Vietnam Deuce bumper-mounted wire cutter?

[blisters13]

For all you guys who were in-country Vietnam or have seen this:

I was meeting some vets for a parade this last November and one of them said I ought to make and install a wire-cutter on the front bumper, like what the M-38s and M151's had (this is the pole made of angle iron with a hook at the top to cut any decapitating wires strung across a road in the jungle). I made sure to have him clarify that he had seen that many times.

I have looked on the 'net for hours and NEVER seen one on any truck- only jeeps.

Anyone?

 

[Flyingvan911]

I can see it being nice on a soft top where the windshield folds down but not on a hard top. That would be one big hunk of metal. I would imagine in the heat a lot of guys would fold down the windshield if possible. I suppose if I had a soft top I'd make one just to be unique.

 

[jdmcgowen]

This is what I found.

 

[rhurey]

I'm told you folded down the windshield to give the passenger a better field of fire. That and sandbags.

So says dad, who was there.

 

[TsgtB]

I've seen it on rotary wing for cutting highline wires.... for low level flight, one on top and bottom.

 

[maddawg308]

Never seen it on bigger trucks. Only jeeps. And as late as Grenada in 1983.

 

[Crestonean]

Here are a couple of shots of wire cutters in 1968. I never saw these cutters on anything larger than a jeep.

 

[Kasper31]

Wire cutters were used on WW 2 jeeps and some of the larger 3/4 and 1 ton trucks.

 

[blisters13]

THANKS guys- I never saw any picture of one on anything bigger than a jeep, but I sure as h*ll wasn't gonna argue with the guy. If I was going to make the truck look like it's been in the field for a while, and there was any precedent at all, I'd make one.

 

[cannonfoddertfc]

Most of the convoys we ran in Iraq (OIF 1&2) had a wire cutter on the lead vehicle. It was created to protect the gunners because we didn't yet have the up-armored HMMWV's and the TTP of the baddies at the time was to string wire under overpasses or between light poles to try and decap the gunner. It consisted of a section of pipe with a sharpened edge of flatstock welded to it that stuck up just higher than the gunners head. All of it was completely homemade stuff. We had one on a M925 with a ring mount that consisted of a section of I-beam and the cutter portion of a wire strike kit off a helicopter. It must have weighed close to 200lbs and was seriously fugly but it definately served a purpose.

 

[Another Ahab]

Something Similar

I've seen it on rotary wing for cutting highline wires.... for low level flight, one on top and bottom.

Hannah Reitsch test piloted something similar during WWII:

- D*** near got her killed if I remember right.

- Couldn't find any photos; here's a summary:

She worked fervently and methodically in a cause she accepted without question. In 1941, Hitler awarded her the Iron Cross, second class, for the almost fatally dangerous work she did in developing means for cutting the cables dangled by British barrage balloons. The most dangerous machine she tested was the Messerschmitt 163, Germany's experimental rocket-powered interceptor. In a minute and a half after takeoff it climbed at a 65-degree angle to 30,000 feet. It traveled 500 mph -- the fastest any human had ever gone.

 

[Another Ahab]

Hannah Reitsch

Found some photos:

 

[Evil Dr. Porkchop]

Here's one on an m37.

 

[Al Harvey]

His unit might have built some for their trucks, would be awesome if he had a picture of one to see it. Never put anything past a soldier to build.