Saturday, March 15

"Firing into the Brown" #73 - Huey's and gates and stuff...

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update..
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Was there ever a sight that more represented the conflict in Vietnam than massed Huey's?? I'm an old hippy*  but still remain gob smacked at the sheer impact of such sights as this of a sky full of them in support of ground troops..

Photo Credit: The Associated Press

..a lot of people forget that the Australians also did their bit in Vietnam..  and got their air lifts as well.. 

"1965-07-14. Troops of 1st battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR), take up defensive positions after leaving United States Iroquois helicopters that carried them into Viet Cong infested country during operations north of Saigon. The helicopters air-lifted the Australians into action from the Bien Hoa air base".

"Air mobile" love this one.... straight out of Full Metal Jacket, Platoon or Hamburger Hill...😏

"Hueys prepare to pick up members of Company A, 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry to airlift them to a reported enemy ammunition dump in Thang Binh province, 24 miles north of Chu Lai, Jan. 17, 1968".

Just astonished at the number of roles they were adapted to do..  gun ship, troop carrier, first aid, air ambulance, recue..  the list goes on..  they even fitted them with rockets for close ground support..

More than 16,000 of them built to date#.. 

"7,013 UH-1s served in Vietnam and of these 3,305 were destroyed. In total, 1,151 pilots were killed, along with 1,231 other crew members" (source Wiki).



If I was to embark upon another period or project - this would be the one..  only at skirmish level though..

* I'm not really.. I was about 5 years too late, but that was the time and music that I still most associated with as a spotty youth, so bear with.. 😁
# Amazingly, the Huey still remains in production!

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Bit of a grey day when I visited, but I finally made it to the Landport Gate.. 😀

The gate is now part of the perimeter for one of the Royal Navy's sports grounds, but is actually owned by English Heritage..


Note the Crown above the gate - I have read elsewhere that this is all that remains of the previous gate that was demolished when this one was built to replace it.. 


Still imposing - but not as well looked after as I think it deserves..  I'm guessing those arches on the sidewalls are not fireplaces, but passing points - somewhere for pedestrians to stand when a wagon or wide load is going through - or maybe sentry positions? The smaller arches at the back are doorways, and now open to the outside of the structure but I'm guessing that they may originally have led to guard rooms perhaps..


Better view of one of the doorways..




Side view of the gate - following - excuse the exercise mattresses! Guessing the damage you see is from where additional building works that were originally on the side of the gates was removed..  you can see the outside of that side opening I mentioned above


..originally the whole thing would have been much wider - the "wings" on this gate have been removed - if you compare it with this picture, following, you can see how much of it has now gone..  the wings on either side look to have been the same size again as the central arch section.




... a bit of local news.. 😏

It pays to embiggen this one..  a "blackguard horse"..   😁

Lastly - for this gate - this is fascinating..  there's a bit of artistic imagination gone into this, but it looks remarkably accurate..

St. James's Gate next I think..  but all in good time..  😏

More interesting reading:

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 "Laters", as the young people are want to say... 

PS. All the freebies mentioned last week are still available - they go in the recycling if no takers..

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4 comments:

  1. Ben Cato16/03/2025, 01:40

    The sheer number of helicopters used by the US in Vietnam astounds me. While the helicopter scenes in Apocalypse Now and other movies seem awesome the reality was much bigger.
    I have a book "Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason retelling his experience as a pilot during his training and the war and it is very interesting as he concentrates a lot on the mechanics of flying to give you a better idea of how it all worked, the tactics, etc.

    Sad that only a small part of the gate remains but I suppose we are lucky any of it is left.

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    1. Steve-the-Wargamer21/03/2025, 09:42

      Morning Ben, thanks for the comment, yes Chickenhawk is a staple in my library too, along with Dispatches by Michael Herr..

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  2. Jim Walkley16/03/2025, 14:11

    Well, well. Fascinating stuff. Thanks again for the depth of the report on the gate - the youtube clip was also interesting.
    I have just finished a book about key characters involved in the Iran-Contra affair all of whom were graduates of Annapolis Naval Academy and who served in Viet Nam (including John McCain who was again in the news before the US election). One of these, James Webb, wrote a novel about the war which is reputed to be one of the best for relating the troops' experience - 'Fields of Fire'. Regarding the Australians, I remember reading a book about one of their tank commanders who had to 'steer' the driver by tugging cords on his shoulders as their comms were so poor.

    Looking forward to your next instalment Steve.

    All the best.

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    1. Steve-the-Wargamer21/03/2025, 09:43

      Thanks Jim, I'll have to look up "Fields of Fire"..

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