Hitler's Weapons - Vietnam War

[Music] during the vietnam war u.s forces often came across something rather interesting following combat operations against vietcong and north vietnamese army regulars naturally they expected plenty of soviet manufactured aks and other assorted cold war communist weapons but every so often weapons were found from a war thousands of miles away and over 20 years earlier what gis were finding were german weapons of the nazi period in common use by north vietnamese forces how was it that german world war ii weapons were in the hands of 1960s and 70s communist soldiers and guerrillas the answer is both surprising and fascinating during the war on the eastern front from 1941-45 the red army captured millions of german weapons from small arms to tanks and aircraft small arms in particular were warehoused and kept in storage for decades by the 1960s the soviet union's north vietnamese ally needed weapons and it was simple and economically expedient to simply empty warehouses full of captured german weapons and ship them to north vietnam alongside large quantities of soviet world war ii era weapons and more modern ak-47s one particular machine gun was sent in large numbers to the north vietnamese the german mg-34 one of the iconic world war ii weapons of hitler's armies this is the standard german army machine gun mg 34 caliber 7.92 millimeter it's a dual purpose weapon which may be used as a light or heavy machine gun depending upon the mount employed the germans also mounted on tanks and use it for any aircraft fire here it is being fired from a bipod its light machine gun mount when used on this mount it is fed from a regular 250 round box type belt container or a basket type 50 round belt container it was accurate out to 2000 yards and became a popular north vietnamese weapon for use as a light anti-aircraft machine gun particularly against u.s helicopters however the north vietnamese eventually phased the weapon out due to dwindling ammunition supplies quite a number of stg44 assault rifles were encountered by u.s troops the first mass-produced and issued assault rifle it was meant to replace the older mauser five-shot bolt-action rifle used by german forces the germans realized that most modern world war ii combat took place at closer ranges and often in urban settings where long rifles were overpowered and too long for effective use the stg44 was chambered in 7.92 millimeter courts using a 30 round box magazine the germans managed to produce them in fairly large numbers during the last year of the war and the soviets captured tens of thousands in 1945 [Music] there you go post-war use of this nazi-era weapon was extensive in the communist bloc from the 1950s the east german people's barrack police was issued with the type and czechoslovakia also used them until replaced in both nations by the ak-47 in the early to mid-1960s u.s forces encountered these rifles in vietnam originating from two shipments from europe one made by the ussr and a smaller shipment from czechoslovakia as these two nations got rid of these surplus to requirements weapons it was noted that the stg44 was only rarely seen in vietnam after 1968 as the viet cong and north vietnamese army had moved on to more modern equipment one of the most iconic and famous world war ii weapons was the mp40 machine pistol these were encountered by u.s troops in vietnam fairly regularly and indeed some were actually used by both u.s and south vietnamese forces as well the arvn the south vietnamese army used a large number of mp40s obtained from french stocks following the indo-china war thousands more were shipped to the north vietnamese by the soviets from their own vast stocks of captured world war ii examples by the late 1960s the type had been largely replaced by the ak-47 very large numbers of world war ii era mauser 98k rifles ended up in north vietnamese service the germans built 14.6 million during the war a five-shot bolt-action weapon firing the 7.92 by 57 millimeter cartridge it was an excellent weapon with good stopping power during the early phase of the vietnam war the 98k was commonly encountered by us troops and they came from several sources the french had partially equipped their own forces in indo-china with the type in the 1940s and 50s so the north vietnamese captured many thousands czechoslovakia and east germany offered surplus 98ks to vietnam as did the soviet union as well as sending 98ks all over the world to arm communist guerrillas the soviets had in fact captured between one and one and a half million of these rifles so there were plenty available in north vietnamese army and viet cong service the type was gradually replaced by the soviet sks rifle and the ak-47 because captured 98ks were of no interest to the u.s army captured examples were often retained as souvenirs by gis and imported into the u.s when they came home two examples of german pistols were encountered by u.s forces in vietnam the oldest being the mauser c96 known as the broom handle due to its distinctive grip it fired a 7.63 by 25 millimeter cartridge from a 10 round box magazine and came with a detachable wooden stock to create a carbine these weapons were common in asia due to the fact that china had imported hundreds of thousands in the 1930s to arm the nationalist army fighting against the japanese the soviets had obtained these weapons from poland in 1939 and from japanese stocks of captured examples following the short soviet far east campaign in manchuria and korea at war's end in august 1945. many thousands of mausers were offloaded on the north korean army after 1953 as the soviets helped rebuild it following the korean war and the north koreans in turn dumped these unwanted pistols onto the north vietnamese in the early 1960s the other world war ii era german handgun occasionally seen by u.s troops in vietnam was the walter p-38 but in very small numbers surprisingly the north vietnamese also had german world war ii artillery weapons the most numerous was the pak-40 anti-tank gun this 75 millimeter anti-tank gun was standard to the german army and saw action against all allied armoured types in 1955 the soviets transferred a small batch of pak-40s to north vietnam all world war ii captured examples the north vietnamese army didn't use them in action against u.s tanks instead they were dug in as coastal defense batteries on the gulf of tonkin until the type was finally retired in 1972 some of these weapons did engage u.s navy warships of namdin province in the late 1960s using soviet manufactured ammunition north vietnam also received from the soviet union captured examples of one of the most feared german weapons of world war ii the flak 88 noted as a tank killer under vietnamese control they use them in their original role of anti-aircraft defense firing them at u.s jets in the early 1960s thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also 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Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 453,928

Keywords: Mark Felton, Vietnam War, MG-34, MP-40, StG-44, Mauser 98K

Id: M7HrPR_eyWc

Length: 9min 36sec (576 seconds)

Published: Wed May 18 2022