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King & Country
The second of the Gun Trucks is the aptly-named “The War Wagon”.
Many of the nicknames painted on these ‘Gun Trucks’ were inspired by rock songs, TV shows and even movies of the 1960s. ‘The War Wagon’ is a case in point… It came from a 1967 ‘Western’ starring John Wayne and Kirk Douglas and was popular with the troops at that time.
As with the first vehicle, the driver and gunner are included along with their weapons.
Almost as soon as American Forces began taking over the major role of combating the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army the enemy began to ambush the U.S. convoys carrying their much needed supplies and reinforcements between the major bases and depots to far flung out posts all over the country.
Although U.S. Army and Marine Corps units provided armoured cars and sometimes even tanks to protect these convoys it was simply not enough to deter enemy attacks. Fortunately, it was the transportation units themselves that came up with one of the best innovative solutions… Gun Trucks!
Each ‘Gun Truck’ was a standard U.S. Army 2 1/2 ton cargo truck armed with a variety of machine guns and protected by additional sheets of steel and armor plate. Simultaneously convoys were reduced from, on average, 200 vehicles to just 100, making them easier to control and protect. To ‘ride shotgun’ on these small 100 vehicle convoys a force of 10 ‘Gun Trucks’ would ensure one ‘protector’ for every group of ten trucks.