Douglas Generator

[Godwin Hampton]

The early Bofors guns in British servce could be hand or motor driven. The layers would dismount, leaving only the loader. The gun would then be aimed using the predictor, which would automatically apply aim-off to point the barrel at the future position of the target.

Of course the target data would have to be fed into the predictor, which then made the necessary computations electro-mechanically.

The predictor would control motors on the mounting which traversed and elevated the gun, and the loader would load and fire it using his foot pedal.

Electricity was needed for the motors and the predictor, and was supplied by a 2.25 kW generator powered by Coventry Climax, Enfield, Scott & Jowett and J.A.P & Kelvinator. Doulas is not mentioned in the 1942 Drill Book that lists the others.

With the introduction of the Stiffkey sight, with an extra crew member on the mounting applying corrections directly to the sight, the predictor and motors became superfluous and were discontinued in production.

The self-propelled Bofors on Morris chassis had a Stiffkey sight, so would not need electric power.

The Bristol Bofors relied on battery power, with a small single-cylinder J.A.P engine driving a recharging dynamo fitted at the back of the loading platform.

I have a Coventry-Climax generator, and its' handbook. Since the generator is probably the same, let me know if you need any information about the electrical side. Outside my set is very similar to yours. Obviosly the trailer is a later addition, and the set was manhandled using 4 porter bars fitting in sockets at the upper ends.