Encyclopedia - Pom-Pom Gun
The so-called 'Pom-Pom' gun primarily saw service during
the 1899-1902 South African War.
With a 37mm calibre the water-cooled, belt-fed Maxim-Nordenfeldt (among others, with variants produced as Vickers-Maxim and Hotchkiss-Maxim) was the smallest item of artillery used during that war and boasted a firing rate of 60 rounds per minute, utilising a belt of 25 one-pound shells, each shell covering a distance ranging up to 3,000 yards.
Highly successful in the 1899-1902 war - and first used by the Boers before it was copied by the British - the gun was little used during the First World War, chiefly being used as a light anti-aircraft weapon by the latter. Its name was derived from the peculiar sound issued by the gun when fired.
A respirator was a gas mask in which air was inhaled through a metal box of chemicals.
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