16-084 M14 picture of the Day

[Mark in Rochester]

Bull's Eye - U.S. Marine PFC. Jerry D. Goff of St. Louis MO. examines a split barrel of his M-14 rifle which was hit square in the bore by Viet Cong sniper bullet during exchange of fire with guerrillas at My Song, south of DaNang. Goff was slightly wounded in the face by the freak occurrence.

Information

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[ed skeels]

Purple Heart for the 14?
That is bizarre!
Ed

[Cass]

Wow, that would make you reflect on things...

[CINDERS]

I would say the M-14 was KIA, betcha that gave him a jolt......

[fjruple]

It looks like a rifle that had a cleaning patch stuck in the end of the barrel.

--fjruple

[Tom in N.J.]

Junk in the flash hider. My buddy Jim got to pay for a M14 that he pushed the muzzle into the ground prior to live fire at Ft. Bragg.

[ed skeels]

I'm thinking "mechanical" failure.
Can't imagine hider shattering/disappearing from a bullet strike, front force.
But you never know.
Ed

[Bob Womack]

Wing Commander Robert Sanford Tuck's last shot of WWII was a down-the-throat shot at a German anti-aircraft mount that got him first. He made a hard landing right in front of the mount and was dragged out by a bunch of enraged German soldiers who dragged him over to the destroyed mount and prepared to hang him. What saved him was that he'd sent one of his 20mm rounds right up the pipe of the 88mm AA gun, splitting it like this, like a banana, which inexplicably cracked up the German soldiers when they saw it.

Bob

[CINDERS]

That he did he was faced with a quad 20mm spitting death at him as he came in for a crash landing on a dead engine, when he got out from his cockpit the Germans came running at him after putting a rifle round through the Spifire's fuselage as he stood there, he thought they were going to kill him instead they took him over to the AA gun hooting and laughing patting him on the back whilst clambering over their dead and shattered comrades on the piece saying "Goot shot Englander".
Robert could not understand the detachment the Germans had for the dead crew of the gun that his accurate fire had literally shredded the life out of them.

Fly for your life is an awesome read in fact Tuck like Bader and Al Deere should not have been alive as he himself was involved in a mid air collision whilst training and was trapped in his spinning aircraft which was a bi-plane by the wings folded over the cockpit stopping him from baling out but the spin eventually got rid of the wings allowing him to get out but not before one of the bracing wires which were knife edged whipped across his Rt side of his face laying it open it just missed his Rt eye.
When he landed he poked his finger into his mouth through the flayed flesh felt a wobbly molar so grabbed it through his cheek and pulled it out.
Another amazing feat was he decided to fly alone out across the channel was at low altitude in his Hurricane when he was bounced by 3 ME-109's in his words all was good until his world came to a violent noisey end when cannon shells started crashing into his cockpit "You bloody fool Robert he shouted to himself, alone and low down." in the melee he shot 2 down but had his reflector gun sight smashed the 3rd one was a head on affair each firing at each other.
With no gun sight Robert managed after checking his turn and bank as he always did before opening up landed a good amount of rounds into the approaching enemy aircraft, they both turned from each other heading for home the last Robert saw of that 109 was low and smoking heading for France.
Now that is a man who knew how to fly, imagine nice and sunny calm as you please then 20mm and 7.92 rounds crashing into your aircraft, he did not panic but took them on 3-1 odds and beat them not bad I say not bad at all.....

Post Script ~ Sorry Bob W not trying to be a kill joy but it was a quad 20mm flak gun he silenced I rechecked the book Fly for your life By Larry Forrester Page 308 has the relevant info on his capture and the event in bursting the barrel on the flak gun.

[Mark in Rochester]

Wing Commander Roland Robert Stanford Tuck DSO, DFC & Two Bars, AFC (1 July 1916 – 5 May 1987) was a British fighter pilot and test pilot. Tuck joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1935 and first engaged in combat during the Battle of France, over Dunkirk, claiming his first victories. In September 1940 he was promoted to squadron leader and commanded a Hawker Hurricane squadron. In 1941–1942, Tuck participated in fighter sweeps over northern France. On 28 January 1942, he was hit by anti-aircraft fire, was forced to land in France, and was taken prisoner. At the time of his capture, Tuck had claimed 29 enemy aircraft destroyed, two shared destroyed, six probably destroyed, six damaged and one shared damaged.

Distinguished Service Order
Distinguished Flying Cross & Two Bars
Air Force Cross
Distinguished Flying Cross (United States)