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With an effective anti-aircraft range of three kilometres, the M1939 37mm automatic anti-aircraft gun could fire armour-piercing and fragmentation shells at a sustained rate of 80 rounds per minute, or twice that for burst firing. The USSR first deployed the M1939 just prior to the Second World War, and it has since seen service with over 60 nations’ armed forces. Its use was first reported in Guinea during 1970, but the M1939’s weight (over one metric tonne) and size (5.5 metres total length) limited its deployment there to prepared anti-aircraft positions. (Artwork by David Bocquelet)