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An Official United States War Department film (T.F.4662), “The Automatic Weapons Firing Unit Part 8: Care and Maintenance of the Gun” (1942) is a black-and-white training film produced by the Signal Corps for the Commanding General Army Ground Forces on automatic weapons firing. This particular film is part 8 in a series of films that, as the title suggests, concentrate on how to care for and maintain a U.S. Army 40-mm Bofors M1 Automatic Anti-Aircraft Gun out in the field of combat. The film is broken up into four parts offering step-by-step instructions for you to disassemble, re-assemble, clean and oil, and check the recoil of the gun as well as how to remedy any issues.
The Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60 (Bofors 40 mm gun) is an anti-aircraft autocannon, designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. Designed as an intermediate anti-aircraft gun, the Bofors 40 mm L/60 outperformed competing designs in the years leading up to World War II in both effectiveness and reliability, and by 1939 was exported around the world. In 1938 the United States Army introduced a 37 mm gun of their own design, but found it to be of limited performance and by 1939 opted for a single mount Bofors that was known as the 40 mm Automatic Gun M1.
Film opens, restricted use message, title page and credits (0:07). Title overlaid silhouette of soldiers firing weapon (0:26). US Soldiers practice firing Bofors 40mm M1 Anti-Aircraft Gun (0:48). Close-up magazine of Bofors 40mm ammunition (0:52). Taking gun apart: Ensuring gun unloaded by applying safety lever, lifting upper defector tube, checking barrel (1:15). After safety precautions, gun disassembled part by part, demonstrated by team of four men: Recoil cylinder (2:45), bridge port, breech block, inner cranks (3:59), barrel (4:58), autoloader using special screwdriver-like tool and special holding hooks (6:16), breech ring (8:34), and finally removing cartridge case extractors from the breech ring (9:09). Cleaning and oiling the gun by part: Break breach assembly down into separate parts, aerial view of soldier using special tools to extract smaller parts like firing pin, outer and inner cocking leaver etc. (9:35). Wash parts in dry cleaning solvent before oiling and dry with cloth, oil firing pin in M.O. (Aircraft Machine Gun Oil), other parts with S.A.E. 30 oil, rebuild bridge block (10:37). Rub oil on all unpainted surfaces of recoil cylinder, prevents rusting (12:26). Multistep cleaning of barrel of gun: Cleaned using soda ash cleaning mixture (hot water, sodium carbonate), wire brush, wet and dry cloth towels, oil interior with S.A.E. 30 (12:38). Cover threads, interior of breach ring with graphite grease (16:15). Oil autoloader with S.A.E. 30 (16:45). Before reassembly of gun, clean interior of casing and apply fresh coat of oil (18:07). Reassembly of gun, reverse procedure of disassembly: Breach ring (18:43), autoloader using special holding hooks to fit back into place (19:20), barrel (21:14), breach assembly including bridge port, breech block, and inner cranks (22:11) and finally recoil cylinder (23:48). Checking recoil: Testing length of recoil, set recoil recorder at minimum, fire one shot, check recoil recorder reading between 7.4 and 8.3 (24:46). Troubleshooting if reading is outside desired margins i.e. change barrel, recoil cylinder, change recoil liquid (25:24). How to change recoil liquid (25:44). Closing credits (30:49). Film ends (31:02).
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