Heats

Two heats were held; the fastest three times advanced to the final round.

Heat one

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Helmut Körnig Fritz Hendrix Erich Borchmeyer Arthur Jonath	Germany	41.22	Q
2	Takayoshi Yoshioka Chuhei Nanbu Izu Anno Itaro Nakajima	Japan	41.8	Q
3	Don Finlay Stanley Fuller Stanley Engelhart Ernie Page	Great Britain	42.0	Q
4	Angelos Lambrou Khristos Mantikas Evangelos Moiropoulos Renos Frangoudis	Greece	42.9
5	Bunoo Sutton Ronald Vernieux Mehar Chand Dhawan Dickie Carr	India	43.7

Heat Two

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Bob Kiesel Emmett Toppino Hec Dyer Frank Wykoff	United States	40.61	WR, Q
2	Giuseppe Castelli Ruggero Maregatti Gabriele Salviati Edgardo Toetti	Italy	42.8	Q
3	Percy Williams Jim Brown Harold Wright Bert Pearson	Canada	45.0	Q

Final

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Bob Kiesel Emmett Toppino Hec Dyer Frank Wykoff	United States	40.10	WR
	Helmut Körnig Fritz Hendrix Erich Borchmeyer Arthur Jonath	Germany	40.9
	Giuseppe Castelli Ruggero Maregatti Gabriele Salviati Edgardo Toetti	Italy	41.2
4	Percy Williams Jim Brown Harold Wright Bert Pearson	Canada	41.3
5	Takayoshi Yoshioka Chuhei Nanbu Izuo Anno Itaro Nakajima	Japan	41.3
6	Don Finlay Stanley Fuller Stanley Engelhart Ernie Page	Great Britain	41.4

Key: WR = world record; DNF = did not finish