RE: M113 APCs and Things

Thanks form bringing this up.  The KEY to remember is that an APC
(especially 
the M-113) is to keep Artillery fragments, not bullets, off of the
riders. 
 Being tracked just aids in the mobility, it does not make it a tank. 
Common 
fallacy is to treat anything with tracks as a tank.

Michael Brown
Treadhead for 20+ years

-----Original Message-----
From:	Fabet@aol.com
Sent:	Saturday, January 29, 2000 6:42 AM
To:	gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject:	Re: M113 APCs and Things

Wish I had gotten involved on this one earlier.

A 113 onl has enough armor to protect it from small arms fire for the
Vietnam
period. The Hull could generally stop .50 cal and below, but thats about
it.
Around the end of the  70's the Arm had accuall dropped the "Armored"
from
the APC nominclature for a while.

The ACAV is a kit that was added to the 113 and intended for use in
cavalry
and scout units. It consisted of an lightly armored unpowered turret
(actually litte more than a tall ring of sheet metal) and a gun sheild
for
the commander and to gun sheilds for the added M-60 MMG on the sides.
Any of
these additions could only stop small arms fire. It did'nt reduce the
carrying capacity of the vehicle at all as it had no internal components
and
weighed little. The reduced number of troops in the vehicle was the
complement prescribed for the scouts/cavalry. The kit was so popular
that
anybody who could get one equipped their track with it.

There were so many modifications done to 113s during the conflict it's
mind
blowing. There are variants that replace any of the HMGs or MMGs ith
recoiless rifles, flamethrowers, early auto grenade launchers, miniguns,
..you name it. Because the 113 was basically a steel box, if you could
weld
something to it, it as done. Other modifications included things like
aviators seats welded to the rear of the deck to serve as observation
platforms for commanders and FOs (the 557 is not seen that oftn in VN).

The Australians had a fire support version that mounted a 75mm gun in a
turret. Both the US and Aussies used varients that mounted cadi-gage
turret.
I've seen at leat one vehicle fitted with a small naval turret (HMG or
20mm -
I can't remember).

Factor variations include ambulances, bridge laers, 81mm and 4.2 "
mortar
tracks, flame throwers and probably the most usful varient , the M163
with
the Vulcan 20mm gatling gun. Although the last as intended for air
defense,
several CMHs were won using the system to defend against ground targets.

Someone mentioned the Ontos. An interesting vehicle, but not very useful
and
absolutley hated by its USMC crew. The scorpion is not much better
remembered. Of course the U.S. Army returned the M42 Duster to sevice.
It
could have been useful, but most were so badly maintained by thier
National
Guard owners they were seldom operational.

Just some comments,

Faron