Bofors 37mm Portee
(BR152)
includes one cut-down Morris 15cwt truck, one 37mm Bofors gun, one 47/32 gun, two Gun crew figures & one Driver figure.
The rough open desert of Egypt and Libya taught the anti-tank gunners to carry their gun portee, mounted on the back of an unarmoured truck. This gave the gunners much needed mobility whilst extend the service life of the anti-tank gun.
Over the course of the campaign a whole range of different anti-tank guns were carried portee including the standard British 2 pounder, the Bofors 37mm, and the 9th Australian Division’s 2/3 Anti-tank Regiment had a number of captured Italian Breda 47/32 guns.
The guns could be fired from the back of the portee or dismounted and fired from the ground. Because of the highly mobile nature of warfare in the Western Desert, gun crews preferred to fight portee. Typically each Brigade Anti-tank Platoon would be attached to an infantry battalion, and then assigned to support the infantry company defending the sector most likely to be attacked by enemy armour.
The British made use of the Swedish designed Bofors 37mm anti-tank gun to make up for the shortage of their own OQF (Ordnance Quick Fire) 2pdr guns. During the early stages of the war, the Bofors 37mm gun proved very effective against the lightly armoured German tanks such as the Panzer I and Panzer II. However, as tank designs improved and offered better armour protection, the Bofors 37mm gun soon became obsolete.
The Bofors 37mm Portee in Flames of War
Bofors 37mm Portee
Mobility: Wheeled
AA MG, Tip und Run
Bofors 37mm gun
Range: 24”/60cm
Rate of Fire: 3
Anti-tank: 6
Firepower: 4+
No HE, Portee
47/32 gun
Range: 24”/60cm
Rate of Fire: 3
Anti-tank: 6
Firepower: 4+
Portee
The Bofors 37mm Portee provides an effective and mobile anti-tank deterrent for British and Commonwealth forces in Flames Of War.
The 47/32 gun provided an effective weapon against both German and Italian tanks. This light man-portable weapon could be easily man-handled into place and quickly made ready to fire.
The Italians had also abandoned much ammunition in Tobruk and, unlike the 2 pdr or Bofors 37mm guns, the 47/32 had a high-explosive round for use against non-armoured targets.
Tip and Run
Portee-mounted anti-tank guns were originally meant to dismount to fight. Adventurous crews soon devised tactics for hiding behind a ridge, scoring a quick short-range volley, then running before the enemy can catch them out.
Treat 37mm Bofors and 47/32 portee and other teams that can Tip and Run as if they had the German Stormtroopers
special rule in any turn that they shot. Any movement made with this rule must be away from the enemy
platoon that they shot at.
The Bofors 37mm gun has No HE. In Flames Of War, the lack of a High Explosive (HE) round means that hits cannot be allocated to any Infantry or Gun teams. However, the 47/32 gun does have a HE round and therefore poses a threat to tanks, infantry and guns.
Portee
Some guns were designed for horse-drawn movement and are simply too lightly built to tow behind a truck, so they have to be carried ‘portee’ on the load bed instead. Other guns are carried this way instead of towing them to allow the gun to fire on the move.
A team with the Portee attribute may dismount its weapon by removing the vehicle model and replacing it with a Gun team with the same main gun. This takes the entire Movement Step to do. The empty vehicle is then sent to the rear and the gun cannot remount its vehicle during the game.
Portee guns may deploy as Guns teams dismounting before play begins, leaving their vehicle in the rear and out of play for the entire battle.
15mm, resin/metal
Battlefront Miniatures
Product safety information
Manufacturer information:
Battlefront Miniatures Europe Ltd
Tissington Close Unit 4C
Nottingham, Vereinigtes Königreich, NG9 6QG
customerservicerow@battlefront.co.nz
https://www.flamesofwar.com/
Responsible person:
Frontline Games
Faerbereiweg 3A
Schleswig-Holstein
Huetten, Deutschland, 24358
info@frontlinegames.de
https://www.frontlinegames.de/
