The 40M Nimród was a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Hungarian self-propelled anti-aircraft gun based on a license-built copy of the Swedish Landsverk L-62 Anti I

SPAAG An anti-aircraft vehicle, also known as a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG) or self-propelled air defense system (SPAD), is a mobile vehicle with a dedicated anti-aircraft capability. Specific weapon systems used include machine guns, ...

but with a new turret, and developed independently. Originally, it was intended to be used both in the anti-aircraft and tank destroyer roles, but it proved to be ineffective against

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

tanks like the

KV-1 tank The Kliment Voroshilov (KV) tanks are a series of Soviet heavy tanks named after the Soviet defence commissar and politician Kliment Voroshilov who operated with the Red Army during World War II. The KV tanks were known for their heavy armour pr ...

. Therefore, it was primarily utilized against lightly armored vehicles and for

air defense Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

Design

The 40M Nimród was a license-built variant of the Landsverk L-62 Anti I

. The L-62 Anti I was based on the chassis of the

Landsverk L-60 The Landsverk L-60 was a Swedish tank developed in 1934. It was developed by AB Landsverk as a light tank which included several advanced design features such as torsion bar suspension, periscopes rather than view slits and all-welded constructi ...

tank which was already produced under license in Hungary as the 38M Toldi. The L-62 did differ though from the original L-60 chassis. It was longer and wider and had one more roadwheel per side. Besides that, the 40M Nimród differed on its own from the original L-62 Anti I design. While the chassis was basically the same as the L-62 Anti I, although utilizing parts from the 38M Toldi, the turret was modified to house one more crew member from the original 5 of the L-62 Anti I. The crew of the 40M Nimród consisted of six men: commander, driver, two loaders and two gunners. The vehicle's armament consisted of a Hungarian

license-built Licensed production is the production under license of technology developed elsewhere. The licensee provides the licensor of a specific product with legal production rights, technical information, process technology, and any other proprietary compo ...

Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun The Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60 (often referred to simply as the "Bofors 40 mm gun", the "Bofors gun" and the like, see name) is an anti-aircraft autocannon, designed in the 1930s by the Swedish arms manufacturer AB Bofors. The g ...

, in Hungarian service designated as ''40 mm 36M'' (model of 1936), a gravity fed gun which had a rate of fire of 120 to 140 rounds per minute depending on the firing angle, which fired conventional ammunition at a muzzle velocity of almost . Ammunition for the gun consisted primarily of conventional

high-explosive fragmentation A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Modern usage so ...

and

armor-piercing Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many wars ...

rounds, but also a specialized anti-tank round developed indigenously in Hungary. Hungarian

armor-piercing ammunition Armour-piercing ammunition (AP) is a type of projectile designed to penetrate either body armour or vehicle armour. From the 1860s to 1950s, a major application of armour-piercing projectiles was to defeat the thick armour carried on many warsh ...

for the gun could penetrate of

rolled homogeneous armor Rolled homogeneous armour (RHA) is a type of vehicle armour made of a single steel composition hot-rolled to improve its material characteristics, as opposed to layered or cemented armour. Its first common application was in tanks. After World ...

at a range or , and at . The Nimrod carried 640 rounds, split into 4 stowages of 160 rounds each. Late in the war, the vehicle was issued with a muzzle loaded

rifle grenade A rifle grenade is a grenade that uses a rifle-based launcher to permit a longer effective range than would be possible if the grenade were thrown by hand. The practice of projecting grenades with rifle-mounted launchers was first widely used dur ...

(or "shaft grenade" when referring to cannon calibers, german: "Stielgranate") designated ''42M''. This was a German Stielgranate 41 which had been modified to mount the 40 mm 36M gun instead of the German 3.7 cm Pak 36. It consisted of a German 15 cm

hollow charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, init ...

artillery shell (''I.Gr. 39 Hl/A'', german: "Infantrie Granate 39 Hohlladung/A") mounted on a fin-stabilized tube meant to fit over the muzzle of the gun, and was launched by the use of a specialized blank cartridge loaded in the main gun. The 42M is often found under the name "Kerngranate", which is German for Core Shell.

Service history

The 40M Nimród was manufactured by the Manfred Weiss Works. A first batch of 46 vehicles powered by a German Büssing-NAG L8V/36TR engine was followed by another batch of 89 vehicles powered by a Hungarian Ganz IP VGT 107 Type II (built under license from Büssing-NAG). Although it was originally intended for anti-tank use, in 1943 the 40M Nimród was reclassified for anti-aircraft use; as it was unable to penetrate the armor of the tanks in use by the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

. The following units have employed this vehicle: * 51st Heavy Armor Battalion, 1st Hungarian Armored Division * 52nd Heavy Armor Battalion, 2nd Hungarian Armored Division * 1st Hungarian Cavalry Division A total of 135 Nimrods were built, most of which were deployed by the 51st and 52nd Armored Autocannon

Battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

s of the 1st and 2nd Hungarian Armoured Divisions, respectively. Nimrod batteries attached to armored and motorized battalions were allocated six vehicles each. A

platoon A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may rang ...

consisted of two vehicles.

Gallery

Mátyásföld, Újszász utca 41-43. Magyar Királyi Honvéd gépkocsiszertár díszudvara, haditechnikai bemutató. Fortepan 72120.jpg, Nimróds at military demonstration, Mátyásföld, Budapest, 1943 File:40M Nimród in Zsámbék (1940) Fortepan 44001.jpg, A 40M Nimród. In the background is Zsámbék, Nicholas Zichy. File:Nimróds in column.jpg, 40M Nimróds anti-aircraft machine guns in marching column near Zsámbék. In the background is the Premonstratensian Monastery. File:Nimród Battery 02.jpg, A Nimród anti-aircraft gun battery in firing position along the Zsámbék Páty road.

Comparable vehicles

Möbelwagen The 3.7 cm ''Flak auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen'' IV (sf) (''Sd.Kfz. 161/3''), nicknamed ''Möbelwagen'' ("Moving Van") because of its boxy shape, was a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun built from the chassis of the Panzer IV tank. It w ...

Ostwind The ''Flakpanzer IV "Ostwind"'' (East Wind in English) was a German self-propelled anti-aircraft gun based on the Panzer IV tank. It was developed in 1944 as a successor to the earlier ''Flakpanzer IV/2 cm Vierling'' '' Wirbelwind''. The ...

M19 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage The M19 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage (MGMC) was a World War II United States Army self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon on the M24 light tank chassis. It was equipped with two Bofors 40 mm guns. It was produced by Cadillac and Massey Ferguson ...

* Crusader Mk. III Anti-Aircraft Tank Mk. I *

ZSU-37 ZSU-37 was a Soviet-made, light, self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG), developed by the end of 1943 and produced at Works No. 40 in Mytishchi. It was the first Soviet series-produced tracked SPAAG. ZSU stands for Zenitnaya Samokhodnaya Usta ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

* ''The Royal Hungarian Army, 1920-1945, Volume II, Hungarian Mobile Forces'', by Dr. Peter Mujzer * ''A Magyar Királyi Honvédség Fegyverzete'', by Attila Bonhardt, Gyula Sárhidai and László Winkler * Becze, Csaba. ''Magyar Steel''. Mushroom Model Publications. Sandomierz 2006

External links

Hungarian WWII AFVs
{{DEFAULTSORT:40M Nimrod Tanks of Hungary Armoured fighting vehicles of Hungary World War II self-propelled anti-aircraft weapons 40 mm artillery Military vehicles introduced from 1940 to 1944 SPGs. SPAs. Armored cars and trucks of 1940