Firearms question

Can anyone tell me what weapons the Haitian military and Tonton Macoutes would have used in the Sixties?

I know the Haitian military started using M-16s they bought from the Americans at some point - the question is which specific year they bought them in. As for the Tonton Macoutes, I'm not quite sure.

The countries in the Caribbean and Central America received a lot of old World War II equipment after the end of the Korean War. I know for a fact, that some Haitian police and army units were still armed with Garands and M1 Carbines in the late 90's. For handguns, they would have Colt Commando .38 revolvers and M1911 .45 automatics. For general purpose rifles, M1 Garands and M1 Carbinea(maybe a few M2 Carbines). For automatic weapons,a limited number of M3 Grease Guns and Browning air cooled machine guns(almost all of the Thompson SMGs were shipped to the Nationalist Chinese). For artillery, I could see a few batteries of 105mm mortars and 75mm pack howitzers. For armored fighting vehicles, M8 Greyhounds(maybe about a dozen) and a small number of M4 Sherman Tanks(maybe 4 to 6). I hoped this helped.

Thank you very much Zanford, that's extremely helpful!

Zanford said:

The countries in the Caribbean and Central America received a lot of old World War II equipment after the end of the Korean War...

Click to expand...

Even crazier, the 1997 Jane's Intelligence rundown for the Mexican Army lists them as being "in the middle" of a switch over from the M1 Garand to the FN-FAL. In 1997!

The Mexican Army was also using Greyhound armoured cars up until then, as well, and even some M3 halftracks. All of them had been reengined of course, and some of the halftracks had been fitted with a mortar for indirect fire support, but the fact still stands: they were pinching every last penny to make that stuff last.

MacCaulay said:

Even crazier, the 1997 Jane's Intelligence rundown for the Mexican Army lists them as being "in the middle" of a switch over from the M1 Garand to the FN-FAL. In 1997!

The Mexican Army was also using Greyhound armoured cars up until then, as well, and even some M3 halftracks. All of them had been reengined of course, and some of the halftracks had been fitted with a mortar for indirect fire support, but the fact still stands: they were pinching every last penny to make that stuff last.

Click to expand...

I know. It's crazy sometimes to think how well this stuff has held up so well. I remember during the last round of fighting in Haiti(I think it was back in 1999), that a group of soldiers was protecting a hospital in Port Au Prince. There were five of them. One "officer" with a Colt Commando revolver. He told the reporter that interviewing him, that he had been issued three rounds. His four man command had been issued with Garands, they had been given four rounds each. So, the government sent five men with nineteen(19) bullets to protect the largest hospital in the country. Needless to say the government was overthrown.