Those Wild Wonderful Tracks of Vietnam Part 3-Austrailia and ROKA

The Australian Army and the Republic of Korea Army both supplied forces to help out the Republic of Vietnam. Their contingents were small compared to those of the ARVN and the US Army, but each played an important part in the war.

Australia


The Aussies didn't seem to use the ACAV, but did equip their Buckets with shields for the M2 .50 cal.




They also used M113's equiped with the T50 turret, armed with either twin .30 cals, or one .30 and one .50cal machine guns. Relocating one .30 cal. machine gun to the top of the turret seemed common.



Sometimes they came up with some "unofficial prototypes" of their own.



An Aussie Fitters Bucket.


Aussie M106/M125




An Aussie M113 Fire Support Vehicle (FSV). Mate a 76mm low velocity gun in a turret from a Saladin Armored Car with a M113 and you get a mini tank like hybrid.

ROKA

Not much out there on the M113's used by the ROKA in Vietnam...



Pretty much standard ACAV's, second pic has a unique rear shield though. Nice artwork.

Tune in tomorrow for Pt 4-United States Army or Death rides a track!

-BadMoon

That tiger on the ROK M113 looks feirce! Charlie must have shat their drawers seeing those rumbling down the road.

Bad Moon, you have done a great job of research finding, studying and posting all these photos. A first class research project. Thanks very much for sharing your work with us.

   

Tom

Another great collection of pictures. Can't imagine having a huge logo on the front of a track like that last picture though...

thanks for the pictures

This is one of my favourite Aussie vehicles from the VN War:



M113 Mine Roller Flint aka Bukoo Boom Boom

BadMoon wrote:They also used M113's equiped with the T50 turret, armed with either twin .30 cals, or one .30 and one .50cal machine guns. Relocating one .30 cal. machine gun to the top of the turret seemed common.

 One reason was that having 2 guns in the turret made them difficult to operate, especially the .50 which tended to jam a lot much like in the cupola of M-48s (where the .50 was mounted on it's side).  Also, vision inside the turret was poor.  Situational awareness is everything, so putting the gun up where the TC could see and shoot was the solution.

I also thignh I've seen that last ROK track before. IIRC that rear weapon is either a 57mm or a 75mm Recoilless rifle. As i recall there was an ROK weapons company that came over with them and they had TONs of ammo from the 50's for them and were basically just using them for everything to get rid of the stuff.

I like that Buckoo Boom Boom too.

If they were intending the first word to be phonetic for 'Beaucoup", I would have thought it would have been "Boocu."

Maybe Buckoo has a meaning I don't understand.

Tom

Darby wrote:I also thignh I've seen that last ROK track before. IIRC that rear weapon is either a 57mm or a 75mm Recoilless rifle.  As i recall there was an ROK weapons company that came over with them and they had TONs of ammo from the 50's for them and were basically just using them for everything to get rid of the stuff.

From what appears to be a cover/shroud over the weapon and the cut out in the shield, its larger in diameter than a M2 barrel, so it most likely NOT a M1919 or M60. I have often run across/heard/been told concerning memory was that the "First thing you think of has the highest percentage of being correct". When I first viewed that pic, I thought that the rear shield looked like those shielding side mounted flame throwers/guns on some model of the WW2 US LVT. I spent a couple of hours looking looking at pics of both ROK M113's and LVT's to support either idea. For now it's a mystery that will require additional research. The wonderful thing(gaming wise) about M113's in Vietnam is that so many variations existed, you can plausibility make a case for just about anything.

-BadMoon

Ya know... might also be a minigun. Trying to ferret out the pix I saw of the RR but no luck yet.

Garryowen wrote:I like that Buckoo Boom Boom too.

If they were intending the first word to be phonetic for 'Beaucoup", I would have thought it would have been "Boocu."

Maybe Buckoo has a meaning I don't understand.

Tom

Tom,

I believe it was a little "pigeon English" based on some Vietnamese saying's in English and Buckoo meant "BIG"

More ROK M113 pics:

More ROK M113s (continued):

And I used this photo as the inspiration for my platoon's worth of ROK tracks (5 in total):

And here's a rarity (the only photo of one I've come across) - a Philippines M113:

Garryowen wrote:I like that Buckoo Boom Boom too.

If they were intending the first word to be phonetic for 'Beaucoup", I would have thought it would have been "Boocu."

Maybe Buckoo has a meaning I don't understand.

Tom

It's just the Aussie spelling.

That explains it.

How did you do your ROK insignia on your tracks?

Tom

Tom, I just printed out the insignia on some thin glossy paper.

Wayne, I guess you found the insignia itself on the internet.

I was actually crazy enough to do shoulder patches for ARVN airborne, marines and rangers that way for 20mm figures. In a game, absolutely no one ever notices them unless I point them out.

I admit I am nuts , but I have fun.

Tom

Garryowen wrote:I was actually crazy enough to do shoulder patches for ARVN airborne, marines and rangers that way for 20mm figures. In a game, absolutely no one ever notices them unless I point them out.

I admit I am nuts , but I have fun.

I think that's awesome though!

GarryOwen wrote:I admit I am nuts but I have fun.

That's important. And we love ya anyway.

Philippine M113, LOVE IT!!! I have NEVER seen a photo of one before, brilliant work.

Just catching up and wow, wot a great thread. Love it. The Aussie mortar carrier is M125. They didn't have any M106. And IIRC they didn't have an integral 81 mortar, if used in the fire support role they would mount a barrel and crew from the Infantry Battalion they were supporting. The vehicle had two man crew and would be used for patrolling in same way M113A1 were

[quote="BadMoon"]

Darby wrote:.... The wonderful thing(gaming wise) about M113's in Vietnam is that so many variations existed, you can plausibility make a case for just about anything.

-BadMoon

Agree one hundred percent. The same statement applies to vehicles as to clothing in combat zones (or indeed anywhere).

Uniform isn't.

Great work.

When I first came to this today, I couldn’t figure out something from 2020. I had forgotten this thread myself. Until I got down fairly far and saw my replies, I didn’t think I had ever seen it.

It goes without saying that the photos from the war that are posted here are great. But my face really lit up when I saw OTB’s 1/72 models of the Korean M-113s. It is very difficult to come up with any vehicle, aircraft, or weapon that was in the war that OTB doesn’t already have in platoon strength (at least) in 1/72 scale.

It is really nice to see someone looking back at the old threads on this website. I remember on the old version of FoF which, of course, had many more threads just because of its longer history, I tried to encourage new members to go back and look at all of the gems that had been posted over the years.

Even with the shorter history of our current FoF, there are lots of neat things in the past.

Tom