QF 6-pounder 7 cwt Mk.2

In 1938, a new anti-tank gun, designed by Woolwich Arsenal, was introduced to progressively replace the 2-pdr (40mm) anti-tank guns existing in the Royal Army. The new gun was a 57mm piece designated as “Ordnance Quick-Firing 6-pounder 7 cwt” or “QF 6-pdr 7cwt Gun“. Finally, and with enormous delay, the gun entered service in 1942, because it was decided to keep the production of 2-pdr guns by the threat of Hitler’s invasion of Britain. The main variant was the Mk.II with a 43 calibers barrel, although subsequently the Mk.IV version appeared with a 50 calibres barrel. The United States built a copy of this gun under designation as “57mm Gun M1“. About 4,000 units were handed over to the British and some 400 to the Soviets under the Lend-Lease program. A QF 6-pdr Mk.II gun had the honor of being the one who knocked out a German Tiger tank for the first time, in North Africa, where the gun proved its enormous worth. This gun was installed as the main weapon of several British tanks such as the Churchill Mk.III and Mk.IV, Crusader Mk.III, Centaur Mk.I & Mk.III, Cavalier, Valentine Mk.VIII,IX & X and Cromwell Mk.I, II & III. Other combat vehicles such as the AEC Mk.II armoured car, the Deacon wheeled tank-destroyer and the Alecto II self-propelled gun prototype also mounted this gun as their main weapon.

QF 6pdr 7cwt Mk.2 gallery and more info