King & Country
Captain
- Joined
- May 23, 2005
- Messages
- 5,015
Hi Guys,
Here’s one more preview to take a look at this weekend... King & Country’s very first, Vietnam War Gun Truck... the aptly named “Suzie Q”.
During the Vietnam War, US Army trucks from the ‘Transportation Corps’ ferried supplies from the coastal ports of Qui Nhon and Cam Ranh Bay to many inland bases all over South Vietnam.
The logistical requirements of the American Forces in country were huge and convoys of up to 200 trucks were not uncommon.
Large formations like this travelling through the Vietnamese countryside on that country’s inadequate road system proved just ‘too tempting’ for local Viet Cong groups to ignore.
That resulted in many convoys being ambushed especially in remote areas. One particular stretch of road became known as ‘Ambush Alley’ due to almost daily attacks on the U.S. Army truckers and their vehicles.
Providing protection for these convoys proved almost impossible for the limited resources of the Military Police units involved. Other Allied combat forces could only control those stretches of road within their own designated areas of responsibility.
That effectively meant that the transport units themselves had to supply their own ‘immediate security’ to fight off the Viet Cong and later North Vietnamese assaults.
By the fall of 1967 the truckers themselves took command of the situation and began constructing and adapting some of their own M35 2 1/2 ton, 6 x 6 cargo trucks to carry additional machine guns of many shapes, sizes and calibres to counter the aggressive ambush activities of the V.C. and N.V.A.
Back at their bases the different military truck companies begged, borrowed and, occasionally, ‘stole’ whatever they needed to provide additional armour and gun power to their selected ‘gun truck’ vehicles.
At the same time the ‘brass’ elsewhere reduced the numbers of trucks in supply convoys to around a maximum of 100 vehicles per convoy and provided for one in ten trucks being a designated ‘Gun Truck’.
In the event of an ambush, their role was to ‘drive into the kill-zone’ immediately and saturate the enemy positions with maximum firepower.
In late November 1967 one particular attack in ‘Ambush Alley’ cost 6 trucks with several crews killed and wounded. Thanks to the rapid intervention of two gun trucks however the attack was repulsed and the enemy fled leaving 41 Viet Cong killed in action.
One of the most popular, effective and deadly of the many different ‘Gun Trucks’ was the M35A1 truck carrying the quad-mounted .50 calibre machine guns previously used as an anti-aircraft weapon.
Our K&C vehicle ‘SUZIE Q’ is named after the then popular Credence Clearwater Revival song of that era and also has a nice little Vietnamese honey painted on the armour plate on both sides of the vehicle.
On the Quad .50 mounting the Gunner himself has added his own personal motto... “Have Guns Will Travel”... a nod to a very popular TV Western series of the early 1960s about a ‘gunfighter for hire’.
This first version of the M35A1 includes a driver, a gunner, an M60 machine gun, an M16 rifle and two loads of .50 cal. ammunition boxes. A second version, ‘THE WAR WAGON’ will be on show next week.
Release date is early 2022.
All the best,
Andy
Here’s one more preview to take a look at this weekend... King & Country’s very first, Vietnam War Gun Truck... the aptly named “Suzie Q”.
During the Vietnam War, US Army trucks from the ‘Transportation Corps’ ferried supplies from the coastal ports of Qui Nhon and Cam Ranh Bay to many inland bases all over South Vietnam.
The logistical requirements of the American Forces in country were huge and convoys of up to 200 trucks were not uncommon.
Large formations like this travelling through the Vietnamese countryside on that country’s inadequate road system proved just ‘too tempting’ for local Viet Cong groups to ignore.
That resulted in many convoys being ambushed especially in remote areas. One particular stretch of road became known as ‘Ambush Alley’ due to almost daily attacks on the U.S. Army truckers and their vehicles.
Providing protection for these convoys proved almost impossible for the limited resources of the Military Police units involved. Other Allied combat forces could only control those stretches of road within their own designated areas of responsibility.
That effectively meant that the transport units themselves had to supply their own ‘immediate security’ to fight off the Viet Cong and later North Vietnamese assaults.
By the fall of 1967 the truckers themselves took command of the situation and began constructing and adapting some of their own M35 2 1/2 ton, 6 x 6 cargo trucks to carry additional machine guns of many shapes, sizes and calibres to counter the aggressive ambush activities of the V.C. and N.V.A.
Back at their bases the different military truck companies begged, borrowed and, occasionally, ‘stole’ whatever they needed to provide additional armour and gun power to their selected ‘gun truck’ vehicles.
At the same time the ‘brass’ elsewhere reduced the numbers of trucks in supply convoys to around a maximum of 100 vehicles per convoy and provided for one in ten trucks being a designated ‘Gun Truck’.
In the event of an ambush, their role was to ‘drive into the kill-zone’ immediately and saturate the enemy positions with maximum firepower.
In late November 1967 one particular attack in ‘Ambush Alley’ cost 6 trucks with several crews killed and wounded. Thanks to the rapid intervention of two gun trucks however the attack was repulsed and the enemy fled leaving 41 Viet Cong killed in action.
One of the most popular, effective and deadly of the many different ‘Gun Trucks’ was the M35A1 truck carrying the quad-mounted .50 calibre machine guns previously used as an anti-aircraft weapon.
Our K&C vehicle ‘SUZIE Q’ is named after the then popular Credence Clearwater Revival song of that era and also has a nice little Vietnamese honey painted on the armour plate on both sides of the vehicle.
On the Quad .50 mounting the Gunner himself has added his own personal motto... “Have Guns Will Travel”... a nod to a very popular TV Western series of the early 1960s about a ‘gunfighter for hire’.
This first version of the M35A1 includes a driver, a gunner, an M60 machine gun, an M16 rifle and two loads of .50 cal. ammunition boxes. A second version, ‘THE WAR WAGON’ will be on show next week.
Release date is early 2022.
All the best,
Andy
