BOLO Posted July 16, 2019 Share #1 Posted July 16, 2019 I was watching this documentary about Vietnam Tunnel Rats and they show people dumping helmets down a ramp into the river and you can see liners floating in the water, some appear to be French M51 or US M1's? fast forward to 28.37 min Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap Camouflage Pattern I Posted July 16, 2019 Share #2 Posted July 16, 2019 They also did this to them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnDuc49 Posted July 16, 2019 Share #3 Posted July 16, 2019 The little bit before where the helmets are dumped where they interviewed some Vietnamese, they sound like Southerners, so probably acted as Viet Cong. Concerning the helmets, I have to imagine that the sequence was either filmed in North Vietnam where their would've been a surplus of M1 and M51 Helmets left over from the French most likely or sometime post-1975, both for propaganda use. It's hard for me to imagine that they would just "throw them away" when they could've been easily re-used for a multitude of different applications Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted July 17, 2019 Share #4 Posted July 17, 2019 Not all of them were thrown into the river... these are photos from the former depot at Long Binh in 1995. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted July 17, 2019 Share #5 Posted July 17, 2019 And these were from a film production company in Hanoi from about the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
patches Posted July 17, 2019 Share #6 Posted July 17, 2019 Man o Man, great photos gwb. fascinating what's still around over there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap Camouflage Pattern I Posted July 17, 2019 Share #7 Posted July 17, 2019 Not all of them were thrown into the river... these are photos from the former depot at Long Binh in 1995. Looks like 1973-end chincup style chinstrap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Posted July 17, 2019 Share #8 Posted July 17, 2019 Looks like 1973-end chincup style chinstrap? You are correct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOLO Posted July 17, 2019 Author Share #9 Posted July 17, 2019 yes, I see a few helmets with the M1973 snap on chin straps with the web chin cup in gwb123's photo from Long Binh in 1995 , those are probably old stock leftover from the last shipments of military aid to the ARVN Im surprised they would dump the helmets in the river, they could have been used by militia , even a liner is better than nothing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgtdorango Posted July 17, 2019 Share #10 Posted July 17, 2019 I think the helmets being dumped in the river look like french helmets possibly...probably symbolic , then later maybe they were like "oh crap we could have used those".....mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOLO Posted July 17, 2019 Author Share #11 Posted July 17, 2019 I think the helmets being dumped in the river look like french helmets possibly...probably symbolic , then later maybe they were like "oh crap we could have used those".....mike maybe these are leftover from the French when they were defeated at Dien Bien Phu? they must have had tons of these laying around, the country side was probably littered with these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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