A largely forgotten part of the war in South East Asia was the one fought by the U.S. Army’s gun trucks as part of convoy operations through the heart of enemy territory.
While Hollywood would tell you everything moved by chopper in Vietnam,the hard fact of life was that it was truck convoys that schlepped the bulk of the food, fuel and ammo to American and allied units stationed in the countryside. However, these predicable routes became target for enemy ambushes.
One of the worst supply runs was that along Route 19, some 150 miles of winding nowhere that became known as “Ambush Alley” for the motor transportation guys having to make the drive.
The response: hit the scrap piles and, using salvaged steel, sandbags and anything else they could find, up-armor Deuce and a Half and later 5 ton trucks then pile on whatever ordnance they could mount. In some instances, this ran all the way up to entire M113 armored personnel carrier bodies.
While these gun trucks look right out of Mad Max, they predated the movies by generations– and honestly were a magnitude of times better armed. While M60 machine guns and M2 “Ma Deuce’s” were popular, quad .50 Maxson M45 mounts known as meat choppers, which dated back to WWII, were always crowd pleasers.
Then of course there were mini-guns, which are always good for breaking up ambushes from guys whose ballistic protection was only pajama-thick.
The only known remaining Vietnam-era gun truck is Eve of Destruction, which was shipped back to the states before the fall of Saigon and is now restored and on display in the Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, Va.
However, the Museum has an online record of more than 90 of these trucks at their website, where the bulk of these images are from.
Of course this concept was later rebooted in later U.S. military experiences in Southwest Asia— but that is the subject of another post.
memang fakta yg seringkali terlupakan kalau di medan konflik manapun kalau anter logistik ya pasti mayoritas jalan darat. seberapa canggihnya pun air transport, quantity dan efisiensi dari angkutan darat jauh lebih tinggi untuk tergantikan walaupun resikonya besar. sd Iraq tempo hari pun sedemikian perlunya sampai-sampai pernah ada cerita US Army keluarkan kocek beli sejumlah besar BBM dan perlengkapan lain dengan harga 10-20x lipat dari harga normal karena satu-satunya yg sanggup anter BBM di bbrapa tempat panas di Iraq cuma PMC.
hal di atas karena kemampuan air lift sangat terbatas pada keberadaan air strip. sedangkan air drop via parachute sifatnya berjumlah minimalis dan seringkali tidak semua barang bisa di drop. juga semuanya ada resiko tembakan rudal dari darat yg beresiko total lost kapal, personel dan cargo. belum lagi fakta kalau air lift itu bersifat mahal dari segi operasional dan karena kebutuhannya besar sekedar untuk melayani perpindahan logstik yg tidak seberapa, maka berimbas pada besarnya frekuensinya terbang berulang yang cenderung membuat jadwalnya padat terutama apabila pesawatnya sedikit.
on a lighter note, separah2nya US di viet tetap gak pake coconut tree armor. malah kreatif pakai body APC. jadi separuh truck, separuh APC. dahsyat, tradisi mad max ternyata ada di semua negara. gak cuma milik Iran dan yg kemarin ada di Aceh.