I'm building a Dragon quad 50 for a Vietnam diorama. I want to do it right but the pictures look different. I also want to build some gun trucks with the quad 50 too.

First they don't use the big WWII ammo boxes. We all know that.

In the back of the unit there is a difference between the WWII-Korean war version and the Vietnam version. My guess is they upgraded the electronics and other things on the generator. I know a little about that stuff, I did work on them and know AC/DC theory. I also ran the M577 while in the Army.

So to make sure I try to build it as accurate as I can does anybody have any information or pictures of the back of the M55 in Vietnam. The only ones I can find are too small to see the details.

I figure they had to upgrade the units with solid state electronics and better filters and other things that were coming out for those types units in the 1960s. Better carburetors and such. They probably kept the same little motor and generator, they had to change the wiring after 20 years I would think. I have worked on guitar amplifiers from the 1950s and 1960s and have seen the difference. Slowly everything turned solid state and vacuum tubes disappeared.

So if anybody has any pictures or a manual I would appreciate it, thanks

Hi

Here are two build logs that should be worth the look :

http://www.guntruck.com/Nancy.html

http://www.vietnam.net.pl/M55en.htm

I've seen various layout for the M55 quad mount in Vietnam pics : sometimes it's like the WW2 variant, sometimes there's a box added behind the gunner seat, and sometimes there's an armor plate blocking the view ...

Anyway here's the link to a 1953 TM for the M55 quad mount :

http://www.vietnam.net.pl/M45quad.pdf

You can also check out WarWheels.net for some gun trucks replicas that look quite accurate :

http://www.warwheels.net/M35A1QuadGuntruckINDEX.html

HTH

H.P.

Here are two period pics that should interest you (from Jerzy Krzemiński's Vietnam Guntrucks album )





Even more useful pics in this other album :

https://picasaweb.google.com/100891020754889610478/GuntrucksInVietnamII?noredirect=1#

H.P.

Thank you guys.

I have his stuff and the gun truck books, dummy me I didn't think to look in them. I was missing those pictures but have almost everything else.

By those pictures it looks like it was all rigged using ammo cans. That sure is a lot easier.

I did an op on LZ West back in January 1969, and we had a quad fifty parked right next door. The generator was about fifteen feet off to the rear. Don't remember a lot about the gun itself, even though I helped them shoot it a few times. We also had a brand new gun truck delivered to us at Thien Phouc, but it only lasted about a day and a half. That one had the generator attached to the frame work like the photo. The truck was CBL'd and we brought in a heavy lift CH46, and removed the gun from it. Best I can remember was that the generator stayed attached to the framework when we relayed it ontop a concrete bunker. I stayed as far from it as I could as it was an incomming magnet.

Look on the FSM website for Pawl Vodnik's build, and it's the best I've ever seen for a non truck mounted gun. Pawl has his own website, but have no link to it.
gary

Having some experience with Army generators, I was a driver for a M577 como vehicle. Part of our job was to service the generator.

It looks like there is a shroud over the belt that the older models didn't have. The small cylinder type gas tank was removed and a square one put on the far right side.

The other big box could be the gauges like a volt-ohm meter which I knew they had and some other stuff. That big tube thing on the left side could be an oil reservoir. I don't know if these thing were two stroke or four stroke engines. I have to read that manual.

I do have to add those boxes at least and some wiring. Right now I'm working on using 4X 20mm cans for the 50 cal ammo.

The next one I build should be better as I learn more.

I am also looking for M45 quad .50 info, but earlier in Vietnam, at Dien Bien Phu. I have several photos Ive found on the net of M45s of the period and of one of the remaining M45 hulks still at DBP. What I'm looking for is anything on how the four units at the fortress were sited during the battle I want to put together a little vignette with the Kirin M45/M55 as it would have been at DBP.

If nothing shows up, I do have enough photos of the battle to make something good up, but if I can get any additional information it will help me recreate one of the pieces just that much better.

Even locations of the units on a map of the valley will help me lay out nearby objects for the vignette, so if you have any information at all on where these four units were located at any point during the battle, I'd be very happy to see it.

Thanks.

Paul

Is it the one you're talking about ?



According to this thread (and providing it hasn't been moved since 1954 ) :
http://www.arrse.co.uk/military-history-militaria/169862-dien-bien-phu-anti-aircraft-gun.html

it is only a few hundred metres from General de Castries' command bunker near the Bailey bridge which was the only bridge across the Son River...

H.P.

Here's another DBP view :



H.P.

Yeah, it's the same mount as this one:



but as you can see, since the photo above the area has been cleaned up, the mount painted and turned around about 180 degrees.

I had found a similar photo anopther time with text that said that the mount had been moved to this location after the war. Which is kinda why I'm asking if people knew where the Quads were sited.

Paul

So I did a little more digging and asking around & it turns out I had the info I wanted in my own collection of references!

I have the book "Hell in a Very Small Palce" and I had thought that the info wasn't in there, but I took another look and lo & behold, there are two references to the locations of the quad 50s.

A map on page 120 (of my edition) shows one section of 50s in Dominique 4 (also known as "Sparrowhawk") at the SE corner of the airstrip and the other section further south at Juno 4 on the west side of the river. A War Establishment table at the back of the book confirms the Dominique 4 location but places the second section at Huguette 1, on the west edge of the airstrip about half way down the strip. This make sense from a classical disposition point of view as the two units would be mutually supporting and cover both sides of the critical airstrip. The Hugette positions became increasingly untenable through late March-early April, so perhaps they were moved further south to the Juno positions.

Neither position is that close to the Bailey Bridge. Sparrowhalw is about a quarter mile to the north, Juno about 3/4 mile to the south and Huguette 1 about 1.5 miles away to the NW across the old airstrip. So the remaining M55 hulk must have been moved to the present position.

I've been unable to find any photos of either specific positon (Sparrowhawk, Huguette or Juno) but maps seem to indicate Sparrowhawk was on a slight rise or hullock, so that will be my eventual setting for the unit with lots of WW I -like trenches & dugouts all around. SHuold have lots of "atmosphere" (as in pretty darned depressing) when I'm finished with it.

Paul