APERS Munitions Producers

[Dragontooth]

Gentlemen,

i do sincerely hope that this is the right forum to ask this question. hopefully i am not violating any regulations here...

interest: antipersonnel weapons used in the vietnam war by the US military, more specifically submunitions, napalm, agent orange, land mines, etc. basically anything other than standard bullets.

my interest is somewhat complicated because i am looking for a good overview of which companies produced which APERS weapons.

for example whirlpool made the flechettes, honeywell some submunitions. but i need a good overview of who produced what, where (in which plant) and when in what quantitiy.

THANK YOU! to anyone who can recommend me a book? PDF?
dave

 

[Dragontooth]

weekend bump.
you guys stumped? :wink:

 

[US-Subs]

You are asking for a simple answer to a complicated question. To a certain extent, everyone got involved during Viet Nam, the list of producers was immense. Whirlpool produced some flechettes, but not nearly all. Submunitions were made by a wide variety of manufacturers, Aerojet, Honeywell, Chamberlain, etc. The same goes for the chemicals/napalm and such. Dow was heavily involved, but far from alone. The list would be far from simple.

Most collectors concentrate on the delivery systems, not so much on the manufacturers. There are a few people that specialize in this area however. Try the membership listing in the IAA, it gives specialities. Look for someone that specializes in manufacturer's codes. There used to be a gentleman by the name of Kass that had a significant collection of info in this area, don't know if he's still in the game or not. Good luck.

 

[ordnance]

US-Subs is correct about the interests of most collectors here but there actually is a book that would help your search. And I have a copy, though haven't seen it for several years. Unfortunately, it can't be found at the moment so I cannot give you any basic information like title or publisher.

It is a thin book with red covers that was printed during the Vietnam war by people in the anti-war movement. It was supposed to be an expose of manufacturers involved in munitions production for the war. I recall a lot of odd companies listed that I hadn't heard of before seeing them detailed in this book. I believe it was largely compiled by going through DOD contract files at that time. Today, most details of similar contracts are available Online but it was much harder to get this kind of information 40 years ago.

When I first saw a copy, my initial thought was it was produced on a shoestring budget, perhaps self-published and printed before such things were as popular as today. So I don't think it was widely distributed. Until it turns up in my storage or jogs someone else's memory, I'm afraid that's all I can offer. Will keep looking and post details when found.

 

[Dragontooth]

well, that is a good start...thanks.
Ordnance, please IM me, ASAP on the name of the book.
I am open for any more hints/links/books.

cheers,
dave

 

[US-Subs]

In line with what Ordnance said, try SIPRI. They are an NGO that does a lot of tracking, and published some good lists on submunitions, etc that I used as references for many years. They have a listing of past publications available somewhere and have doubtless tracked what you are looking for.

My library is still in transit, if you cannot find any contact info on the web let me know and I'll pull up an e-mail for a senior researcher I know there.