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First published in Great Britain in 2017
This electronic edition published in 2017 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
© 2017 Osprey Publishing Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any form, without prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Inquiries should be addressed to the Publisher.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
PB ISBN: 978 1 4728 1952 9
ePub ISBN: 978 1 4728 1954 3
ePDF ISBN: 978 1 4728 1953 6
XML ISBN: 978 1 4728 2342 7
Front cover, above: A 40mm M79 grenade launcher fitted with a battered, black-painted fiberglass buttstock. New-issue stocks were dark brown. The rear leaf sight is set for direct fire. (AS Royal Armouries PR.12095)
Front cover, below: A Marine assigned to Battalion Landing Team 2/5, 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (31st MEU) participates in an enhanced marksmanship program shoot aboard the amphibious dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49). He is armed with a 5.56mm M4 carbine mounting a 40mm M203A1 grenade launcher. (US Navy)
Title page: US Marines cautiously search a village. The M79 and other grenade launchers were of limited use at such short ranges. Buckshot cartridges were of use, however, not only because of the short range, less close-in blast and fragmentation danger to friendlies, but also because buckshot can penetrate bamboo, sheet metal, and plywood construction materials. (US Marine Corps)
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Acknowledgments
The author sincerely thanks: Trey Moore of mooremilitaria.com; Brett Holman of VietnamGear.com; Tom Laemlein of armorplatepress.com; Edward Rudnicki for sharing reference materials; Patrick J. Owens, Historian, Picatinny Arsenal NJ; Annette Amerman of the Marine Corps Historical Center; Frederick Adolphus of the Fort Polk Museum; Robert K. Suchke of Co. L, 75th Infantry; Michael Do of The Vietnamese American Community of the USA; Canadian Military Police Virtual Museum (http://mpmuseum.org/); MACV-SOG Living History Group (http://www.modernforces.com); and a special thanks to Erik Solberg of Milkor USA, Inc.
Editor’s note
In this book linear, weight, and volume measurements are given in US customary units of measurement (yards, feet, inches, pounds, grains). The exception is weapons caliber, where metric is used in many cases, depending on the context. The US military habitually uses metric for weapon ranges and distances. Conversions from metric into US customary are given in the text for clarity.
Abbreviations
AG
Anbaugranatwerfer (attached grenade launcher – German H&K AG36)
A-PERS
antipersonnel (flechettes)
ARVN
Army of the Republic of Vietnam (pronounced “ar-vin”)
AT
antitank
CS
2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (tear-gas/riot-control agent)
DNS
day/night sight (AN/PSQ-18A for M320)
GL
grenade launcher
GLM
Grenade Launcher Module (M320)
H&K
Heckler & Koch (“HK” when used in designations)
HE
high-explosive
HEAT
high-explosive antitank (shaped charge) (pronounced “heat”)
HEDP
high-explosive dual-purpose (shaped charge and fragmentation)
HE/frag
high-explosive/fragmentation
IAR
Infantry Automatic Rifle (M27)
LAW
Light Antitank Weapon (M72-series) (pronounced “law”)
LMG
light machine gun
MACV-SOG
Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies & Observation Group (pronounced “mac-vee-sog”)
MGL
multiple grenade launcher (aka MSGL) (M32, Mk 14)
MIL-STD
Military Standard (pronounced “mil-stan”)
MP
multiple-projectile (buckshot) (not “multipurpose”)
rd/min
rounds per minute
RGL
rifle grenade launcher
RT
reconnaissance (recon) team (4–12 men)
SAW
squad automatic weapon (M249 – redesignated LMG in 1994) (pronounced “saw”)
SEAL
Sea–Air–Land (naval special warfare) (pronounced “seal”)
SF
Special Forces (“Green Berets”)
SMG
submachine gun (XM177E2)
SOCOM
US Special Operations Command (pronounced “so-comm”)
SOF
Special Operations Forces (collective term) (pronounced “sof”)
SOPMOD
Special Operations Peculiar Modification kit for M4A1 carbine (pronounced “sop-mod”)
STANAG
[NATO] Standardization Agreement (pronounced “sta-nag”)
TP
training practice (aka practice)
UBGL
under-barrel grenade launcher (XM148, M203, M320)
USALWL
US Army Limited War Laboratory
WP
white phosphorus (burning-type white screening smoke and casualty-producing incendiary compound) (“Willie Pete”)
RGL is a non-standard abbreviation, but used in this work to differentiate between standalone and 40mm under-barrel grenade launchers as opposed to spigot and cup-type grenade launchers that attached to rifle muzzles.