it as "A very good idea, this weapon of yours. It will save our cordite". (This was prophetic: while possibly apocryphal stories of projectors mounted on trawlers being used to fire 'spuds' (potatoes) at low-flying German aircraft for the want of Mills bombs led to the nickname 'potato thrower'. 'spud gun' etc.) Regardless of the successful trial results the Mk II proved to be highly inaccurate when fired at distant moving targets: only a dozen or so aircraft were confirmed to have been downed by the weapon in its first year of service but it succeeded in convincing many more aircraft that the target vessel was more heavily equipped with more effective weapons, confirmed by the large number of reports were made about Luftwaffe aircraft turning away from an attack after salvos from ship-mounted Holman Projectors. Within the Admiralty, the perception was that the Projector was a useful stop-gap weapon in the early years of the war, when other more effective anti aircraft weaponry, such as the Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, were in short supply. Mk III In 1941, production of the Mk III Holman Projector began. This version was semi-automatic, and capable of firing multiple projectiles in a single salvo to a height of around . The Admiralty placed an order for a further one thousand units, to be fitted to coastal gunboats and other light craft, where the light recoil of the weapon had proven useful. Morris Oram, from Camborne, lead the development and was later presented by W. Churchill with a commemorative picture after successful trials of the Mk III at Portsmouth. He worked for over 50 years at Holman Brothers. Plans were drawn up for a Mk IV version of the Projector to fill this niche more readily, with a shorter barrel and swivel base but when these were ready the war had progressed, more advanced weaponry was available and that made the Projector obsolete. A number of the earlier model Projectors remained in service and discouraged attacks in the Mediterranean by some smaller submarines, and a small number were adapted to fire grapnels for commando cliff assaults. In total around 4,500 Holman Projectors were put into active service during World War II, and several can still be found in museums in the United Kingdom. Effectiveness While Holman Projector had limited success with one cargo ship's crew shooting down two airplanes, it became better known for