Vietnam War Items

[EODGUY]

Had a member ask me to submit photos of what I had from Vietnam. Truthfully it isn't much. The left hand grenade in the first photo has a plastic body. The silver one next to it is cast aluminum. The second photo is flanked by a Ballantine beer can and a CS grenade that I interted and can tell you that it was very potent CS. Photo 3 has to small stick grenades above the pouch that they were found in. On the right is another larger pouch. Photo 4 is the Mother of All Stick Grenades, or maybe more correctly the Mama-san of All Stick Grenades. The body is 7 inches high and 4 3/4" in diameter. Not sure if this was meant to be thrown or implaced as a mine with no delay in the pull friction fuze. Throwing it would have been a challenge. I put an M61 next to it for comparison.
Next is a very crude antipersonnel mine. Finally an improvised firing device made from two 7.62x51mm 1966 dated cartridge cases and a homemade spring loaded firing pin. Like I said, it isn't much compared to what others have.

 

[Jolly Green]

Had a member ask me to submit photos of what I had from Vietnam. Truthfully it isn't much.

Yeah right.
If that "isn't much" then I'm Brad Pit.
Thanks a whole bunch for sharing that with us. I for one am very impressed.

 

[V40]

Great photos! The one you are referring to is indeed a Booby trap and uses a pull sting, friction igniter. The NVA recieved their grenades from mostly Russia back then. They also had a grenade made by North Korea. These were a little more reliable.

EOD, I am very jealous of your collection and I thank you for showing this to all.

Just FYI: The NVA did not get along at all with their VC comrades down south. They were a peasent army which became almost completely destroyed in the field during TET 68. The NVA could stay and had all the man power they needed. The also had a few countries that supported them too. Advisors from China, Russia and Cuba. Nurses from East Germmany and Russia. Grenades and RPGs from Bulgaria, Czecoslavia, and North Korea. Grenades that really worked were from North Korea and Russia. Ammunition came from every country in the Communist Warsaw Pact. Yugoslavia did send somthing to assist the NVA but I cannot remember what it was? So you see, this was definately a Commie Affair.

Anybody else here have any items from the Vietnam War?


Again thanks EOD

V40

 

[V40]

One other item. The one you have that is aluminum do you have a guess as to why that one has a real crazy pull pin?

If not I may know why.

V40

 

[GTR003121]

Nice grouping of items! Well put Jolly!

 

[EODGUY]

Thanks for the comments. I have seen collections with ten-fold the number of items so I am a little humble. As for the wire on the aluminum grenade, I have always considered two possibilities. The first being the safest is that since this was more of a blast grenade given aluminum fragments, although dangerous, do not have the mass/velocity/range of steel, etc., that this was intended for booby trap emplacement and the loop was to attach a trip/pull wire to the safety pin. The other not so safe rason, and yet the one I lean towards, is that the loop was used to hang the grenade from a belt to carry it. We did encounter some bodies with grenades hung off them in similar fashion.

 

[alan.military]

Excellent collection of Vietnam era grenades, thanks for sharing.

 

[Trenchwarfare]

Awsome collection. Nothing humble about that assortment. Like I always say: "There are no small collections, only larger ones."

 

[V40]

They were used on big board ! The board is usualy 1/4 to 1/2 of the thickness of that board. The NVA were to assaut a forward defense line fro a Raor wire and sandgbags. On his person he either wore nothing or just a pair of shoes. But he did carry a board afixed to him on the outside. On the outside he had a string of grenades placed on the board, usually around 4 wide and six deep. He used that type of firing pin to just be able to take one of the board and throw it. In other words he ran up and down the line throwing grenades from his board.

I don't have any photo of what it look like just a drawing.

Hope this helps some,

Regards V40
Mark

 

[EODGUY]

Thanks Mark. Never heard that or saw that in country, but they didn't do the same thing throughout the country so that is not unusual.

 

[moondoggy]

Very Nice Collection! Some of those look like the ones in the Emering book. Here are some items that I have come across. This stuff is not easy to find.