Thursday, 9 August 2012

GMC 353 SP 40mm Bofors AA

GMC CCKW 6x6 SP 40mm Bofors AA
I have now for a while being trying to do something ifferent with my quite old and tired US late war forces. On
a whim I have decided to re-paint some of them as French, so I could add colourful units like – Goumiers, French
marine infantry in their distinctive cap with red pommel, Foreign Legion and ex-Spanish Republicans. Whilst doing
some research into Leclerc`s French 2nd Armoured Division, I discovered that the division wasn`t issued with
M16 type SP anti-aircraft guns like the American units but something quite unique.

Built in the field workshops of the division, the GMC 353 CCKW 6X6 40mm Bofors AA is a beast. The engineers
and mechanics, stretched the chassis and reinforced it to carry the heavy gun and it ammo load. They converted only
32 vehicles, these served with the 22nd Colonial Anti-Aircraft Group. They served with 2nd Armoured from its
landing in Normandy in July 1944 until the end of the war. The unit was credited for shooting down 17 German
aircraft and damaging 6 others. The vehicles that survived the war were sent out to Indo-China in March 1946 to assist
in the war against the Viet Minh in a ground support role. Once I saw one, I new I had to have one to add to my
“Groupe Mobile”. Now Milicast sell a lovely kit (but at £17.95, far too expensive for a whim), so I began a plan to
build my own…….






I`ve posted details of the build here -


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