Vietnam Bringback M1917

I recently was able to purchase a M1917 with complete bringback papers from Vietnam. Serial number was 870XX. It's in very good condition, and as soon as I master posting photos here I'll post a couple.

I saw exactly one M1903 in RVN. No such animal as an M1917! Rare bird. I would guess the French Foreign Legion had them. I also saw PILES of Mod 98k's. No 8mm ammunition, mind you. I know the Viet Namese have tossed ALL small arms into trash heaps. Oh, well.

I have two 1903's but they are very uncommon. The M1917 I was assuming was a French lend-lease that wound up there, but I'll never know.

I can't wait to see it.

Didn't China end up with a bunch of M1917's. It may have come from there.

China did have M1903's and M1917's. Kind of a long route there, however. I am guessing a French Connection.

Keep in mind that the OSS also had a hand in getting some weapons over to the Viet Minh when they were fighting the French. I would also say it could have a French connection long before I would suggest a Chinese connection. Reason being the Chinese and Vietnamese have pretty much always been at each other's throats and being brother's in Communism didn't change that. Heck, the Chinese had an incursion into Vietnam in the late '70's and got their butts handed to them.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter where it started, you have some documentation to show some of where the rifle has been and I too look forward to seeing pictures of it.

It may have been a 1917. When I was there (68-69) we went to a village with doctors to treat the locals. I did security and the village militia came in from patrol and I think they had 1917's. It's been so long ago I may be mistaken.

Most of the local villages had Garands and Carbines. I never saw an M1903 or M1917. Lots of M1 Thompsons, piles in fact. Only "trusted" villages were armed. We had many VC villages around us. I lived in a small hooch in a Mat Team. Really a bad situation, the local VC came by every night and shot at us from long range. Never hit anything, but pi##ed us off something fierce.

There is a picture or two floating around the net of either a 1917 or Pattern 14 in a pile of captured VC small arms (AKs, Mosins, etc)-it clearly shows the rifle and bolt handle. They used anything they could get their hands on, included stuff the Americans let go of. I would certainly not be surprised to see one of our own come back home with capture papers. Heck, the Russians re-captured their own 91/30's by the thousands.

Mostly we captured AK-47's. A few SKS's and Kar98k's. The North Viet Namese liked the AK-47. The VC liked M16's. Lots of ammo and easy to maintain. It was rare (1970-71) to find a bolt action being used in combat. The country was awash in guns of all type. One of my good buddies was in Cambodia in the Cav. He said thay actaully captured British SMLE's. They gave them away to US troops, who ever wanted one.

IIRC large numbers on M1917's were given to the Kuomintang by the US during World War Two. It is also a fact that China did indeed help North Vietnam during the war, including some numbers of Chinese joining the NVA. Logic dictates that M1917 Enfields would've been brought into North Vietnam as well, since the NVA and Viet Cong were always hard up for weapons.