Gun truck

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about improvised armored vehicles used by regular/official forces. For the same type of vehicle used by irregular/non-government forces, see Technical (vehicle). For artillery carried on trucks, see Portée (military).
M939
five-ton truck

A gun truck is an armored vehicle with one or more

improvised vehicle armor, such as scrap metal, concrete, gravel, or sandbags
, which is added to a heavy truck.

World War II

CCKW
. Note the loading ramps on both sides of the truck.
anti-tank
gun truck, WWII.

When the prospect of a

British Home Guard
.

Other British examples from the invasion-scare period were the

Bison concrete armoured lorries. Both were conventional trucks fitted with improvised armour, in the case of the Bison, a concrete fighting-compartment was carried, essentially making a mobile pillbox. The Armadillo used two walls of wood, with the space between filled with gravel. Both vehicles had poor mobility and were employed for airfield defense by the Royal Air Force.[1][2]
In the event of a surprise, airborne attack, Bisons would deploy a short distance from the key points of the airfield and probably fight from static positions,[1] positions where fixed defenses often could not be constructed as they would impede aircraft movement during day–to–day operations. The Armadillo's mobility, while poor, was better than the Bison's and it was intended they would take on a mobile role similar to a conventional armoured vehicle.[2]

During the war in North Africa all contenders made extensive use of portees and gun trucks. In particular, the Italians adapted and used seven gun trucks based on heavy trucks Fiat 634 and equipped with an 102/35 su Fiat 634N anti-aircraft gun in 1941-1942; initially intended for anti-ship and anti-air defense, they proved to be very effective against British tanks. Another sixteen gun trucks, still between 1941 and 1942, were based on heavy trucks Lancia 3Ro mounting a 100/17 with full rotation in the back. In 1942 the 90/53 on Lancia 3Ro entered service, still based on the same truck as the previous one, but equipped with the excellent Cannone da 90/53, dual role high velocity gun; 30 were produced in 1942, another 90 were built on a different chassis as 90/53 on Breda 52. The 75/27 CK on Ceirano 50 CMA was instead already produced during the late 1920s to provide anti-aircraft support to the divisions, but by 1939 it was completely outdated, both in terms of mobility and firepower.[3] In general these gun trucks proved to be quicker to position and open fire than normal artillery and they were valid if well hidden and protected, but the excessive height and mediocre mobility always remained major limitations. Numerous normal trucks such as the SPA Dovunque 35, the Fiat-SPA 38R and the SPA AS.37 were equipped with an autocannon Breda 20/65 mod.35 for the protection of convoys. Likewise, many captured enemy vehicles, for example the Ford F15A, were equipped with the same weapon. Another English vehicle, the light truck Morris CS8, was equipped with a 65/17 howitzer, about 30 were fitted.[4] There were then numerous vehicles equipped with the 47/32 gun: the scout vehicles SPA-Viberti AS.42, the Fiat-SPA AS43 and the light truck SPA AS.37.[5]

Vietnam War

During the

Vietcong (VC) guerrilla groups, who often sprung ambushes
in remote areas.

One unit that often fell victim to such attacks was the 8th Transportation Group, based in Qui Nhon. Two dangerous stretches of Route 19 between Qui Nhon and Pleiku became the VC's favorite kill zones, the "Devil's Hairpin" in An Khe Pass and "Ambush Alley" below Mang Yang Pass as incidents occurred there on an almost daily basis.[6]

Providing security for convoys proved virtually impossible, as the

Military Police units whose task it was did not have the manpower or equipment to secure the whole highway. Other military combat units only controlled the stretch of road within their designated checkpoints and could serve as a reaction force; so for much of the way, it fell onto the transport units to provide themselves immediate security. At first, they did this with armed jeeps, but these rapidly proved inadequate in the face of improved VC and North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam
weaponry and tactics.

Eve of Destruction in the Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis

On September 2, 1967, a particularly devastating attack killed seven drivers, wounded 17 and destroyed or damaged 30 trucks. To remedy the obvious vulnerability of the supply convoys, a "hardened convoy" concept was implemented, protected by a new type of security vehicle. This gun truck, as it became known, was based on the

two-and-a-half-ton cargo truck, protected by a barrier of sandbags, and armed with two M60 machine guns
. Hardened convoys were smaller than previously, being composed of only 100 trucks, and their security detail was increased until there was one gun truck for every 10 transport trucks.

In the event of an ambush, their role was to drive into the kill zone during the first few minutes of the attack, and saturate the attackers with their firepower. Early designs proved flawed, as the sandbag protections quickly became waterlogged in the frequent rains, weighing down the whole vehicle. They were later replaced with ad hoc steel armor plating, salvaged from scrap yards. The crew consisted of a driver, two gunners, a non-commissioned officer in charge (NCOIC), and sometimes a grenadier armed with an M79 grenade launcher. In October 1968, the factory-made hardening kits arrived to replace the sandbag and wood gun trucks.[7]

On November 24, 1967, during an engagement in "Ambush Alley", a group of gun trucks managed to thwart an ambush. The convoy lost six transport trucks and four gun trucks damaged or destroyed, and several drivers were killed and wounded, but the VC lost 41 killed and were forced to withdraw. This was the first ambush against gun trucks.[6]

Despite the increased security, transportation units still came under attack, forcing the gun truck units to improve the design of their vehicles. The two-and-a-half-ton trucks were underpowered, and the addition of armor and weapons slowed them down, leading to their replacement by M39 series 5-ton 6×6 trucks that formed the basis for larger gun trucks. The improvised nature of these vehicles meant they varied considerably in appearance. They were given colourful nicknames such as "Ace of Spades", "Deuce is Wild", "Cold Sweat", "Iron Butterfly" or "Pandemonium" that were often painted on the sides in large letters.

Their armament consisted of various combinations of weapons including M60s,

quadmount .50 cal. machine guns were also used until 1969 when the truck companies had three to six gun trucks each.[8]

Eve of Destruction from above.

The gun truck design evolved with a four-sided gun box bolted on the outside of the truck bed, then an inner steel wall was added, with a space between each layer, to provide protection against

anti-tank rockets. Because of the shortage of steel kits, the M113 armoured personnel carrier hulls were mounted on the bed of a five-ton truck, thus providing all-round protection for the crew. The last design of gun box had the steel wall mounted inside the bed of the truck instead of outside.[9]
Despite their aggressive names, gun trucks were strictly defensive weapons, being used only for convoy escort and perimeter defense duties.

Gun trucks suffered from several drawbacks. The added weight of armour, weapons and ammunition increased fuel consumption, as well as creating maintenance problems and reducing the durability of the truck frames. Also, the personnel assigned as crew to the security vehicles were no longer available for transport duties, thus reducing the lift capacity of each unit. Despite this, they were generally regarded as a success.[10]

In all, an estimated 300 to 400 trucks were transformed in this way.[10] Senior officers saw the 5-ton gun truck as a temporary solution until enough V-100 armored cars arrived. However, by 1970 it became obvious to all - except the Military Police - that the V-100 was a death trap if the armor was penetrated. Furthermore, the V-100 had problems with its power train. So the gun trucks continued to serve until the last American truck company was inactivated in South Vietnam in 1972. With the end of the Vietnam War, the need for such vehicles disappeared and most were either scrapped or returned to cargo carrying. One truck, an M54 named by its crew "Eve of Destruction," was brought back intact and is on display at the Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, Virginia.

Iraq War

A Hunter gun truck, Iron Horse, damaged by an IED in Iraq. All the crew members survived.
M1114 Military light utility vehicle
(250th TC/1-34BCT) on mission in Nasiriyah, Iraq

During the

Iraqi insurgents
begin attacking convoys with regularity, which led to the re-invention of the gun truck. The truck units initially used sandbags and plywood as outlined in FM 55-30, but experienced the same problems as encountered in Vietnam.

By definition a gun truck was any wheeled vehicle with a crew-served weapon regardless of whether it had any armor or not. Initially, the truck drivers mounted armor and machine guns on any and every wheeled vehicle in their inventory but settled on two primary platforms, the

HMMWV. The Palletized Load Systems were also converted to gun trucks because fully loaded with cargo they could not keep up with the other trucks. The minimum requirement for gun truck escort was two gun trucks and each unit experimented with different gun truck designs and procedures.[12]

On April 5, 2004, the cleric

13th Corps Support Command, standardized the ratio of gun trucks per convoy and convoys should not exceed 30 vehicles.[13]

In April 2004, Leaders of the US Army Reserve 375th Transportation Group and the 812th Transportation Battalion formed a special provisional unit - the 518th Transportation Company called "Gun Truck" Company. Based in Camp Navistar (located on the Kuwait side of the border Near Safwan, Iraq), this company acquired 35

M939 five-ton trucks, and modified them with improvised armor and .50 calibre machine-guns. With many Reserve and National Guard combat arms units already converting and performing Convoy Security Escort service while deployed to Iraq, as companies arrived to perform the convoy security mission, the 7th Transportation Group disbanded the unit in April, 2005.[14]

The use of improvised fighting vehicles, protected by the so-called "

Hillbilly armor", quickly became a political issue, with the Bush administration coming under criticism for having sent the U.S. military to fight without adequate equipment.[15] The idea of producing a standardised gun truck was instigated by Representative Duncan Hunter (R.-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee
, despite the reluctance of some Army superior officers.

Developed with the help of Vietnam veterans by the

ballistic glass, while the armament consisted of two to four heavy machine-guns.[16]

The first prototype was completed in March 2004, and shipped to Iraq in July 2004, after which production began at a slow rate, with 35 units in service by July 2005. As of September 2007, a total of 100 kits had been produced for Iraq, and 18 for use in Afghanistan.[17] The "Hunter boxes" apparently proved popular with U.S. troops, but were criticized by senior officers for their lack of overhead protection, and for being top-heavy. However, few cases exist to prove their doubts in this equipment.[18]

Fully armored

Lee Ann Hester) on March 20, 2005, all vehicles on the road had some form of armor whether improvised or factory built. After suffering high losses during this ambush, with no Americans killed, the insurgents turned to IEDs as their primary weapon of choice.[19]

The appearance of the

explosively formed projectile required additional fragmentary armor added to the M1114s, which over-taxed their power trains and suspension systems. The improved M1151 Up-armored HMMWV became the escort platform of choice along with the 5-ton gun trucks until the MRAPs
began replacing them in 2008. The Heavy Equipment Transporter proved to be the most survivable vehicle on the road because of its height, so Kuwait-based units began sending them out ahead of the convoy looking for IEDs.

The Army Transportation Museum preserved several examples of Iraq and Afghanistan gun trucks. It has a Hill Billy armor 5-ton gun truck from Iraq, HMMWV with prototype add-on-armor kit, M1114 that survived an IED blast in Afghanistan, a LLNL 5-ton gun truck "Ace of Spades" from Iraq, two MRAPs, a M915 and Heavy Equipment Transporter with cab armor kits from Iraq, and a "Frankenstein" cab armor kit for the M939 5-ton truck. The Airman Heritage Museum also preserved a Hill Billy armor 5-ton gun truck from Iraq. The 1st Cavalry Museum brought back the last MRAP of the last convoy to cross the border from Iraq.

Colombia

The

M2 heavy machine guns. Other models of trucks are modified to similar specification. These gun trucks are used for convoy protection and checkpoints against the guerrillas.[citation needed
]

Similar vehicles

Polish Star 266 gun truck with ZU-23-2 auto cannon (Hibneryt).
  • During the Easter Rising in 1916, the British Army used a truck fitted with an armoured body. This was constructed from the smokeboxes of several steam locomotives. Gun-slits were cut in the body to allow troops to fire out. Painted black, dummy gun-slits were also applied to confuse snipers.
  • During the Soviet–Afghan War, Soviet convoys were frequently ambushed by Afghan mujahideen guerillas. The rebel groups often sited their ambush parties on surrounding heights, above the maximum elevation of the main weapons of the tanks and APCs employed as convoy escorts. As a stop-gap solution to this problem, the Soviets fitted twin-barrelled 23 mm ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft guns onto Kamaz trucks, with tents to camouflage the armaments. These vehicles possessed extreme firepower, but they lacked armour, and the crew were exposed to machine-gun and small-arms fire.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Thornycroft Bison Concrete Armoured Lorry". Bovington Tank Museum. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 6 February 2010.
  2. ^ a b The National Archives: AIR 2/7212 Armadillos: improved fighting vehicles for airfield defence
  3. ^ Cappellano, Filippo (December 2005). "Autocannoni e portees in africa settentrionale". Storia Militare (147): 4–9.
  4. ^ Cappellano, Filippo (December 2005). "Autocannoni e portees in africa settentrionale". Storia Militare (147): 10–13.
  5. ^ Cappellano, Filippo (December 2005). "Autocannoni e portees in africa settentrionale". Storia Militare (147): 10–11.
  6. ^ a b Ballard, Larry A. "Guntrucks of Ambush Alley". University of Scranton Academic Web Server. Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  7. ^ Richard E. Killblane, Circle the Wagons; The History of US Convoy Security, Combat Studies Institute, 2006
  8. ^ Richard E. Killblane, Convoy Ambush Case Studies Vol. I, Korea and Vietnam, US Army Transportation School, 2014
  9. ^ Killblane, Convoy Ambush Case Studies Vol. I
  10. ^ a b Gardiner, Paul S (July–August 2003). "Gun Trucks: Genuine Examples of American Ingenuity". Army Logistician. Archived from the original on 2007-11-02. Retrieved 2007-10-12.
  11. ^ "Gun trucks". GlobalSecurity.org. 2005-04-27. Retrieved 2007-10-13.
  12. ^ Killblane, Circle the Wagons
  13. ^ Richard E. Killblane, Delivering Victory, North America, Emerald Publishing, 2020 p. 266
  14. ^ Trapp, Brian (May 18, 2005). "518th disbands after one year" (PDF). Desert Voice. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-11. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
  15. ^ "Meehan Calls for Ramped Up Armoring of Vehicles," Archived 2007-05-03 at the Wayback Machine Congressman Martin T. Meehan (MA05), news release, December 10, 2004.
  16. ^ a b "Gun truck armor kits provide protection for U.S. troops in Iraq". Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. July 21, 2005. Archived from the original on October 17, 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-25.
  17. ^ Atkinson, Rick (September 30, 2007). "The IED problem is getting out of control. We've got to stop the bleeding". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
  18. ^ Erwin, Sandra (October 2005). "Army to Expand Array of Armoured Vehicles in Iraq". National Defense Magazine. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-10-14.
  19. ^ "Convoy Ambush Case Studies; Vol. II Iraq and Afghanistan" (PDF). US Army Transportation School. 2015. pp. 266–271.
  20. ^ Turbiville, Graham (January 1988). "Ambush! The Road War in Afghanistan". Foreign Military Studies Office. Archived from the original on 2007-06-24. Retrieved 2007-10-12.

Further reading

External links

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