Introduction
Every violent conflict in the 20th and 21st centuries thatthe United States has participated in seems to produce an armored "mascot" iconic to the conflict. In the Second World War, it was the Sherman; in the Gulf wars, it was the M1A1 Abrams. Of course, often these "mascot" vehicles serve in other wars, and under other flags. This is especially true of the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. M113s have served in over 50 other armies, sometimes as Beutepanzer (captured AFVs) with insurgents like Hezbollah or The Vietnam People's Army). Over 6,000 remain on active duty with the Israeli Defense Forces, despite efforts to switch over to other platforms.
Overall some 80,000 M113s were built from 1960-2007. Even after it was replaced in the US Army as the primary APC by the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle, M113s still soldier on in specialized roles such as ambulances, mortar carriers, or in engineer battalions.
And certainly no other vehicle better calls to mind the Vietnam War than the M113.
Author David Doyle, Military Modelcraft International and Guideline Publications have now released a slim paperbound volume with the voluminous title M113 and M113A1 Armored Personnel Carrier. The Development, Production, and Deployment of the U.S. Army's Cold War APC.
Contents
The 84-page softbound is divided into six chapters and an introduction:
Chapter 1: The M113
Chapter 2: Contemporary Variants
Chapter 3: Combat Employment in Vietnam
Chapter 4: The European Theater and Cold War Doctrine
Chapter 5: The Crew's Perspective
Chapter 6: Legacy and Assessment
The Review
While this book will interest vehicle buffs, its primary audience should be modelers. Scalemates lists over 300 M113 kits in all scales, and even old "war horses" like the Academy and Tamiya kits can be brought into the 21st Century with the many upgrades, conversions and decal sets on the market.
Introduction
This section provides a quick overview, but also includes (along with the following chapter) an overview of the vehicle's development.
Chapter 1: The M113
One of David Doyle's strengths is running down the origin stories of the vehicles he highlights, often securing photos, drawings, plans and histories from long-retired engineers and others. This section is no exception.
Chapter 2: Contemporary Variants
There are four recognized variants of the M113:
- ACAV
- M106 & M125 Mortar Carriers
- M162 Vulcan Air Defense System
- M577 Command Post Carrier
But there are almost as many variants in the field as soldiers with needs, including the nasty M132 flame thrower version (often called "Zippo" after the iconic cigarette lighter carried by many soldiers). David Doyle has provided excellent color photos of what would seem to be all of them.
Chapter 3: Combat Employment in Vietnam
The M113 had been designed to fight the Soviets in Europe, but it heard its first shots fired in anger in the jungles and rice paddies of Vietnam. What's more, outside of some "advisors," it wasn't even carrying United States troops, but the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Given to South Vietnam from 1962-1965 as part of President John Kennedy's vow to help allies fight insurgencies without needing US troops, they initially cowed the Viet Cong communist guerillas who had no way to fight them, and were not accustomed to fighting mechanized vehicles (the ARVN had a motor pool of light and medium tanks that mostly stayed inside cities to deter military coups).
But at the Battle of Ap Bac in 1963, the VC lured a company of ARVN M113s into attacking hardened positions complete with heavy machineguns. The ARVN gunners were killed or seriously wounded, exposing the 113's combat weakness: exposed machine gunners with no protection.
By the time American ground troops entered the war in 1965, the learning gained by the ARVN resulted in regular and field modifications that greatly improved the vehicle's fight and survivability. These included ACAV shields for machine gunners, reinforced floors to protect against mines, and changes in doctrine that meant getting off trails prone to ambush and into the back country where the M113's amphibious capability allowed it to better engage the enemy.
The book supports its text with a gorgeous array of color and B&W photos. Modelers looking to reproduce specific vehicles will be pleased that most of the captions contain the unit designation and date. You can imagine there are thousands of photos of M113s in Vietnam, so I was grateful that I had not seen many of these.
Chapter 4: The European Theater and Cold War Doctrine
In Vietnam, there was very little need for heavy armor-- the road network was poor or non-existent, and the Communists for the most part kept their tanks and APCs north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). So the M113 became a hybrid armored personnel carrier and tank by up-gunning with heavy machine guns, recoilless rifles, Vulcan AAA cannon and other means of bringing the hurt to infantry.
During the Vietnam War and after, the US Army in Europe wrestled with what role the M113 would play in its doctrine for fighting the Soviet Union. Huge mechanized forces threatened to overwhelm the US and NATO.ones, so a combined arms theory was advanced that saw the M113 as supporting heavy armor formations with infantry who could swarm out of them and either attack the Soviet ground support infantry or hold onto positions gained by the armor.
David Doyle uses multiple color photos to show how this tension played out in the European Theater, with some M113s sporting the single .50 cal. MG while others were armed supplementally with the same kind of.
Chapter 5: The Crew's Perspective
This is a useful bonus for anyone building out the interior of their M113.
Chapter 6: Legacy and Assessment
Eighty thousand M113s were built, despite their limitations(e.g., aluminum armor that was vulnerable to RPG projectiles). The vehicle served and in some cases still serves in the armies forty nations. While it has largely been superseded by more-robust upgrades like the Bradley, the M113 deserves its popularity with modelers, and this book will make building M113 more fun.
Conclusion
David Doyle remains probably the most-prolific writer about military vehicles today, and this volume is a superb addition to any modeler's research library.
Thanks to author David Doyle, DavidDoyle Books, Military Modelcraft International and Guideline Publications for this review copy. Please mention you saw it reviewed on Armorama when purchasing your own.