Land Craft 5: M113 (Paperback)
American Armoured Personnel Carrier
Imprint: Pen & Sword Military
Series: Land Craft
Pages: 64
Illustrations: 200 colour & black and white illustrations
ISBN: 9781526789778
Published: 12th February 2021
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Video review as featured on the Tank and AFV News YouTube Channel
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The M113 has become as much a recognisable part of the US military machine at war as the Bell UH-1 Iroquois and M16 assault rifle. Earning its stripes in the jungles and highlands of Vietnam, it became the most widely armoured vehicle of the campaign. Such was its prowess that the Viet Cong gave it the nickname Green Dragon on account of its ability to go virtually anywhere.
Its ground-breaking aluminium hull gives the M113 a relatively low weight of 12ts, this allows it to be easily transported by air and gives it an amphibious ability. The design was also easy to modify and can carry a range of support and indirect fire weapons. From mortars to ballistic missiles, the M113 spawned a progeny of useful and innovative vehicles.
The base M113 is lightly armoured and safe against only the lightest of small arms fire and shell splinter. As a result a range of up-armour packages have been used in the past, from sandbags to complex appliqué armour.
80,000 M113s of all types have been produced and are in use with over 50 countries, making it one of the most widely used armoured fighting vehicles to be produced. Indeed such was its popularity that the US bought their final M113s in as late as 2007.
The M113 was designed and developed by the Food Machinery Corporation (FMC) to replace the heavier and less reliable steel-bodied M59 and M75 armoured personnel carriers. It was specifically designed to be lighter, air-portable and have amphibious capability. Carrying a crew of two, driver and commander, who manned the M113’s only weapon, a .50cal machine gun, the M113 would transport 11 soldiers into combat before withdrawing to the rear.
Powered initially by a V8 petrol engine the M113 would be continuously up-engined throughout its frontline and subsequent rear support lifespan. Changes included improved suspension, smoke dischargers and externally fitted fuel tanks. Other changes have included armoured commander’s turrets and slat armour.
This LandCraft title looks at the M113s development where the FMC sought to utilise its chassis into as many roles as possible, from smoke generators to flamethrowers. The book also looks at how the M113 was adapted for use by numerous overseas customers and how these are upgraded to suit local conditions.
Finally the title looks at the M113’s changing roles in the more sophisticated contemporary battlescape and how it’s still providing service in theatres across the world in a variety of roles, both combat and support.
For the modeller there is nothing more important than the little things and this image-rich section of Land Craft's M113 title delivers the goods. Filled with crisp photos that show the M113’s many details, combined with helpful accompanying text, forms an enviable visual guide for the enthusiast and modeller alike.
This book is an ideal fit for APC modelers.
Vintage Airfix
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Quality documentation that will delight vehicle modelers, historians and military researchers.
Miniaturas JM
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"Enjoyed it."
The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society
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A welcome addition to the very popular Land Craft Series. Aimed at model makers, this series has become popular with a much wider readership, due to the excellent text describing the subject vehicle and its deployment, including unit structures. – Very Highly Recommended
Firetrench
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Overall, a useful book for research and model making.
Army Rumour Service (ARRSE)
Highly Recommended for anyone interested in the M113 as a modeler or history aficionado.
The Armor Modeling and Preservation Society
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Several model kits are available and this is a good guide to them and how they can be detailed appropriately. Useful for militaria buffs.
York Model Engineers Newsletter, May 2021
The book, while dealing with a vast theme and which obviously deserves an encyclopedic tome, manages to give an excellent narrative of the development of an iconic medium which is still used in many countries 8 and which will most likely continue to be so until 2050). The photos, many, of the various versions, the color profiles and the assembled models represent an inspiration for those who want to try their hand at this hobby, as well as the information present is useful to the historian who wants to know more about one of the iconic vehicles of the War of the Vietnam is one of the main means of the Western arsenal in the Cold War. All that remains is to find an M113 on the kit market (following the useful guide at the end of the book) and try your hand at assembly!
On The Old Barbed Wire
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Video review on Scale Modelling Now
Scale Modelling Now
Another good addition to the LandCraft series which I am sure modellers will enjoy.
Military Model Scene, Robin Buckland
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Another excellent addition to the series.
Michael McCarthy
Michael McCarthy. Battlefield Guide
About Ben Skipper
BEN SKIPPER AMRAeS is a freelance feature writer with over 100 articles published on art, military and field sports subjects. He is an Associate Member of Royal Aeronautical Society and the Pen and Sword Club (military journalists and writers), a Freeman of the City of London and the Company of Communicators, a full member of the British Guild of Agricultural Journalists, the NUJ and the Society of Authors. Ben is an avid modeller and writer of twentieth-century military subjects. His interest in British armour was cemented by a visit to the King’s Royal Hussars in the early 1990s as an undergraduate in the Territorial Army. He then joined the RAF, clocking up air miles in a range of RAF transport aircraft including the VC10 and C-17.