Last night on the History Channel was a program called "Big Rigs of Combat"
with 2 1 hour programs. The first "Tanks" was ok .
The second "Jeeps" had 2 main "experts" , General Donn Starry, former
commander of TRADOC and Dan Janquitto 'Historian' who was driving and
explained a Willy's MB. It covered the "unsuccessful GPA" and had about 30
seconds of the "Roto Buggy" with markings (from back of vehicle to front)
the letter 'P' in a thin lined circle then a commonwealth 'Roundel (sp?)'
maybe a yellow outer circle then blue then white with a dot in the center
( a guess since it's black and white) and then 'B 415' just behind
passenger door, in flight under tow from the ground. Looked like a roto gyro
setup with 2 bladed rotor on top.
Then hit on the SAS jeeps ("glamorized by the 1960's TV show Rat
Patrol") which could fire "thousands of rounds per minute from .50 caliber
Browning and twin Vickers machine guns".
They show a MB or GPW converted to carry 4 stretchers and call it an
M170 and then an M38A1C with recoilless rifle and call it an M38. Gen.
Starry relates how he and his driver wrecked 7 M38's during one German
winter because they were "so unstable and had such a high center of
gravity". They skip the M38A1 completely and go to the M151 in mid 60's.
These vehicles worsened the jeeps tendency to roll over according to the
program. Some really neat footage of army tests trashing M151's with roll
overs and even end over end cartwheels with crash dummies (I hope!).
Then segue to the HMMWV and "Expert" Todd Eberhard 'Private Hummer
Owner'. 2 feet wider and 3 feet longer and sat twice as high than a Jeep. It
can "even" drive under water, which a jeep can't do! It can be dropped by
parachute or LAPES'd which a jeep can't. Our expert, Todd, relates how
during the Persian Gulf war how a Marine unit guarding a supply depot held
off an Iraqi attack with just their M16's and a couple of M60's mounted on a
couple of HMMWV's and using these weapons held off the Iraqi's until the Air
Force "Finally" arrived. "These vehicles held it off (the attack)...". I
guess we are left to draw the conclusion that "just" the USMC or if the
M60's were on M151A2's would not have made a difference. The HMMWV's were
the saviors ( retch...gag). Todd then tells of the "game" the troops played
there of trying to get the HMMWV stuck in the bogs there. Nobody could ever
get one stuck, says Todd!!!!!
Lots of nice film I've never seen before and Dan Janquitto is
knowledgeable and Gen. Starry is quoted with the same quote used in the
"Tanks" which was about the 2nd CAV Abrahms but used here to imply the HMMWV
won the war. But Todd, jeeessshhhhh, get me an air sickness bag....
Ron
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Aug 07 2001 - 09:34:11 PDT