A guy I served with was on a Coast Guard 82' patrol boat in Vietnam. Their "artillery" (other than 6 or so .50 cal MGs) was an 81 mm mortar set up for direct fire. Which had issues. So they mounted one of these recoilless rifles (don't ask where they got it) and it worked great. Except the back-blast from the first shot peeled all the paint off of the pilot house.
In 1967-68 I was stationed at Phu Cat AFB Republic of Vietnam. While there I, (and many others), had the the dubious pleasure of being on the receiving end of the 75 recoilless. I can attest to it's effectiveness. I had a job ferrying pilots from our personal equipment shop to the flightline, (F-100's, 612th Fighter squadron). I was lucky enough to have use of the step van after duty hours. That made me kinda popular with the other guys because I could drive them to places on the base instead of having to walk. One night we were hit by multiple 75's that landed all over the base. Fortunately, no injuries, but we lost a couple planes, a couple shops, and my beloved step van. After it was over, I went out to get it and found that a round had landed right in front of it. Took out the windshield, and sent a piece of shrapnel through the radiator and clean through the block. to say the least, I was pissed. Now it was personal. We had a small outdoor theater on the base that had a stage in front of the screen for USO shows, and such. On night they started shelling us right in the middle of the movie, (Audie Murphy in "The Texican), I think. Anyway, everybody scattered and in the confusion a shell came down right through the stage and exploded. It put a big hole in the stage, and perforated the screen like a big shotgun. The fact that the stage absorbed most of the explosion saved everybody from being hurt. If Charlie had put one or two more clicks on the sight , it might have been different. The next day I crawled under the stage with the guy from EOD, and he let me keep the detonator and some shrapnel as a souvenir. My wife hated it, and one day it disappeared. A complete mystery. Well, that's my 75 recoilless story. I hope somebody enjoyed it.
@@donaldotjf4894 I'm glad you enjoyed it, Tom. What war stories I have are of this type. I don't have any horror stories, mercifully, and I tell people that ask, that I was fortunate in that I came back to my wife and baby daughter with my soul intact. I'm grateful to this day. BTW, we're still together after 54 years, and we still love each other. Sorry, I'm old and I tend to ramble. 🤪😁
@Fenris B I very much appreciate your reply. What stories I have are not of the exciting sort. The stories that I have told to family and friends over the years are more of the funny, humorous variety. I consider myself very fortunate that I was able to return with my body and soul intact. War changes anybody who experiences it. It changes them in many different ways. I'm just grateful that mine did not leave scars.
I think the best way to signify the danger of using a recoilless rifle would be to stamp a pictogram on it that shows angles behind and in front of it marked "danger" and angles to the side marked "safe", with the "danger" angle behind it ending in a radius with the written minimum safe distance on it, and it says "stand clear of back blast" and "do not fire inside buildings" somewhere. though of course it's a weapon that should really only be used by soldiers who were taught its use in training, given how dangerous it is to their comrades if used wrong.
We had the 105 in the CBs as late as 1976. We had a 50 cal single shot mounted on top of it. You would fire the 50, observe the impact, adjust the aim and then fire the main gun (then run like hell because the back blast just announced your position, shoot and scoot at its finest). The 50 was a special round designed to have the same trajectory as the main gun.
My father was a machine gunner (M1917) in Europe during WWII. When the war ended in Europe his division was transferred stateside to train for the invasion of Japan. His MG squad was transitioned to the M20 Recoilless Rifle. Fortunately, the A-Bombs ended the war before they had to invade the home islands. Thanks for a bit of history with a personal (for me) aspect.
I used to work on the 105 mm Recoilless with the 50 caliber spotting rifle on it and the 81mm recoilless at Aberdeen Proving Ground in the 1970s which brings back some memories when I was a small arms repairman.
That piece was still in the T.O.A of my battalion. Back blast was very heavy which limited its use in certain areas. The flat trajectory was great for bunker busting. Not to bad to clean. Had spotting round capability for training similar to the AT 4
You are missing something. It's not Ian firing this one, so there is no block footage like there would usually be. He has spliced in some footage from another channel showing one of these being fired. It's only a few seconds long, so easy to miss if you are "scanning" the video for it. It's around the 2.43 and 8min marks.
Being nearly deaf from my Military Service - I was a 11C and trained on and fired 2 different Recoilless Rifles and 2 different Mortars, the 81mm and the 4.2 during that training. After training I served in the Dominican Republic and in Vietnam and again I served in a Weapons Platoon where our Crew Fired Weapons were the 81mm Mortar and the 90mm Recoilless Rifle, I was the primary Gunner for both these Weapons systems and we fired many Fire Missions with our Mortars. The 90mm Recoilless Rifle was issued to us after several of our smaller Company and Platoon sized elements were nearly overrun by Communist Forces. The 90 as we called it is a shoulder fired Anti Tank and Anti Personal Weapon that makes a amazingly loud bang accompanied by a shock wave which can by itself injure anyone positioned behind the weapon when it is fired. Every time I fired either of these Weapons I lost my hearing, sometimes for a few hours and sometimes for as long as several days before my hearing gradually returned. I'm not the only deaf old Veteran, none of the brave men I served in my Weapons Platoons were issued any sort of hearing protection and so there are many 11C and other MOS Veterans, like Artilleryman who after 50 or so years cannot hear much of anything and that is, "The dying truth" , I wish I could hear half as clearly as non Veterans but I cannot and hearing aids don't help and I have to admit that asking my wife what people are saying is embarrassing for both of us.
Sadly quite common for a lot of people who served in artillery and heavy weapon units in the Bad Old Days. Most modern armies have at least learned from the experiences of your generation, and do issue proper hearing protection these days
@Trip Gil I believe that he says somewhere in the video that they had some of these. Something about triggering avalanches? Been a while since I saw the video.
Up until the early 1990s I believe the US park service still used B-25 bombers to drop water on forest fires (I know they used them in the great Yellowstone fire of '90) and the German forest service still used Kettenrads as off road utility vehicles until the late 1980s.
What pigs are you talking about? The ones that claims to be peace officers, the ones that are the ones that demands for hunting licenses, or the wild animals?
I had much use of the Carl Gustav 84mm recoilless rifle back in the 90's. We had an Illumination round that was fun to fire. By fun I mean fun to try to find a volunteer to fire it. You see, illum rounds need to be fired upwards, thus the back blast is trapped in the bottom of the firing pit and cooked the firers arse cheeks quite well.
Washington State DOT used to use the 105mm version for avalanche control, but that has since been replaced by an M60 tank. They also use M102 towed artillery guns, as well.
I did not know that! How cool that WA DOT got two M60A3s surplus from the US Army. "No problem there, Governor, they're just rusting away at Ft. Lewis!" Here's a YT video on their use: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ucwbRjx9_Qc.html
Thanks for the video, that's the first time I've actually seen the tanks, they were mentioned, but not pictured, in an article on WSDOT's avalanche control methods in the Seattle Times a few years ago. It appears the artillery pieces are fairly commonly used for avalanche control in other places as well.
And people complain about the militarization of the Police. Turns out they have nothing on the Department of Transportation who apparently are preparing to defend the Fulda Gap.
@@MrDgwphotos Turns out there is actually a video of them in action too: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FZLfboCceGA.html Pretty funny seeing a tank operated with high-viz jackets.
My Uncle in 101st said they were getting hammered by German Tigers with nothing that would stop them. A jeep from. Supply came up and said we got something. Two boxes with instruction sheet, a 57mm recoiled. Following paper they assembled it. Next day Tiger approached. With prayers they fired as instructions. Round hit under turret 's edge and blew it about 10 feet in air off of tank. Cheers went up all down the line for finally being able to stop tanks instead of running and hoping artillery would get them.
Fort Jackson, 1965, in a demonstration of the backblast of this thing, a straw-filled dummy was placed about 10 feet directly behind it. When the rifle was fired, the dummy pretty much flew into flinders. It was awesome!
That was my Dad's weapon at the Battle of the Bulge, he was a tank killer in the 82nd Airborne, 507th PIR attached to the 101st. He jumped with the bell section and sight and 3 rounds strapped to bags on his waist leg cable jams that he lowered before landing. He weighed 525 pounds and had to be thrown out of the plane at 800 feet.
My first National Guard unit still had one in the arms room into the early 80's. It was never fired as ammo wasn't readily available at the training sites we went too, even though there were ranges that it could've been fired on.
I still use one of these at my winter job! its mounted on a truck and we use it to precipitate avalanches. it's all military but we call it the " avalauncher". fun piece of equipment.
As a Marine in 1978 there was a 102mm recoilless that looked identical except larger and had a single shot .50 cal rifle attached above the barrel for targeting.
To be honest I'm not even really that particularly big of a fan of guns however I'm a very curious person and this guy just demonstrates guns on a very educational platform which I find very interesting from a historical sense
My uncle was in the army in 1963 and said the worst thing he ever saw during training was when some guy got his head blown clean off when he went behind one of these when it was firing.
There is a brilliant scene with a recoilless rifle in Black Hawk Down. That was supposed to be a Russian model though. I've heard the Soviets as a whole were crazy for recoilless artillery.
Very cool Boomer! As one of my MOS's in the Army I was sent to Small Arms Repairman School where I received (modest) training on this and the 105mm version Recoiless Rifle, along with all kinds of machine guns and other small arms. Sadly, while we watched training films, we weren't able to fire those goodies. Also, we didn't have any actual RR in our Battalion inventory, so it was lost training outside of the Cool Factor. Thanks.
Interesting how this sort of thing is a commodity to some and to others who have to dig this ordnance up a pain in the ass. The Ft Lewis area in Wa is littered with old 2.35, 3.5 and 75 mm recoil less rounds. I just love 1950 UXOs!
@@kiereluurs1243 It's too deep, you wouldn't get it. But no seriously, it's something you do to indicate that something is intended to be stupid, or otherwise has something deeply wrong with it. If I was to assume that you already knew what that way of writing meant, for example, I would conclude that you're making fun of people who don't know, and implying it's an extremely stupid question.
1911Thunder had those in 1968 82AB weapons plt. Specially built model M151 with a channel on the rear floor for mounting the gun. The gun mount had a large wheel in the front & the gun was moved into the jeep reminiscent of operating a wheel barrow. The gun was called 106, to differentiate it from 105’s (I believe that it was actually 105). Spotting gun .50 used a cartridge non interchangeable with the .50 BMG. Pop the spotting gun at your target, a hit was very obvious (cartridge was made to display a tell tale indication) immediately fire the main gun before the enemy figures out where the spotting round came from.
I saw a 105 mm RR demonstrated in 1968. To show the danger of the backblast they piled wood pallets behind the rifle. When it went off the pallets were reduced to splinters. They also had a device that fired a white phosphorous round, I think .30 caliber, loaded to match the trajectory of the 105 round. When the marker round was on target you fired the 105. It was very impressive.
Recoilless rifles (at least the 57mm) were in the first edition of "Small Arms of the World," the reference book still being updated. I was stationed in Europe in the mid-60s and Jeep-mounted recoilless rifles were very much still in use. The blast from one being fired was greater than any other weapon I ever saw being fired.
my principal in middle school was col(?) Myron Harrington. he said that the best way to cross a street in vietnam was to fire a recoiless rifle. the smoke would fill the street and you could cross. im guessing the rifle he was talking about was related to this thing.
In 1968, the jeep mounted 105 had a 30 cal rifle barrel sighting device. See that tank. 1 round of 30 cal tracer. Did it hit the tank? Quick fire the 105 round and Don't miss or you'll get a tank round up your - - - , because, you have just announced your presence with a ping on his armor and his turret is already traversing in your direction. And get the H out of here. because you have just announced your presence to the visible horizon and beyond to all his tanker buddies. The 105 and a tee shirt was not really up to taking on tanks.
Reminds me of the story of Sgt. Reckless and the 5th Marines Recoiless Rifles. Reckless was a Mongolian mare who carried ammunition and wounded Marines up a mountain during the Korean War battle of Nevada Outpost. This hero horse is buried at Camp Pendleton.
Just a note. 4:15 stats that the weight of the projectile is 22 pounds. That´s NOT the weight of the projectil. That´s the weight of the round. The projectile weights 6.5 kg
I actually had to read up on these when I saw one in the Black-Hawk Down film, had no clue what it was. Looked like a truck-mounted giant RPG, only backwards in operation. It was an interesting read and glad some of these are preserved, shows an interesting adaptation to a difficult problem to solve.
Derek Frankovich I mean, yeah, it would surely get rid of any groundhogs, as well as a majority of your lawn... How much gardening do you feel up for...?😉
@@Camcolito Gulags=extermination camps, Killed own ppl "undesirables" , soviets did this much longer tho .Both suppressed individual thinking , civil rights ,individual freedoms . So yeah ...
During WWII my Dad was in the Army stationed at Ft. Riley. They used to pack out various equipment on mules and horses (yes) and one was the recoilless rifle trying to determine which was they best way to pack them out.
It may be in the comments somewhere, but I read these played a significant role in the battle for Hue in urban combat. I haven't read the newer book, the last couple of years, but an older one went through the fight pitch by pitch, quite a magilla! The NVA had taken almost the entire city with one fortress and one small American base left uncaptured...
It was also important to remember that the driving band on the round was PRE engraved (to keep breech pressure low) so as the A-gunner loaded the round he would give it a little turn until the pre-engraved portion of the driving band slipped into the grooves in the rifling, and you could then chamber the round the rest of the way.
To compare with the two bazookas: The smaller 2.36" size could penetrate at right-angles about 3.6" (average) of RHA and the later 3.5" could penetrate 11.25" (average) of RHA. Both of these rockets used a near-instantaneous base fuze to set them off, which had a tiny, but non-zero, delay after the tip of the rocket nose hit the armor. At higher angles of attack (well over 45 degrees), this meant that the nose could glance upward slightly before the HEAT warhead exploded, so the needle-jet did not penetrate the armor very well. Modern versions use a peizo-electric crystal in the tip of the nose that sends a tiny electric signal when it hits the armor and is crushed, so the base fuze gets set off at almost the speed of light and the problem with high impact angles is much less significant.
The U.S. Army also used a 90mm recoilless rifle. It was either shoulder fired or from a bipod. They were still a part of many National Guard units TO&E throughout the 1980s.
I was reading about these being used in urban fighting during the Tet offensive in Vietnam. Marines used one in a room and knocked themselves out with the back blast!
Back in the mid 80's a friend/ fellow MARINE was in the last platoon, of M151 jeeps with 105 recoilless rifle. He loved the job..... Looking back, and knowing how dangerous the jeep was.... It is a great job, For 20 year old that does think long enough..... Too understand fear.
@@FP194 Only once ReForGer was complete. The poor bastards on rotation when WWIII started were mostly expected to just throw themselves at the Guards Motor Rifle divisions bearing down on them and slow the Soviet/Pact forces down long enough for the heavy reinforcements to arrive and form up
He holds up an umbrella stand- "If you were to fire this out of a typical sealed breech rife, the recoil would be absolutely tremendous." You don't say?
My dad used a recoilless rifle as a Marine in Vietnam, though I'm not sure which version. He said they'd sometimes stack up the wooden crates the ammo came in behind the breech before firing.. and nothing more than splinters would be left of the crates. He also told me about the Ontos.. which I'd never seen or heard of before I looked it up online.
For clarity, "...the cartridge case had hundreds of small holes in the side walls with a lining of plastic on the inside of the cartridge case walls to keep water and other elements out until the round was fired." military.wikia.org/wiki/M18_recoilless_rifle
We always hear stories about what was going on during the war, but very few stories about what happened just afterward, Which I think is interesting, how much of a relief and rebuilding effort europe had to go through.
I had a friend named Fritz who was part of a crew that used a recoiless rifle in Korea. I think the one he shoot was the shoulder fired rifle. Sadly he took his own life about 3 years ago.
In 66-67 VN my rifle company carried two 90mm recoilless. We shared carrying HE , Flechette, WP. Useful sometimes but not practical when Mortar ( 4.2 and 81mm) and Arty 105 ,155 and larger were always tracking the battalions movements.
I don't think they put the super bazooka into service until the Korean war. Or it may be that they were not available in Korea initially. The T-34 had 60mm armour if my memory serves me right, but it was heavily sloped.
Plus in Korea, Stalin gave North Korea and China the best armor they had at the time so UN forces on good day would see something as weak as a T-34-85 and South Korea at the start of the war, did not have any tanks, combat aircraft, and the M2 bazooka was the only AT weapon which did nothing against the T-34-85. And sloped armor adds even more defense.
The problem too is that a lot of the conflict for tanks changed over the course of the war, South Korea is a hell a lot more flat where tanks can move more freely and turning the opening days, North Korea was dominating the South in almost a one sided fight while in the north side of the country, where it was more mountain, tanks became more of a static defensive weapons.
I remember back in the 80's the boys of the Christian Militia in Beirut used to use it like if it is a mortar. They used to place it on a table with a 45 degree angle and they used to shoot it. I am not sure how accurate it was but the voice of the explosion that used to do was much bigger than the 60 mm mortar that also had in this position. Of course they used to put it on Jeep's and the M113
Giant wave of nostalgia when I saw the cases: I swiped a couple of these from the pile of brass around the Squaw Valley, CA avalanche control gun when I was in grade school and turned them into stylish bedside lamps that I read by all the way through high school. Where are they now, I wonder?
Ian: I am a huge fan of your work, along with tons of other people. You approach your craft with care and expertise that is unmatched online. I really think you should go on Joe Rogan’s podcast; share more about your life, other interests, how FW got started. We’d love to hear it, and your future fans will too. Joe is a great interviewer. Semper Fi from a Marine, keep up the good work you do
Y' can't help but like "ol'-Ian", here! (Respectively that is, Sir !) You put the personality into your work, and are never-guilty of "droning-on and on, boring as whale-"droppings".☺ I once had a type of your gift of gab--and even though it got me married? It was still-"cool"! And I'm 66, but only in year-30 of marriage, which brings the quintessential-quotation of: "Endeavor To Persevere!" , in-deed...!
One reason why recoilless guns waned a bit in popularity towards the end of WWII was that they use much more propellant per shot than cannons, and the needed chemicals were becoming scarce.
One of these gun guys' channels had a demonstration where they fired a round from a 75 RR and the point of this was to show the effect of the back blast on a Range Rover, parked about six or eight feet behind it. The blast completely smashed in the back end of the vehicle.
I operated the Chinese version as an army reservist in Cuba. It's main drawback is that there's no chance you will not be pinpointed after the first shot.
Backblast, I remember the crew drill for operating the shoulder fired Charlie G (Carl Gustav), only once did i fire the full sized round, devastating rearward blast. A huge difference after firing the 22lr practice insert lol. I believe your rangers still use it, good piece of kit!
The British Wombat was a nuts version of this. Google it. This but about five times bigger. They got rid of it because the back blast was so ridiculous you'd fire one round and you'd be dead.
I read somewhere that the Army used similar-looking perforated cases to clean the chambers on sealed-breach guns. The cases are sometimes mistaken for recoilless rifle cases when sold in surplus stores.
I have fired both 75 mm and 106 (105) mm recoilless during light infantry recert training in the 60s. Our allies and enemies use them too. I saw ally units in Laos killed NVA PT-76 amphibious (25 mm armor) with the 75. The sloped 50 mm armor of T-34 is just too much for it. Some ally units sawed off 20" of the smooth bore for easy carry by man. If you pitch it up more than 20 deg, the crew will be roasted instantly.
