M51 Multiple Machine Gun Carriage (quad .50 cal), what tow?

[wAbout]

I’m bit confused what can tow this trailer. It is artillery and AA gun, that much it clear. In errata it says “Fixed (counts as a heavy gun for the purposes of movement)”. I assume this means that it cannot be moved by manhandling the weapon, you have to use tow. If so, what is this weapons tow rating? Light, medium or heavy AA gun?

[Stuart Harrison]

“counts as a heavy gun for the purposes of movement” – I’d say ‘heavy gun for the purposes of movement’ would require a tow capable of towing a heavy AA gun.  As it’s been defined as both an AA gun, and heavy, it would need something additional to that to vary those existing requirements.

[wAbout]

Thanks, I’ll go with that. So basically only thing that can tow it is some kind of half track.

[wAbout]

In our group we talked about this and it feels little bit harsh to classify this as heavy AA gun. It weights only little over 1000 kg and has wheeled trailer on it. I could imagine that it would be easily towed even with 4WD jeep. In contrast german flak 88 weights almost 7,5 tons (although this is super heavy AA gun).

[L.T. Russell]

Howdy wAbout!  Yeah, I gotta agree with you.  I did a little research.  The US M45 Quadmount weighs approximately 2400 lbs.  Maybe a little more depending on which trailer it’s mounted on.  The US M1 37mm AA gun weighs approximately 6130 lbs. and is considered a medium AA gun in Bolt Action.  The US M1A1 90mm gun weighs approximately 19000 lbs. and is considered a heavy AA gun in Bolt Action.  So using a little common sense, I’d say that the errata is wrong, that a gun system that weighs less than half of a medium AA gun is a light AA gun, and that pretty much any US “tow” vehicle, except for a Jeep, should be able to pull it….

[wAbout]

Thank you for doing that background work. Really appreciate it!

[Author]

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