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Top 5 Frankenstein Combat Machines of Vietnam War | Unbelievable true stories | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Top 5 Frankenstein Combat Machines of Vietnam War
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The Vietnam War spurred American forces to develop highly unconventional and often improvised combat vehicles, born from necessity and ingenuity, to overcome battlefield challenges and enhance survivability.
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War breeds monsters. And in the jungles
of Vietnam, American ingenuity and
desperation gave birth to some of the
strangest combat vehicles ever to roll,
float, or fly across a battlefield.
Today, we're taking a look at five of
them. Let's
begin. Number one, gun trucks. It's 1967
and your supply convoy is getting
hammered by Vietkong ambushes along
Highway 19. The brass hasn't given you
enough firepower, so what do you do? You
grab a wrench and create a monster.
That's exactly what the drivers of the
Army Transportation Corps did when they
transformed ordinary M35 so-called juice
and a half and M54 5-tonon cargo trucks
into rolling fortresses. These gun
trucks were born in makeshift field
workshops where soldiers welded on steel
plates salvaged from destroyed vehicles,
downed helicopters, and anything else
they could scr up. They had to
tactically borrow, another way to say
steel, everything they needed to protect
themselves and their convoys. If you're
wondering why gun trucks had to do this
instead of just using armored vehicles
or tanks, the answer's simple. Early in
the war, there just weren't enough of
them. Most armor was tied up with
infantry units or in other regions.
Convoys were soft targets driving
through terrain just ideal for ambushes,
and the troops driving them were left to
figure it out themselves. The first
versions of gun trucks might have had
just a single M60 machine gun mounted on
a pedestal, but crews quickly learned
that more was better. Soon, these
Frankenstein vehicles were bristling
with 50 caliber machine guns,
twin-mounted M60s, and even M134
miniguns or the monstrous M55 Quad50,
originally designed for anti-aircraft
use. The armor was enough to stop small
arms fire, but they were still
vulnerable to RPGs, mines, and
especially hand grenades since most had
open tops. This happened in the gun
truck Brutus when Sergeant Larry Dah
threw himself on a grenade that landed
inside during an ambush, sacrificing his
life to save the rest of the crew. He
was postuously awarded the Medal of
Honor for his bravery. To protect
themselves against mines, crews lined
the floors with sandbags or any Kevlar
blankets they could find. Even damaged
M113 armored personnel carriers were
given new life. Stripped of everything
but their armored hulls and loaded onto
truck beds. The armored shell and truck
created a kind of hybrid vehicle that
surprisingly worked. Each truck became a
unique creation built by its crew, often
with a cool nickname painted on the
side, like the Executioner,
Satisfaction, or Hell's Wench. Crews
took pride in their trucks and their
firepower setups, and they developed a
tight bond both with the machine and
each other. Gun trucks weren't
invincible, however, but by 1970, they
had helped cut convoy losses by around
60%. Not bad for a bunch of motorpool
mechanics with welding torches, scrap
metal, and a whole lot of attitude. Now
you'll see what happens when you give
some sailors a bunch of speedboats and
heavy weapons. Number two, PBR, patrol
boat river. The rivers of Vietnam were
the highways of the Mikong Delta, and
they were deadly for many reasons.
Unlike our gun trucks, the PBR was
actually factory designed by United Boat
Builders specifically for the Brownwater
Navy in Vietnam. But that doesn't make
it any less of a Frankenstein creation.
It was a strange mashup of a commercial
speedboat hull, twin jacuzzi jet drives,
and of course, way more firepower than
you'd expect from something its size.
With a draft of only 9 in, these boats
could skim over barely submerged
sandbarss and slip through tight jungle
waterways that other vessels wouldn't
dare approach. Their twin engines pushed
them to over 28 knots. And since they
used water jet propulsion instead of
propellers, they could avoid snags from
roots or debris and quickly pivot for
faster maneuvering in ambush zones. The
standard armament was twin 50 caliber
machine guns mounted in a forward gun
tub, a pintlemounted M60, an M79 grenade
launcher for shoreline threats, and
sometimes even a 20 mm cannon in the
rear. This provided them with 360°
coverage with weapons able to fire in
all directions. But they weren't built
for comfort or safety. Crewed by just
four or five men, PBRs had fiberglass
hulls that wouldn't stop a rifle round,
let alone an RPG. They had no real armor
and their only defense was speed and
overwhelming aggression. Crews would
fire on the move, performing fast
strafing runs on hidden Vietkong
ambushes along the shoreline. An
interesting tactic used by PBR crews was
the so-called revolving the boat. They
would circle at high speed with all
weapons firing outward, creating a
moving wall of fire to break out of
river ambushes. PBRs were crucial for
controlling the river systems, running
patrols, chasing smugglers, and
inserting SEAL teams deep into contested
areas. They were also one of the most
frequently ambushed platforms in the
war, constantly fired upon from hidden
shoreline positions. Now going back to
land, where our next creation started as
a battlefield taxi, but got turned into
a combat vehicle with more add-ons than
a Christmas tree. Number three, M113 APC
variants. If the Vietnam War had a Swiss
Army knife, it would be the M113 armored
personnel carrier. This aluminum box on
tracks started its life as a simple
battlefield taxi designed to shuttle
infantry through danger zones. But war
had other plans. The standard version
carried 11 troops plus a crew of two
with a single 50 caliber machine gun
mounted on top with no protection at all
for the gunner. That surprisingly proved
to be a massive problem in real combat.
So once again, soldiers got to work
making improvised upgrades. The armored
personnel carrier was then turned into
an armored cavalry assault vehicle, a
modified M113 with a gunshield for the
50, and two additional M60 machine guns
mounted at the rear of the troop
compartment. But why stop there? The
M113's chassis turned out to be so
versatile that it became the base for a
whole family of combat vehicles. The
M106 mortar carrier swapped out infantry
for a 4.2in mortar, allowing the crew to
fire protected from inside the hull.
Then there was the M132 flamethrower
variant, capable of devastating anything
in close quarters, especially useful
against bunkers and tunnel systems.
Although it wasn't exactly the most
humane weapon in the world, if a weapon
can even be called humane. Some were
armed with 40mm automatic grenade
launchers, extra machine guns, and
bolt-on steel armor, pushing the
vehicle's weight close to double its
original 12ton baseline. But with all
that firepower came real
vulnerabilities. The M113's aluminum
armor could stop small arms fire, but
that was about it. RPGs tore through it.
Mines were even worse, and heavy machine
guns didn't have much trouble either.
Its flat, thin belly meant hitting an
anti-tank mine could turn into a very
bad day. One of the reasons it earned
the nickname aluminum coffin. Because of
that, troops often preferred to ride on
top of the vehicle rather than inside.
If a vehicle hit a mine, you'd rather be
thrown off than cooked alive inside.
Crews welded on scrap steel, packed the
floor with sandbags, and added extra
protection wherever they could. There
was also a variant armed with the M61
Vulcan 20mm rotary cannon. Originally
designed as an anti-aircraft gun, but
repurposed to rip through targets on the
ground. Despite its flaws, over 80,000
M113s were built, making it one of the
most produced armored vehicles in
history. It wasn't perfect, but it was
everywhere, and it adapted to survive.
And speaking of surviving, our next
vehicle wasn't so lucky in the long run,
but it sure left an impression. Number
four, M50 ontos. Imagine if a tank and a
porcupine had a baby. You'd get
something close to the M50 ontos. Unlike
our DIY gun trucks, the Ontos was a
factory-built nightmare rolling off
production lines in 1955. But it found
its true purpose in Vietnam, where its
compact size, just 9 ft wide, allowed it
to go places conventional tanks
couldn't. jungle trails, tight urban
streets, you name it. What made the a
true Frankenstein vehicle were the six
M40 recoilless rifles strapped to its
tiny body. Mounted in three pairs, they
were linked to a 50 caliber spotting
rifle, which fired tracer rounds with
nearly identical trajectory to the
rifles. Gunners would fire the spotter
first, and if the tracer hit, they knew
the recoilless round would follow the
same path. When multiple rifles fired at
once, the back blast was insane. It
created a danger zone for anyone within
50 m behind the vehicle. More than one
unlucky infantry man found out the hard
way not to stand behind an ontos when it
lit up. A single ontos could shatter
bunkers, ambushes, or enemy morale with
a volley from its six recoilless rifles.
But once you fired, you had to get out
of the vehicle to reload the rifles one
by one by hand in the middle of combat.
Crews usually had one man reload while
the others provided cover, but more
often they fired and then pulled back to
safety. With just 17 mm of steel armor
at its thickest point, the Enttos wasn't
made to take hits. It was made to strike
hard and get out fast because RPGs,
heavy machine guns, and mines could tear
it apart without much trouble. Still,
Marines loved it in certain roles,
especially urban fighting and bunker
busting, where its massive firepower and
small frame made it a portable ambush on
tracks. Now, moving to the air, our next
creation proves that even the Navy
couldn't resist the urge to modify their
helicopters. Number five, Seawolf
Hueies. When most people think of
helicopter gunships in Vietnam, they
picture Army Hueies with door gunners
blazing away. But the Navy took that
idea and turned it up to 11. The Seawolf
squadrons, officially known as
helicopter attack squadron light 3 or
HAL3, operated heavily modified UH1B
Hueies that were constantly upgraded and
customized in the field. These weren't
your standard slicks. They were flying
gun platforms with some of the wildest
arament configurations of the war. While
most army Hueies relied on fixed
forward-firing rockets and guns, Navy
crews mounted flexible pintlemounted
weapons that could swivel over wide
arcs. The typical loadout could include
M60s50s and automatic grenade launchers.
The most heavily armed Seawolf Huies
carried two M134 miniguns, two M60s, 14
Hydra 70 rockets, and a grenade
launcher, all packed onto the humble
Huey airframe. Of course, all that
firepower came at a cost as the added
weight pushed these helicopters to the
edge of their performance limits.
Seawolf pilots developed a tactic that
became their signature. They would
approach targets at high speed and
extremely low altitude, sometimes just
inches above the water, then use that
momentum to pop up, clearing trees,
obstacles, or ambush zones before diving
back down. Fast and unpredictable.
Seawolf Hueies flew over 120,000 combat
missions. Fired more than 8 million
rounds of ammunition and provided close
air support for Navy Seals, PBR patrol
boats, and riverine operations all
across the Mong Delta. But like all
helicopters in Vietnam, they were
vulnerable to ground fire. The Seawolves
lost 44 aircraft and 50 crewmen during
the war, and HAL3 became the most
decorated unit in the history of US
naval aviation. Some of the things we
covered here already have full videos on
the channel, so check those out if
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