The M40 was the final and largest iteration of the recoilless rifle in American military service. Designed to fix the shortcomings of the 105mm M27 that preceded it, the M40 was light and powerful, and added a .50 caliber spotting rifle to assist in being able to make first-round hits. The massive backlist of a recoilless rifle dictates that a crew generally only has one chance to make a hit before they must relocate to avoid retaliatory fire.
VIDEO HERE (9:54 minutes)
I was a plow truck operator for CALTRANS 40 years ago. They had several of these used for avalanche control near Echo summit on Hwy. 50. The fellas would blow the crap out of hanging cornice. Ammo was surplus from Herlong or Hawthorne, old stuff that dodn't always go boom. Come spring we had to go find the duds and account for every one of them.
ReplyDeleteYup, that's the way E.O.D. works.
DeleteJust hung out this winter in Arizona with an elderly Marine that spent his time running an Ontos, (Greek for “The Thing”). He had NO HEARING. Said when all six of them went off it was amazing. Said the haul was special design for the vehicle? Tony is a very cool 80 something veteran. Went on to fly just about everything short of a space ship. Very cool unassuming dude. Can still be a killer, as we did a bunch of shooting too. Bad ears, good eyes!
ReplyDeleteCavguy
A blast from the past for sure. I bet I know which video is next up.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/GHvmeyA-8rQ a link to his review of the spotting rifle.
ReplyDeleteMy Sgt Major, one time told me about the time another outfit fired off a round from one. Where upon his Plt. Leader called it in as an accident. (Typical 2nd LT. as he hadn't read the training schedule) Also my dad just loved his recoilless rifle in Korea in 1950-51 AD. Said it was the most fun one could have in the war with your clothes on.
ReplyDelete0351 this was my MOS, 106's, rockets, flame throwers, demo. I don't think this MOS exists anymore. I only fired a 106 or used a flame thrower in training. In Nam I saw 106's in the rear from a distance. I didn't watch the whole video but they would attach to a Mule, a vehicle. It seems they had one on display in training. I also saw one Ontos on the Cau Do Bridge. Kind of a tank with six 106's mounted on it. Long time ago.
ReplyDeleteMy Reserve time in the early 90's I used to do extra weekends with the Supply Sgt. They still used the old IBM punch cards for requisitions. I used to (to fuck with him) slip 'ringers' into the huge pile to see if I could catch him out not double checking (NSNs for weed, coke booze) and one time for shit n grins, I found the NSN for the 106mm Recolless. We were an Anti Armor CSC so that one? He was like "Why the hell not... let's see what happens!"
ReplyDeleteTwo months later I did the req run with a 5 ton with him to Devens. They wheeled out this MASSIVE wooden crate and sumbitch... "Rifle, Recolless, M106 w/Kit" on the side...Literally shocked the shit out of us. The C.O. was more amused by it, and what we ended up doing was demilling it, and planting it in front of the HHC building as a static display...
Saw one fire in AIT at Fort Polk in 1965. At that time infantry MOS came in two flavors -- 111 for light weapons, 112 for heavy weapons -- mortar and 106 recoilless. Loud, threw out flame, brought up a dust cloud. Jeep mounted.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in Salerno (Rocket City) Afghanistan I got to where I could identify the munitions that were passing overhead. I knew when to jump for cover and when to keep doing whatever I was doing as the round was headed further down range. I was headed to Ops and the building was lined with 14' T-walls as was the approach. I hear the whizzing of a recoilless rifle round and I dove for cover. It bounced off the T-wall and landed 3 feet from my face. Thank God it was a dud! I created a mission that would have me going through Kabul on the return trip. I pitched a massive drunk in Kabul. I was even able to smuggle two bottles of Vodka back to SAL.
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