40M Nimród

40M Nimród
40M Nimród
	40M Nimród in the Kubinka Tank Museum
Type	Self-propelled anti-aircraft gun
Place of origin	Hungary
Service history
Used by	Hungary
Wars	World War II
Production history
Manufacturer	Weiss Manfréd; MÁVAG
No. built	135
Specifications
Mass	10.5 tonnes
Length	5.32 m (17 ft 5 in)
Width	2.31 m (7 ft 7 in)
Height	2.8 m (9 ft 2 in)
Crew	6
Armor	6–13 mm on the hull, 28 mm on the turret
Main; armament	40 mm Bofors L/60 AA-gun
Engine	VIII EST 107, 8-cylinder, gasoline, water-cooled; 150 hp (110 kW)
Operational; range	300 km (180 mi)
Maximum speed	50 km/h (31 mph)

The 40M Nimród was a World War II Hungarian self-propelled anti-aircraft gun based on a license-built copy of the Swedish Landsverk L-62 Anti I SPAAG 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 heavily armored Soviet tanks like the KV-1. Therefore, it was primarily used against lightly armored vehicles and for air defense.

Design

The 40M Nimród was a modified, license-built variant of the Landsverk L-62 Anti I SPAAG. The L-62 Anti I was based on the chassis of the Landsverk L-60 tank – the same tank that the Hungarian Toldi light tanks were also based on.

The L-62 did differ though from the original L-60 chassis. It was longer and wider and had one more roadwheel per side. The 40M Nimród also differed 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 Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun, 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 900 metres per second (3,000 feet per second). Ammunition for the gun consisted primarily of conventional high-explosive fragmentation and armor-piercing rounds, but also a specialized anti-tank round developed indigenously in Hungary. Hungarian armor-piercing ammunition for the gun could penetrate 46 mm (1.8 in) of rolled homogeneous armor at a range of 100 m (330 ft), and 30 mm (1.2 in) at 1,000 m (3,300 ft). The Nimrod carried 640 rounds, split into 4 stowages of 160 rounds each.

Late in the war, the vehicle was issued with a 150 mm (5.9 in) muzzle loaded rifle grenade (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 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 Manfréd 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, and it did see some success in destroying Soviet tanks, in 1943 the 40M Nimród was reclassified for anti-aircraft use as it was unable to penetrate the thick armor of the tanks in use by the Red Army by that point.

The following units used 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 Battalions of the 1st and 2nd Hungarian Armoured Divisions, respectively. Nimrod batteries attached to armored and motorized battalions were allocated six vehicles each. A platoon consisted of two vehicles.

Gallery

Nimróds at military demonstration, Mátyásföld, Budapest, 1943
A 40M Nimród. In the background is Zsámbék, Nicholas Zichy.
40M Nimróds anti-aircraft machine guns in marching column near Zsámbék. In the background is the Premonstratensian Monastery.
A Nimród anti-aircraft gun battery in firing position along the Zsámbék Páty road.

Comparable vehicles

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