I was in the Ninth Infantry Division in 1967. Two of these from the First Infantry Division settled in at the far end of our perimeter without much notice. One night a couple weeks later they had their first fire mission that scared the hell out of all of us…bright green changing to red tracer rounds along with the din of the “Pom-Pom-Pom”. I was on the battalion switchboard that exploded with calls from our ambush and l.p.s who felt they were under attack. It was pretty spooky because in the dark these 40 mm tracers looked like you could reach out and touch them.

I was in the National Guard during the Vietnam era. We had M42's, and during my time in the guard I was a loader, driver and later a section Sergeant over two self-propelled M42s. I also had the opportunity to fire the guns. In my experience, they were a great weapon, easy to drive, and produced a lot of firepower. The turret turned easily. The projectiles weighed about 2 lb and were explosive. Fortunately our unit was never deployed to Vietnam. The air guard in our town had been deployed, and our units were left to control hometown riots. It was an interesting time in my life.

Twin 40mm Bofors. When the M2 .50 caliber just isn't "fuck you" enough.

In the Austrian 🇦🇹 army we had this M-42 too till the begin of the 90ties. I saw them shooting at the shooting range. What a power! Greetings from an old Sergeant Major from Linz-Austria 🇦🇹 Europe!

Sometimes when AA gets pointed towards the ground it gets scary, reminds me of the 88's success in WWII.

I was with 3/9 at Vandergrift Combat Base in northern Quang Tri Province in 1969. The Dusters were famous in the Marine Corps as a very effective combat weapon. I saw one at Quang Tri. It was set up on a cross roads with a mobile quad .50. God help anyone that rushed those guns. Semper Fi

They really don’t give anti aircraft guns enough credit for their anti infantry capabilities

The M42 is a perfect example of why you don't retire "old fire power," an almost perfect anti-drone platform, integrated with C.R.O.W.S (Common Remotely Operated Weapons System) and automation being a possibility. M45 quad mount and T249 Vigilant have entered the chat.

My grandfather was in a Duster crew. He rarely spoke about his service but when he did it was obvious why.

a bunch of these would be very useful. it seems a lot of answers for todays problems can be taken from some overlooked greats from back in the day.

I used to live in Roswell NM (of all places) and the Dusters were part of the arsenal of our local National Guard Amory for many years and a feature of every local parade. They still have one on display at the local armory.

Local National Guard armory near me has an M42 sitting by the gate. Looks old, but I wouldn't have guessed 70 years!

This thing would have been mean if in jungle combat if there some how could have had a grapeshot canister made up for it. That would have gave the enemy no place to hide no jungle no elephant grass could of held up to that. A 40mm shotgun round would have been better than the standard fuse round

I built a model of this when I was a kid.

I was kind of bummed by the old Tamiya 1/35 Duster kit, but my dad thought it was cool I built one for him before my modeling skills were more improved.

In the middle of 1970 A5-2 was based at Phu Loi, 1 of their duties was running "Thunder Road" Highway 13

Lived in Tabuk Saudi Arabia for several years, had one of these sitting on a plinth on a roundabout on the main road just down from the compound I lived on.

480 rounds of 40mm Swedish fury. That is several cases of whoop-@55 in a small package.

Looks like one heck of an arm workout. Traversing that turret.

My cousin gave me a bunch of plastic models when I was 8 years old. One of them was the this M42 Duster. I never really read or watched a video about it. Now I’m old, but remember playing Army with my friends and their Army models. What fun we had! Thanks for researching this important tank for us. 🙂🫡🇺🇸

Duster! My dad saw them in 1970 around Western South Vietnam toward the Cambodian border.

Anti-aircraft guns shred infantry. There is a story from the Netherlands. Canadian infantry spotted a quad-barreled anti-air vehicle ftom a treeline across a field. The Lt. ordered the mrn to charge ot and take it since they saw no infantry defenders. The crew depressed the guns, swept the field, and most fell, then went back to shooting aircraft. Doubt it's true. Can't find the weapon in Ww2 German inventory. But the lesson is there. If it can take out air, it can take out men.

I was a squad Sargent on a duster. And we would have several prepared positions in a FB and would change locations at least once, especially at night, so the goo....enemy wasn't sure exactly where we were located. Loved Willie P when we could get them.

The US Army element Regimental Combat Team - RCT 131 fighting on the east side of the Chosin Reservoir in Korea was overwhelmed in large part because the M19's were not resupplied directly by air drop, instead their forward stockpile of 40mm shells was stuck at a forward ammo dump tens of miles down the road, Once the 40mm exhausted the Chinese were able to advance crew served weapons that disabled the half tracks carrying the Quad Fifties, from then on the column of that Army command was under relentless attack, unit cohesion lost as they fought their way out and down to the reservoir.

Have gun will travel Reads the card of a man A knight without armor In a savage land

The Seargeant York just didn't have the pizzazz of the Duster.

That's so cool. I live in Cleveland and knew about the tank plant but didn't know that was what they built.

My grandfather built those in Brookpark tank plant, they had a lion there.

A friend of my Dad’s was a USMC loader on a Duster in’68-‘72. He said it would rake the opposite side of a ravine, back and forth, back and forth and when they got no return fire, they’d go over and see what they were dumping crate after crate of 40mm HE shells into, and it was just pulverized soft earth with wood chips and green confetti. Too bad we gave them all away to the Philippines and other places.

I got to see one work out on the berm at Eagle in 1970. The tracer rounds had an almost flat trajectory and you could follow their path for klicks. I never got to see what it was like on the receiving end but it must have been impressive.

I went thru Vulcan AIT in 1985. They were still teaching the Duster then.

Love your vids mate. Been watching since you first started and when you used to roll out your narration at x1.5 audio speed. So glad your channel is thriving and that you trusted your own delivery. Wicked content dude 👏. Cheers from me in the UK 🫡🍻

On my position near Khe Sanh in Vietnam we had two dusters at opposite ends of our perimeter. They were awesome when it came to fire power. We felt pretty secure with these guys around. Never had ground attacks but plenty of 122mm rockets and mortars.

Can you imagine if they had let’s say 12 of these Dusters and 12 of the Ontos recoilless rifle vehicle at These major battles? Unfortunately the enemy is using everything it can use as effectively as possible, meanwhile the American military is too focused on expensive aircraft, etc to back up my point, somehow in Afghanistan a Special Forces unit was able to get their hands on 2 recoilless rifles with a ton of ammunition including the beehive rounds, so this A-team base is getting attacked constantly from the surrounding mountains, and they are do their best to counter attack, Then try to get air support or artillery support, which isn’t allways available, so for context, these incredibly cheap and simple weapons from the Korean War changed the whole dynamic of defending their outpost, in seconds they could be returning fire with very large rounds, point and shoot at the mountains. The beehive rounds terrified the Taliban fighters, and from what I read about this story, the Taliban basically gave up attacking this base, makes sense to me

The M50 Ontos still gets my vote for strangest, most hardcore weapon of Vietnam.

Dude in the wire @2:05 ...😁

great doc - love it - thanks

I had a model of that when I was a kid. Coolest tank ever

Very good vid!

The M-42 was the Star of the Battle of Hue City.

My bucket gun- the Bofors twin 40. So cool and versatile, especialy mounted on the proper vehicle.

From Singapore. in 1984 I was a conscript and we were in Taiwan for our own unilateral exercise. i.e. We rent their grounds and facilities, not exercising with the ROC troops. Our truck convoy passed a ROC M42 convoy.

Excellent Video. 👍🇺🇸

This is basically a double barreled Bradley firepower wise. A better example would be like the gepard but used against infantry. Pretty terrifying weapon to face off against because one round and your done and baring a bunker there isn’t a place to hide from this type firepower. Imagine we’re over here telling Israel how to fight a war and we did so much worse in Vietnam.

Great video's and very informative

How about doing a video on the 20mm gatling gun on the 113 (Vulcan ??) . Keep up the brilliant work.

Bofors = My hometown 💪

In the early 80's I was a Duster crewman in a Nat'l Guard unit in Anderson SC. Awesome for as old and obsolete as it was! Donna Anna Range Camp anyone? Engine vapor lock?

There are 2 of these on display in a park near me, they look so cool

"The VC didn't know what to make of them ... a dragon unleashing hellfire at the waves of attackers." The VC famously did not attack in human waves. It's one reason why they won.

Do a segment on the Ontos! Insane firepower

As a combat infantry soldier. I'm here to tell you it's our best friend. The AC 130 should only carry these weapons systems. The amount of damage, and carnage, these Bofors produce is unreal!!! AC-130 only need to carry these weapon systems. It makes all the other weapons systems on board obsolete. Just saying....................

Swedish: BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!

And we sitting on a 40mm gun said hey i see you hunters with a 40 round mag .

They were still teaching the dusters to the national guard when I went to OSUT in early eighties at FT. Bliss.

Oh Man, all that bad-assery in that mobile platform., I want one now! I wonder if there are any still surviving, that haven't been used for target practice...

My dad was on those in '1953 self propelled anti-aircraft gun (spaag) later known as the M42 duster.

One of the most thrilling sights In Vietnam was viewing the latticework of arcing red shell fire as Dusters and Quad Fifties raked the ground in response to mortar attack or detected movement.

That's freaking awesome! 😂

The few they had in WW2 weren’t enough to create a popular myth of their devastating power but I’ve read individual accounts of soldiers who rode on them and they carried a big stick wherever they went along with the quad 50’s using them on infantry.

Isn't there still one of those at the museum in Mobile, AL?

theres one 10 min away from me on static display

Brother 1st cav at camp Carroll said had either duster or ontos can't remember now which he said

M 42: "Hello,i'm the M 42,the beast of war,the yellow meat grinder,the dragon breath,the.. ZSU 57: "Hold my beer,boy".

3:43 "... its 140 gallon fuel tank, comparable in size to a residential bathtub." What planet do you live on where standard bathtubs hold 140 gallons/529 litres?

The thing was also feared. With a ma deuce with tracer rounds to pinpoint a target to then be hit with 6 recolless guns to tear anything apart it wanted to.

I wonder if those twin 40mm Bofors would have been effective on a Patrol Boat, River? Perhaps not a stable enough platform though...

The M42 Duster used L60 Bofors......the newer L70 Bofors has a rate of fire between 240-300rpm per gun. The Swedish VEAK 40 Prototype has 2x L70s and was in trials at the time of the Vietnam War. Today the STRF 9040 series vehicles would be the closest to the M42 Duster with their 3P Programable Ammunition

I need a reference for what 22 battle prepared small cars look like :P Just teasing at wording- love all your vids. Thanks for another great one!

Tag team this tank with an Ontos for maximum fun and distribution of freedom!

Hence, the Grand Daddy of the Remittal 50mm monster nowadays. Back in the Yon Kipper war in the late 50's, Israel employed their `88mm AA guns as very effective anti-tank and anti- troop repellent. . . Everybody always seem to fall back to their trusty shotguns when it hits the fan. And from all that I know, is right and proper.

The turret looks hella good ngl.

From the M19 to the M42/43 to the modern day Bradley fighting vehicle the US has always had a niche for providing their infantry a quick reacting, fire breathing, bullet spewing, instant death machine. It makes you wonder how many American lives were saved doing nothing more than spending money. I'm sure the Vietnam war would have been much shorter, with many more American lives being lost had the NVA/VC been able to afford the 4 million 40mm shells the M42 expended in the war. Let alone the millions that go into research, designing, building, and maintaining them. Its nice to know our boys (and now girls) have all the protection we can afford them for the upcoming war with China. With a boy preparing to enter the military with a combat MOS my greatest fear is that we didn't learn anything from the German loss in WWII and our near loss at the beginning of the Korean war. The Germans had the equivalent of our military at the time being far and away technologically superior to their opponents with better trained and led troops. They had the best military as well as the most powerful air force in the world (combining all factors like tech, numbers, training, experience etc.) They quickly rolled over other armies that shared their philosophy on war. Which was their troops mattered. They knew replacing a well trained and experienced soldier was tough. So, they gave them every advantage they could. Unfortunately (fortunately for Europe and the world) for them they attacked the Soviet Union which didn't share that philosophy. Their approach to armored warfare and their air force was to build an acceptable but cheap tank, teach their soldiers how to drive/fly them. Then they just mass produced them. They didn't need lifelong engineers or mastercraftsmen like the German (or today's American) weapons of war. Their approach to the infantry was to give them quick and easy training and send them in to pick up and use the weapons their fallen comrades left behind. A Soviet soldiers greatest hope for being brave on the battlefield was to either get moved to a "Guards" army or have his unit classified as one so they wouldnt be used as fodder or ordered to march through a minefield. I apologize for writing a novel here and to sum it up I have to worry about how much help all of our advanced weaponry like the Bradley is going to offer when we fight the Chinese on their turf and they are sending wave after wave of infantry divisions at our troops. Are we going to send our best troops into an Asian city to experience our own Stalingrad? Where our generals attempt to use tactics and strategy while the Chinese just send battalion after battalion and regiment after regiment until we experience so many casualties our flanks get exposed because they are forced to try to protect them with National Guardsmen? National Guardsmen with Bradleys are still National Guardsmen and those Bradleys will run out of ammunition. In modern warfare I can not think of a long drawn out conflict where the force with the most soldiers didn't prevail in the end. In WWII the Germans were ground down by the Soviets and the Japanese had the Chinese long before the US got involved. Once the communists realized they needed the population on their side to win their civil war they used propaganda and disinformation to achieve it (Chiang Kai-Shek being a brutal authoritarian helped too) then easily defeated the nationalists. In Korea both sides nearly won towards the beginning but a cease fire was reached before the war with the Chinese got lengthy. In Vietnam the Vietnamese eventually wore the Americans down. Granted we left on a cease fire with threats of bombing if the NVA broke it but after Nixon left they knew Ford had no teeth for another fight. The Soviets eventually tired of dealing with exactly what we dealt with in Vietnam trying to take over Afghanistan. In the Iran-Iraq war the Iranians mirrored the exact strategy the Soviets employed against the Germans to get a vastly technological superior Iraqi army to sue for peace after 8 years. The list goes on and on and I honestly think our days as the leader of the world are numbered. China even with their own advanced tech on top of what they have managed to steal (F18) looks vastly inferior to the US military on paper. But they have shown repeatedly that they are willing to send wave after wave of barely trained soldiers straight into the teeth of our weapons. I'm afraid like in 1945 Nazi Germany old timers like we will be relied upon to keep us from defeat because the Pentagon wasn't smart enough to learn from prior wars that if we don't defeat a country with a population nearly 10 times our own quickly; they will eventually wear us down to the point of losing not only the war but nearly an entire generation of our bravest soldiers because of a political dispute. China doesn't want our land and we don't want their's. We need to make sure those boneheads in the Pentagon and running for office that a war with China is a war we do not want. So what if they want Taiwan back. How would you feel if what was left of the Confederate army moved to the Florida Keys and we decided we wanted them back and the Chinese told us to leave them alone? I have no doubt we would tell China to kick rocks. That it was a fight between Americans. That is exactly what is going on with Taiwan and the Chinese telling us to stay out of it. I know some imaginary international waterway boundry is at stake but again if we let the Chinese handle Chinese matters I doubt they would care if we continued to use it. Ok so I wrote a second novel. Sorry about that!!

The NVA learned quickly not to expose themselves to our killing machines, and we had total air superiority AND STILL LOST. F***!

Duster had a flaw of not having a roof. As Vietnamese acquired more and more artillery towards the end of the conflict, Dusters became primary targets, leading to increased US casualties and decision to withdraw from conflict. Overall , mobile AA guns have been used as support weapons in many conflicts from WW2 to this day. They usually work well against poorly armed infantry (guerillas), but not as well against enemy with heavier weapons.

140 gallon fuel tank is way bigger than a residential bathtub. Like three times bigger. Just saying.

There's one of them here in Gainesville FL ,I stopped took pics of it..

The 40mm does not get enough respect. Several countries deployed it as anti-aircrat and it always wound up turning infantry into pulp.

The M163 Vulcan was much more effective. 20mm at 3000 rounds per minute. The ontos was pretty badass too.

This is cool and all, but the freaking Bazooka tank armed with 6 recoilless rifles with .50 caliber spotting rifles simply cannot be topped.

You have a tree? We have a woodchipper.

cool

40mm hedge trimmer, and Charlie is the Hedge.

The loaders seen very vulnerable. Did they improvise better protection for them in Vietnam?

This thing is awesome!! Let's get rid of it!

A duty honorably discharged

Dude, We were in THEIR COUNTRY. Who was the "horde"?

Veículo Muito interessante! Eu tenho uma miniatura desse veículo em escala 1/72. Miniatura de metal com excelente nível de detalhes, muito legal🌟💪

Immediately consults the Phlydaily archive, for giggling mayhem! 😂

The lesson the US didn’t learn! If they had attached a Duster to every land operation AND developed the concept, light chassis, very wide tracks for light ground pressure, evolved it into a closed turret, made 20 mm and 30 mm versions, quad barrelled.

Farout war is so brutal and unforgiving.

I think at 11:16 the film is from a Quad Fifty mount.

Those things in war thunder are deadly

The original proto T-1 Terminator of the movies…

👍👍👍

Never saw a "Duster" in 'Nam but I think I heard of them.

4:24 John Wayne checking it out!

The army later on the army came up w/ an air defense weapon called the Red Eye

Absolutely the duster had a ton of firepower, but the armor sounds really thin right? I assume the thickest 1.5" armor was on the front slope. Would 1.5" stop 51 cal? What about an RPG?

I kind of think the Duster was the American answer to the twin 37mm Kugelblitz Panzer 4 AA vehicle.