Land Rover 106mm Recoilless Rifle Gun Truck

Land Rover 4x4 106mm Recoilles Rifle Gun Truck Walkaround Gallery, Tyabb, 2010

At the 2010 Tyabb Aerodrome Open Day the Historic Miltary Vehicle Club put on a display of their own. One of the exhibits was this very busy looking 106mm recoilless gun truck, nicknamed a Gun Buggy.

The Land Rover Gun Buggy was designed as a tank killer, with shoot and scoot capabilities, with it’s low profile it could hide in the underbrush, target a tank with the .50 cal sighting rifle and before the tank knew it was disabled by the 106. The Gun Buggy would then depart at speed to avoid being targeted by other tanks. The rear of the aluminium body was shortened to avoid the back blast from the 106 and was clad in sheet steel because the aluminium tended to warp with the heat. Dismounting the 106 and using it as a ground-based artillery piece was possible, but would have been contrary to the Gun Buggy concept.

In Vietnam the 106 recoilless rifles were dismounted because the Viet Cong didn’t have tanks, the 106 were then used as base protection while the Gun Buggy Land Rovers were mounted with M60s on pedestals and used as convoy escorts.

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Graeme Molineux (Grubby Fingers Aircraft Illustration)