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And also some regular 37mm/50cal M15A1's vice
M19's at least in AAA battalion supporting the 24th ID at the
beginning, according to the picture books about KW armor. I suppose
therefore they were mostly lost (or converted to "specials"?) rather than
withdrawn from service. In fact the official history mentions loss of AAA
vehicles in some of the roadblock debacles of July 50 w/o specifying
exactly.
Joe
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, September 02, 2002 10:30
PM
Subject: Re: AAA ground support
I looked up the TO&E of the time
and it gives regular (e.g. "Heavy") infantry and armor divisions an SP AA
Battalion. The battalion has four batteries, each of which has two platoons
with four squads each. Two squads have an M16 or M16A1 Multiple Gun Motor
Carraige (MGMC) with a turret mounting four 50 cal M2HB machine guns, and two
squads have an M19 or M19A1 Twin 40mm SP Gun. Total is 4 of each per battery
and 16 of each per battalion.
The halftracks only differed in that the
A1 had big "elephant ear" shields around the gunner's turret. The M19 and
M19A1 differed in that the A1 had a "donkey engine" APU for power when the
vehicle was not moving.
Most appear to have been used as ground
support as there wasn't much call for AA during the day after September 1950,
and without radar they couldn't deal with "Bedcheck Charlie".
The
Maxson M45 turrets from the M16s were used in Vietnam as instant fire support
(for the same reason), but the M19 had been replaced by the M42 Duster (also a
twin 40mm weapon) that also provided ground support.
There were a
handful of "M15 Specials" in Korea which used a flatbed version of the
halftrack with a single 40mm gun on it. But the rest were TO&E units and
standard divisional formations.
Cookie Sewell
AMPS
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