Anyone know what type of Howitzers were used by the Marines at Khe Sanh?
Are you referring to this one? http://www.gijoeelite.com/f_itemPart.asp?strPart=GID-71272 A bit pricey, but I need an arty piece. I was bidding on a 1/6 arty piece on ebay a while back, but didn't win. For the life of me I can't recall which howitzer it was.Heya, Blu Falcon!
You can kit bash a M98 using the 75mm pack howitzer that Dragon did with a new tube. They would also have mortars: 81mm, 4.2", etc.
Hope this helps!
Russ
Proud son of Rose and Wes
Battalion organizationThe Khe Sanh defenders had three batteries of 105-mm. howitzers, one battery of 4.2-inch mortars, and one battery of 155-mm. howitzers; all five batteries were Marine artillery. In addition, they were supported by four batteries of Army 175-mm. guns, one at the "Rockpile," north of the base,and three at Camp Carroll, to the east. These artillery pieces, 46 in all, were supplemented by 90-mm. tank guns, 106-mm. recoilless rifles, and tactical air support. The fire support coordination. center, the 1st Battalion, 13th Marines (Artillery), located at Khe Sanh, controlled all supporting arms fire. Once the fighting began, the battalion commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lownds, said that the side which kept its artillery intact would win the battle. Only three American artillery pieces were destroyed during the entire siege.
Since the enemy maneuvered mainly under cover of darkness, the Marine and Army batteries were most active during these hours. Preplanned artillery fires included combined time-on-target fires from nine batteries, separate battalion time-on-target missions, battery multiple-volley individual missions, and battery harassment and interdiction missions. Fire support coordination. progressed to the point that artillery was seldom check fired while tactical aircraft were operating in the area. Throughout the battle 158,981 rounds of various calibers of artillery were directed against enemy locations around the base.
Kilo Batty 4/13 was assigned to 1/13 Marines at one time, not sure if they were with them during Khe Sanh fight. M109 SP guns. Most other 155 and 8" guns were tracked, w/o armor superstructures.These Marine artillery units possessed a total of 156 guns, howitzers, and mortars. Three firing batteries in each direct support battalion were armed with the tried and proven M101A1 105mm towed howitzer, which had a maximum range of 11, 300 meters and could be air-transported by a CH-46
That's some priceless G-2 right there, amigo. Thanks for sharing. Looks like I'll be attempting to build a howtar. And I'll be watching the 155mm howitzer on ebay. Thanks for the heads up, brother.Heya, Blu Falcon and PD!
PDogs ORBAT shows a battery of 4.2" mortars... these were modified into the 107mm M98's. They removed the original 75mm howitzer barrels and replaced them using the 4.2" mortar tubes. The resulting beastie was known as a howtar. These actually were a little more powerful than the 105mm's, just much shorter range. This evidently wasn't thought to be a big problem.
Here is a link to an ORBAT dated 1964 listing the M98's: http://orbat.com/site/toe/trevithick/TOE Guide - USMC.pdf
Here is a pic of one in RVN: http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=149620;article=12747;title=TarawaTalk
And here is a little oral history of the howtar: http://marinememoir02.homestead.com/Harry03.html
One of the link I found mentions that the howtar didn't last after about 1969, but they dated back thru Korea , even possibly to World War II!
Unfortunately, no one has a 105mm howitzer in sixth scale. If you wanna try this route, I think Plastic Panzers does / did a M7 Priest, when is the towed gun minus its trails and axle mounted on a M3 Lee chassis. I imagine you could get just the gun. This would require fabbing the trails, wheels, shield, etc.
Hope this helps!
Russ
Proud son of Rose and Wes
You mean like this one? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEDWX:IT&item=280353003361 I placed a bid, walked away and was no where near a computer when the auction ended. I'm so pissed at myself for missing this one.No prob, Blu, I learned quite a bit from digging around, and owe thanks to my buddy John, for the loan of the Osprey. Like Russ says, Hasbro made a 155mm howitzer. They pop up here and there, occasionally.