American Purchase of WW2 bombs

I heard that the US, during the latter half of the Vietnam war started running out of bombs from Germany and other allies. Is there any truth in that statement and if possible may I see a source?
 
May I know a source where the US was using WWII bombs from Germany?

It's not quite WWII era, but the Forrestal Fire was partially due to their use of old style bombs from Subic Bay, some of which dated back to the Korean War. Bombs that were so old the ordinance handlers on the Forrestal had never actually seen their type, and had been trained on safety on an entirely different and far more safe bomb. The commander of the ordinance detachment at Subic Bay actually assumed they were intended to be thrown over the side of the ordinance ship en route to Yankee Station, and explicitly refused the transfer once he found out they were actually going to be bolted to a jet fighter and launched off a carrier, till he got orders from CINCPAC on teletype absolving him of responsibility if/when the inevitable happened.
 
Would the bombs in question not in any case be US made bombs that had been moved for storage in or given to NATO allies ?
 
Given that 3 times as many bonbs were used in Vietnam than ww2 I would not be surprised if the USA just said let run down our stock pile and our allies stockpile of ordinance thats nearing obsolescence.
 
The Vietnam era Mk 80 series became the Paveways and GBUs of a later era with a screw-on nose and tail, so they would not be nearing obsolescence. General Dynamics was the original contractor for Mk 80s.
 
As far as I remember from various memoirs and the like- Jack Broughton's and Robin Olds' in particular, as well as the collections edited by Tommy Towery- the US used up the last of it's Korean War era stocks in Vietnam, the 750lb M117 and 3,000lb M118 in particular frequently mentioned early on, extinct by war's end, most of them having fallen off of B52's in the meantime.

Earlier, it had used up most of the WWII stocks in Korea.

The last of the mark 110 series' time in service overlapped with, and they were replaced by, the familiar mark 80- series, still in service today- much more streamlined and suitable for high speed aircraft.

What did happen was an underestimate of bomb usage that led to a temporary shortage in late 1966 about which there was much bitching and some outrageous Pentagon lies- McNamara's claim, made personally, that the bombs were in theater therefore they were available.

They were on ammunition ships in Vung Tau harbour. They had yet to be unloaded, transported, uncrated, fused, and delivered to squadron bomb dumps- two month backlog. They were in theater, therefore there was no shortage.

(Olds' comments on SAC and it's ability to screw up by the numbers make interesting reading, incidentally. Between that and Broughton's comment that "We never met the MiG first team", one is left with the impression that at least one leg of the American strategic triad was at least badly sprained.)
 
IIUC the USN didn't use m117 and m118 bombs so when mk83 stocks ran low they resorted to using ww2 bombs that were in so called storage in the Philippines.

As for Germany I would not be surprised if the US took bombs from stocks in Germany , nor would I be surprised if the US bought bombs from Germany to make up the numbers . But I would assume that these would be US types , mk80 and m110 pattern bombs supplied since 1955 rather than bombs produced during ww2 for the Nazi Luftwaffe.
 
Alright, I just read the original source in a book about the Intrepid. Also inspired by the fact that we used our last Vietnam bomb recently
 
As far as I remember from various memoirs and the like- Jack Broughton's and Robin Olds' in particular, as well as the collections edited by Tommy Towery- the US used up the last of it's Korean War era stocks in Vietnam, the 750lb M117 and 3,000lb M118 in particular frequently mentioned early on, extinct by war's end, most of them having fallen off of B52's in the meantime.

Earlier, it had used up most of the WWII stocks in Korea.

The last of the mark 110 series' time in service overlapped with, and they were replaced by, the familiar mark 80- series, still in service today- much more streamlined and suitable for high speed aircraft.

What did happen was an underestimate of bomb usage that led to a temporary shortage in late 1966 about which there was much bitching and some outrageous Pentagon lies- McNamara's claim, made personally, that the bombs were in theater therefore they were available.

They were on ammunition ships in Vung Tau harbour. They had yet to be unloaded, transported, uncrated, fused, and delivered to squadron bomb dumps- two month backlog. They were in theater, therefore there was no shortage.

(Olds' comments on SAC and it's ability to screw up by the numbers make interesting reading, incidentally. Between that and Broughton's comment that "We never met the MiG first team", one is left with the impression that at least one leg of the American strategic triad was at least badly sprained.)

Little known factoid about Vietnam is that the original war plan for ROLLING THUNDER was predicated upon availability of ordnance that didn't actually exist in the numbers assumed by the Air Force planning staff, and even the widely criticized downsized version approved by President Johnson came very close to exhausting the supplies for conventional munitions. And that was BEFORE the more widely publicized screw-up over the inability to clear backlogs held in floating storage. John Prados wrote a very informative article about this scandal that ought to be required reading for any student of the Vietnam War.
 
I'm pretty sure the only states who still had WW2 munitions in bulk by the 1960s were Communist bloc countries, given the Russians fetish for not throwing away any sort of weapons system.

Although Americans purchasing Soviet munitions to bomb North Vietnamese troops has all sorts of ironic overtones.
 
I'm pretty sure the only states who still had WW2 munitions in bulk by the 1960s were Communist bloc countries, given the Russians fetish for not throwing away any sort of weapons system.

Although Americans purchasing Soviet munitions to bomb North Vietnamese troops has all sorts of ironic overtones.
Actually, according to the book I read, Air Force managed to get the West Germans to sell their stock (Which shows how much we appreciated them:p)
 
Actually, according to the book I read, Air Force managed to get the West Germans to sell their stock (Which shows how much we appreciated them:p)

I'm not surprised , did the west Germans have their own bomb production line ? It would make sense given the size of the Luftwaffe in the 60s.


Sorting this sort of thing out is a silver lining to the nightmare of Vietnam. While US foreign policy was screwed for a while the soviet would assume that the US munition pipeline was well and truly sorted and able do its job in a ww3 scenario .
 
I'm pretty sure the only states who still had WW2 munitions in bulk by the 1960s were Communist bloc countries, given the Russians fetish for not throwing away any sort of weapons system.

During the Falklands Conflict, the Belgrano was sunk using Mark VIII torpedoes, which were WWII vintage. So Britain was still using some WWII munitions in the 1980s.

Cheers,
Nigel
 
During the Falklands Conflict, the Belgrano was sunk using Mark VIII torpedoes, which were WWII vintage. So Britain was still using some WWII munitions in the 1980s.

Cheers,
Nigel

They were based on a WW2 design, but I'm pretty sure they hadn't been sitting in stores for 40 years. At the RN submarine museum they said that the design was used as a base for further development, so I supect it was probably a newer version.
 
During the Falklands Conflict, the Belgrano was sunk using Mark VIII torpedoes, which were WWII vintage. So Britain was still using some WWII munitions in the 1980s.

Cheers,
Nigel

Were the Mk VIIIs used bythe Conquerer actually built in WW2? The Mk VIII certainly is a WW2 vintage design but given the lack of other torpedoes in the RN service I wouldn't be surprised if they were still being produced into the 60s. Given the reliability of the weapons fired in 1982 I'd suggest that the RN also had an effective rework and maintenance programme.
 
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