(COMMERCIAL) Hue 1968 from Gringo40s. New!!

[CapnJim]

Nice minis!

Some more of your Vietnam figs are on my "to eventually purchase" list!

[gringo]

CapnJim

many thanks
good to hear about the list 

regards
Ged
www.gringo40s.com

[gringo]

More Ruff Puffs and a smidge of information
pk...the secomd painted Ruff Puff soldier.....Gringo40s  will indeed the whole gambit!
with the ARVN styled M1 and M2 armed troops these are armed with some of the other weapons used so i can cover the whole Ruff Puff spectrum and could be used for the Nhân dân tự vệ, the People's Self-Defence Force, a local village based militia organised from about 1968 onwards but some could represent the early, Diem era, Civil Guard members. They could also be used as some Revolutionary Development Cadres, who worked alongside the Civil Guard on and off to quote a mates comments..its just the start of a complex unit/s/..hope that helps…regards Ged gringo40s.com

[gringo]

Must post a customer called "Deadhead" superb scene from Hue 1968 using Gringo40s USMC 28mm Marines..www.gringo40s.com

Regards
Ged
www.gringo40s.com

[Tom Dulski]

 Does that guy have a "grease gun"?

[gringo]

Hi Tom he does indeed
 
regards
Ged
www.gringo40s.com

[CapnJim]

Does that guy have a "grease gun"?

Yep - he probably stole it, er, I mean tactically acquired it, from a tanker...

[carlos marighela]

Or an ARVN trooper. Second hand, like new, only dropped once. 

Actually, the ARVN in Hue fought very well.

[Russ justice]

The troops seemed to carry an aray of weapons. Thompson's, grease guns, privately purchased pistols. I'm guessing having a shorter barrelled weapon had its advantages in close combat situations.

[gringo]

Indeed chaps...not all weapons were standard issue
and if my memory serves me correctly the Marines
broke in into an Armoury and helped themseives..
the amount of firepower used was astonishing...
aside from the 60mm and 82mm mortars..4.2 inch
mortars..not to forget the "broken out on the museum"
rocket launchers,,and the 105mm Ontos and Mules.amd
the lumbering M48A3..and a background of 155 artillery
and offshore Naval and sirforce fire the effect was  fairly
stupendous against a determined enemy
regards
Ged
www.gringo40s.com

[Grumpy Gnome]

Combat Support Company 4th Battalion 502nd Infantry had some battered looking M3 “grease guns” in the company armsroom at the very least '88 to '91. When I asked about them I was told they were for mechanics. I vaguely recall seeing them in the field a time or two but that is a hazy recollection. The reason I mention it is that it is surprising what ends up in some US Army company armsrooms even in peacetime let alone during an open conflict.

[gringo]

Grumpy Gnome
fascinating story..i think the M3 was popular as
it was lighter then the Thompson and as it was
easier to produce there were more of them..and
the "second hand" market was very much alive in
Nam. it was a popular weapon for Tankers and as grumpy
says Mechanics.........must have been reliable as the
MACV SOG used them...well they had a choice of over
40 weapons!!
regards
Ged
www.gringo40s.com

[carlos marighela]

The grease gun wasn't just popular it was the weapon issued to US tank crews until at least the late 1980s. Pretty much as it was the only thing handy enough to be toted in and out of the hatches of a tank above a pistol.

Hue would have been one of the rare occasions where its use would have made much sense, SMG's being mostly useful for house to house, CQB type engagements and not much use for anything else.

The provenance of an M3 in Vietnam could be varied. They obviously still existed in the US logistics chain, the ARVN possessed many thousands of the things and the Vietcong had a fair number of captured examples in their own use.

The US Army and USMC seem to have given far more latitude to their personnel in terms of weapons carriage than professional armies, although one shouldn't  draw the conclusion it was a free for all. Black market purchases and trades were made but most people would have the standard kit.

Here's the story of a marine with a much more exotic weapon that illustrates one of the reasons that having non-standard kit is a bit dopey.

https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/subguns-in-vietnam-my-experience-with-the-madsen-m50/

By contrast, I can think of but one, tragic, incident of a non-authorised weapon being toted in 1 ATF. This was the use by a digger in 5RAR, on their first tour, of a sawn-off shot gun, gifted by the soldier's grandfather. It resulted in a fatal UD, after which there was a task force wide crack down on such things. 1 ATF did use some non-standard weapons, mostly by the SAS as well as some .50 cals for base defence, traded with the US Army but these were all authorised and properly cared for by unit armourers.

The more one reads about the US armed forces in Vietnam, the more one comes to the conclusion that their tactical doctrine was largely drawn from Terry and the Pirates and Vic Morrow in Combat. 

Cracking figure and a lovely diorama btw. Hoping to be back at very locale in Feb.

[Tom Dulski]

 I would have thought the S&W M76 would have fully replaced the grease gun by this time. I always thought that the M76 was a great looking design.

[gringo]

fascinating reply Carlos...and an interesting
story...always treat your weapon with care!
Tom..........the Smith and Western was a bit
of a forgotten weapon,,,i added some to my
special forces troops i had made..i also added
the more common Swedish K....some fascinationg
blurb below on the S and w M76..QUOTE...........

However, by 1967 the American gun manufacturer won a contract and began to produce a version of the gun as the Smith & Wesson M76. Yet by that time, the war changed and the U.S. Navy decided it did not actually require the submachine after all. Only a limited batch was produced. Ultimately, S&W marketed the weapon to law enforcement and a few were even sold to civilians. Despite being fully-automatic weapons, at the time civilians could still purchase machine guns but had to undergo a National Firearms Act (NFA) background check.

As a result of the timing, the Smith & Wesson M76 might thus be the only actual commercial submachine gun actually marketed to civilians other than perhaps the Thompson dating back to the 1920s and early 1930s. The catch, of course, was that the buyer had to pass that complex background check and pay for the $200 transfer tax. Even at the time, nearly all other NFA weapons were likely war trophies or surplus weapons. Although it doesn’t seem like many were sold to civilians, more than a dozen years later, another firm stepped in.

Beginning in 1983, MK Arms actually produced a copy of the M76 in selective fire and semi-automatic, but the company went out of business after the passage of the Firearm Owners Protection Act in 1986, which banned civilians from buying or owning “newly made machine guns.”

As for the actual M76, it probably didn’t see much–if any action–in Southeast Asia. Moreover, while it might not have been carried by Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” in the movies like the S&W .44 Magnum, the 9mm S&W M76 submachine gun was used by Charlton Heston in the 1971 zombie-esque film The Omega Man. Perhaps in the end, if Heston had been able to make a quotable quip about the M76 it might have been as famous as the most powerful handgun on earth! ..UNQUOTE

Regards
Ged
www.gringo40s.com