The US army called the M2A1 twin Bofors 40mm "Automatic Weapons." They were grouped under the artillery branch because they were an anti-aircraft weapon. In the way that quad 50's were, which obviously were also not artillery in the true sense.
The unit I was assigned to in Vietnam had a mission of receiving equipment from departing US units. We evaluated the equipment and under the guidance of various ordnance programs, decided what to do with it. One of the programs we had concerned the M42 Duster self propelled anti aircraft automatic weapon. Which carried two 40mm Bofors guns.
The M42 Duster was originally designed during the Korean War to provide anti-aircraft support for ground forces. Since the North Vietnamese Air Force was nowhere to be seen in the south, the Dusters were used for anti-personnel application. They were used for base defense and sometimes road patrol.
My ordnance battalion always had lots of broken down military vehicles sitting around, waiting for their turn in the shops. When the last Duster batteries were deactivated in 1971, many of their 200 some machines were collected up and sent to us. We rebuilt them, gave them a new paint job, and turned them over to the ARVN. I used to take pictures of some of this stuff, here are some of the Dusters. Unfortunately, when I took pictures in Vietnam, I was still in "high school photography class think" and used mostly black and white film.
The artwork on the front plate says, "Have Guns, Will Travel" with the chess piece Knight. It has vehicle numbers (which we usually called "bumper numbers") showing 5th Bn., 2nd Artillery. Which was assigned around the III Corps area. I've seen a couple of other pictures of Dusters online that had the same artwork on the front cover, I'm thinking it was a unit-wide adornment, as the vehicles in those pictures were not the same machine as this one.
The artwork on this unit says, "VC Hunting Club," but the bumper numbers appear to be painted over. The vehicle to the left says, "IFFV 4AW60 C231" which means, I Field Force Vietnam, 4th Bn 60 Arty Automatic Weapons, Vehicle #231 in Battery C." I Field Force was in II Corps Area. We were in the III Corps area, I don't know how those machines made it down to us from II Corps. Probably loaded them into an LST, cruised down to Newport, unloaded and hauled them by road up to Long Binh.
This one had interesting and somewhat skilled combat artwork applied to it. The front hull plate says, "Double Death" and a stylized skull; the inner armor plate on the guns says, "Double Destruction." It has 4/60 bumper numbers. The M2A1 Bofors gun used on these normally has a three pronged flash diffuser; it's missing on all these guns sent for rebuild. It may be seen that the guns are open on this particular unit, but most of them had been taped over against the weather before being shipped to us.
This is another row of Dusters, these weren't quite as banged up as some. To paraphrase James Bond, "You'd be surprised at how much wear and tear occurs out in the field." The Dusters had a Continental engine, six cylinder, horizontal opposed, air cooled, AOS-895-3, that is, 895 cubic inch displacement. The Duster was spun off the M41 Walker Bulldog medium tank, built in the same factory. Which was the Cadillac Tank Plant in Cleveland, Ohio. Which previously has been used to build B-29's in WW2. The M41 Walker Bulldog at about 24 tons, by the early 1950's, that was considered a light tank.
Some of the stuff in our Duster holding area. That big, squat track in the middle is an M88 Medium Recovery Vehicle, a very capable and handy machine. Dozer blade on the front. Lifting crane that swings over the top and hangs over the front. Built on the M48 tank chassis. I think the US Army still uses an updated version of these. In 1970, they booked for $248,000 but that's when we had real money. Probably cost ten times that or more now. The example in the picture wasn't one of ours, I see the markings say, "USADLB," which was US Army Depot Long Binh. The boom pointing off to the right is on a rough terrain crane, yes we did engineer equipment too. Lots of 62B mechanics out in our shops. On the far right, the ubiquitous 5 ton trucks, we had an on-going program for those. The military never seemed to have enough 5 ton trucks, lots of them went to the ARVN during my time, some are still hauling materiel in Vietnam to this day, you can see their pictures online.
Another row of Dusters waiting for work. I didn't seem to take pictures of finished product, for some reason. We had one lot next to our HQ building where the finished goods were often lined up before being taken away. When the shops got done with them, they looked nice and new, clean tracks, no missing parts, new paint (not quite the same as factory), no stars, no USA numbers because the ARVN assigned their own. On the far right, you can see some of the subjects of our other projects. M113 personnel carriers and variants, like the M577 command track, and the Zippo (flame thrower model) which I forget the nomenclature for. Also the kinda weird looking tracked artillery ammo carrier, I think those were the M548. We also had an M48 tank project when the US armor units (few though they were) left.
One last Duster picture, I took this with a little Kodak cheapie camera before I got a 35mm camera. On the left, is an M551 Sheridan, this one looks fairly intact. On the far right, looks like an M48. I'm not sure what happened to the M551 Sheridan tanks. Mostly the ones we got were very badly blown up in Cambodia, with RPG holes in the aluminum hulls, etc. Because they were a newer (and minimally successful) weapon system with a fancy 155mm gun, could be the army skipped rebuilding them in Vietnam and we shipped them all down to Newport in Saigon to go offshore. None of these were going to the ARVN.
The unit I was assigned to in Vietnam had a mission of receiving equipment from departing US units. We evaluated the equipment and under the guidance of various ordnance programs, decided what to do with it. One of the programs we had concerned the M42 Duster self propelled anti aircraft automatic weapon. Which carried two 40mm Bofors guns.
The M42 Duster was originally designed during the Korean War to provide anti-aircraft support for ground forces. Since the North Vietnamese Air Force was nowhere to be seen in the south, the Dusters were used for anti-personnel application. They were used for base defense and sometimes road patrol.
My ordnance battalion always had lots of broken down military vehicles sitting around, waiting for their turn in the shops. When the last Duster batteries were deactivated in 1971, many of their 200 some machines were collected up and sent to us. We rebuilt them, gave them a new paint job, and turned them over to the ARVN. I used to take pictures of some of this stuff, here are some of the Dusters. Unfortunately, when I took pictures in Vietnam, I was still in "high school photography class think" and used mostly black and white film.
The artwork on the front plate says, "Have Guns, Will Travel" with the chess piece Knight. It has vehicle numbers (which we usually called "bumper numbers") showing 5th Bn., 2nd Artillery. Which was assigned around the III Corps area. I've seen a couple of other pictures of Dusters online that had the same artwork on the front cover, I'm thinking it was a unit-wide adornment, as the vehicles in those pictures were not the same machine as this one.
The artwork on this unit says, "VC Hunting Club," but the bumper numbers appear to be painted over. The vehicle to the left says, "IFFV 4AW60 C231" which means, I Field Force Vietnam, 4th Bn 60 Arty Automatic Weapons, Vehicle #231 in Battery C." I Field Force was in II Corps Area. We were in the III Corps area, I don't know how those machines made it down to us from II Corps. Probably loaded them into an LST, cruised down to Newport, unloaded and hauled them by road up to Long Binh.
This one had interesting and somewhat skilled combat artwork applied to it. The front hull plate says, "Double Death" and a stylized skull; the inner armor plate on the guns says, "Double Destruction." It has 4/60 bumper numbers. The M2A1 Bofors gun used on these normally has a three pronged flash diffuser; it's missing on all these guns sent for rebuild. It may be seen that the guns are open on this particular unit, but most of them had been taped over against the weather before being shipped to us.
This is another row of Dusters, these weren't quite as banged up as some. To paraphrase James Bond, "You'd be surprised at how much wear and tear occurs out in the field." The Dusters had a Continental engine, six cylinder, horizontal opposed, air cooled, AOS-895-3, that is, 895 cubic inch displacement. The Duster was spun off the M41 Walker Bulldog medium tank, built in the same factory. Which was the Cadillac Tank Plant in Cleveland, Ohio. Which previously has been used to build B-29's in WW2. The M41 Walker Bulldog at about 24 tons, by the early 1950's, that was considered a light tank.
Some of the stuff in our Duster holding area. That big, squat track in the middle is an M88 Medium Recovery Vehicle, a very capable and handy machine. Dozer blade on the front. Lifting crane that swings over the top and hangs over the front. Built on the M48 tank chassis. I think the US Army still uses an updated version of these. In 1970, they booked for $248,000 but that's when we had real money. Probably cost ten times that or more now. The example in the picture wasn't one of ours, I see the markings say, "USADLB," which was US Army Depot Long Binh. The boom pointing off to the right is on a rough terrain crane, yes we did engineer equipment too. Lots of 62B mechanics out in our shops. On the far right, the ubiquitous 5 ton trucks, we had an on-going program for those. The military never seemed to have enough 5 ton trucks, lots of them went to the ARVN during my time, some are still hauling materiel in Vietnam to this day, you can see their pictures online.
Another row of Dusters waiting for work. I didn't seem to take pictures of finished product, for some reason. We had one lot next to our HQ building where the finished goods were often lined up before being taken away. When the shops got done with them, they looked nice and new, clean tracks, no missing parts, new paint (not quite the same as factory), no stars, no USA numbers because the ARVN assigned their own. On the far right, you can see some of the subjects of our other projects. M113 personnel carriers and variants, like the M577 command track, and the Zippo (flame thrower model) which I forget the nomenclature for. Also the kinda weird looking tracked artillery ammo carrier, I think those were the M548. We also had an M48 tank project when the US armor units (few though they were) left.
One last Duster picture, I took this with a little Kodak cheapie camera before I got a 35mm camera. On the left, is an M551 Sheridan, this one looks fairly intact. On the far right, looks like an M48. I'm not sure what happened to the M551 Sheridan tanks. Mostly the ones we got were very badly blown up in Cambodia, with RPG holes in the aluminum hulls, etc. Because they were a newer (and minimally successful) weapon system with a fancy 155mm gun, could be the army skipped rebuilding them in Vietnam and we shipped them all down to Newport in Saigon to go offshore. None of these were going to the ARVN.
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