seems very light from the handcrank and the commander behind gunner can freely turn the whole thing like you can see at 1:39.
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Absolutely +1. This AA is necessary for the Swedes at low ranks, because the Pbv 301, with its terrible fire control and low mobility with already weak armor, cannot be used effectively against aircraft, and at the BR 2.7-4.7 Swedes only have 40mm Bofors, which are difficult to hit aircraft with. I’m surprised that such a simple Finnish AA is still not in the game (or, at least, passed for consideration).
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against aircraft at its br? lol ive never been killed by a aircrafts guns or he rockets lol, that things is basicly a skink in terms of amour
: ps. not to say the pbv 301 is bad as an SPAA. it definetly is.
I think Pbv 301 is simply so low BR that you won’t meet enough higher caliber aircraft guns or the box just looks too tough for anyone to try. Front is 20mm and lower side 15mm, but top, back and upper part of the sides are all 8mm.
I mean ive taken the thing to 5.7 and aircraft with the 50s and even 20mms have had a really hard time doing anything to me?
probably voulemetrics
I can’t find volumetrics from it, though there is the engine. Probably no one understands to shoot into the front part. Rest of the vehicle is just empty space.
My bad, should’ve phrased it more properly. At its very br (2.3) it surely has some armor. However, from my experience, anyone who loaded “ground/armored targets” belts for their HMGs and autocannons had short work of me. Even if I was not dead thanks to 50% of space being air, I did not enjoy being constantly ignited/immobilized.
What I meant was the fact that it doesn’t really get the armor worth the loss of mobility, and coupled with awful gun traverse, it is barely usable if ur targeted plane is something like Yak or Messershmitt flying circles around u as u try to turn and elevate ur gun.
The other point is the fact that 3.3-4.7 are 40mm Bofors SPAAs, and I can’t be asked to do AA job with them. I tried to use Pbv for 3.3 and 4.0 lineups and I was not having a great time (especially fighting my beloved Yak-9Ks which are basicly flying BT-7s). If I was to choose between armorless milktruck with twin 20mm with actually good gun traverse speed and mobility and that metal lunchbox that barely moves itself and not just the cannon, I would choose the former.
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