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40mm Bofors - Is this true or not?

Falcon

Falcon

Well-Known Member
A while ago someone told me the following story, I am only writing what they told me, and I'm not sure whether it is true or not so here goes:

During the 1973 gun amensty an old lady walked into a police station in a rural area (I'm not sure where) and said ''please can you take my husband's gun away because he's just died'' The policeman behind the counter replied ''have you got it with you'' The old lady responded ''No, I can't move it'' The police went to the house where they found a trailer mounted 40mm Bofors gun, in perfect condition, with a clip of live ammunition in the top, ready to go. The husband had apparently maintained it in perfect, ready to fire condition ever since the end of the war, when the land had been used as an anti aircraft gun site. The person who told me the story said he did not know what happened to the gun afterwards.

I need your opinions, is this true or an urban myth? Surely the military would have wanted it back at the end of the war???
 
Blimey never heard that one before ,if it is true bet the copper cr***ed himself,,
 
Ive heard a similar tale with a geezer who died and his missus gave the coppers a fully-functional MG42 machine gun!!
The army tested it out before it `disappeared`:(

waff
 
I wouldnt doubt any story about things popping up like that.I had an experience when I worked at a recycling plant back in the early 80's. I was up front working the public aluminum can weigh in section of the plant. An elderly woman came in with a deactivated ww11 pineapple that her husband"recently passed away husband"had left in the garage,and asked if I knew of a place to dispose of such things.I said yes ma'am and the grenade promptly dissapeared "into my collection".
 
The tale I was told involved some allotments down near Hyde and it went along these lines,
For many years during the First World War an Army unit kept a 9.2 inch howitzer readied for action in a big shed on this allotment-originally it had a rail access but this was taken out after the war finished with the gun either seeing little or no action.
Many many years later during the second World War a gentleman of retirement age walked into the local police station and asked why his gun was not being used in the war effort ?
The rather bemused Police constable asked a few questions and a senior officer was despatched to "have a look" only to find one perfectly maintained and ready to fire 9.2 in Howitzer starnded in the middle of a large allotment in the middle of nowhere-it is rumoured that the same gun is the one that the Imperial War Museum now have!
The rumour also went on saying that the Ammo is still in its bunker somewhere either near or under where the shed used to be and was just filled in without the projectiles being removed due to access restrictions !
Personally I would take a bag of salt with that except that I have now heard the same story from two different sources, one of whom is almost certainly correct in what he says-:woohoo: lets go !
 
My wife who was a military nurse in the 80's had an old boy brought into the hospital with a tank shell stuck up his arse ,he apparently had been using it to push his piles up when he pushed to far and lost it ,bomb squad had to place somesort of armoured box around his bum while removing it .It later turned out to be a harmless 2 pounder AP round.
 
Theres plenty about it on line,,all it says is it was an east london clinic,,and a dubious xray picture allegedly showing the round in situ and removed.
i dont understand the lead box bit,or defusing it in situ (this is mentioned on line)

liveammo.jpg
 
My wife said at her hospital it was just the projectile from a 2 pounder AP tank shell not the case as well as in that piccy above
 
but there was definitely a Krupp 77mm gun in a front garden in Appledore (Kent) until a couple of years ago. I asked the owner if he would sell - he wouldn't but told me that he had done some building work at a large house nearby and noticed it in the grounds and asked if he could have it instead of cash. The lady of the house agreed - I can't recall the details now, but the house and the gun were the property of a well known WW1 officer. During WW2 when all metal things were collected for scrap, the gun was quietly pushed into the garden lake so as not to be taken. After the war, it was pulled back out again. Where did the gun go - its not there now?
 
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