Captured WW2 Weapons in Vietnam

[browningautorifle]

ejector seat rods still extended

I wonder if this is one that even though the pilot determined was unflyable, had it's own computer take over and level out after ejection...? Then belly landed after...

[mrclark303]

I looked up the report years ago and from what I can remember it was hit by AAA at low level, engines flamed out, Pilot and WSO ejected and the F4 pan caked into a rice paddy substantially complete.

Must have been quite the prize for their Soviet advisers!

The good old F4 was built like a tank!

[browningautorifle]

The good old F4 was built like a tank!

And looked like it was burning diesel when it did a run over you...

[mrclark303]

Ah, those J79's, mobile smoke stacks, but that cold war veteran is still earning it's keep across the world today.

One of the really poiniant things I kept seeing were the Helmets of the poor shot down and captured aircrew. I can't imagine what it must have been like drifting down on a parachute deep into routepack 6 with little to no hope of extraction.... terrifying.

Back to the subject at hand, I did see a few SMLE'S in official collections (WW1 British examples two), this surprised me to see such a familiar old friend so far from home.

That said, I guess Britain was responsible for French Indo China in the immediate aftermath of the war, that and the Japanese must have captured huge quantities of them in Burma and Singapore.

[Calif-Steve]

I think most of the small arms came out of Russia. We had Chinese SKS's and AK's ( my own SKS bringback was Chinese), but the WWII stuff was certainly Russian. Most looked beat and had bad bores. Corrosive ammo and no cleaning, ever. I never saw a single 8mm round, so no idea why all of the German Kar98's. They French left a pile behind, but no ammo. One VC ambush site I got to, had French 7.5mm cases all around. So somebody had a French rifle. Lots of small arms just everywhere.

[mrclark303]

so no idea why all of the German Kar98's.

I wonder, I know it was a long time ago now, but could they possibly have been ex Nationalist Chinese Mauser's, the Germans supplied large amounts of equipment to the Nationalist forces before Japan joined the Axis forces and the supply abruptly stopped!

[Paul S.]

From what I saw during 1968-69 in particular the WWII German weapons were coming from Eastern Europe via the Soviet Union, China and down the HCM from North Vietnam. A lot of the ammunition we captured also came from Eastern Europe. There was also an abundance of Soviet and Chi-Com weapons at that time too. I also remember seeing a few weapons that I was told came from North Korea as well.

[Flying10uk]

I'm not sure how abruptly Germany stopped supplying arms to Nationalist Forces in China after Japan joined the Axis powers? I did hear it suggested that Germany was surprisingly slow to stop supporting Nationalist Forces in China with arms etc after Japan joined the Axis powers and it took some effort by Japan to stop this support. How true this is I have no idea.

[mrclark303]

It would seem bizarre that there might have been a point in the war when the Allies and the Axis countries were both supplying the Nationalist Chinese!

[Flying10uk]

A similar situation could/may/nearly or did happen with Finland because in the early part of the war we (U.K.) were allied to them but they switched their allegiance to Germany. There may have been a very brief period when we were both alien to Finland?