America Used Nazi MP40s in Vietnam - MACV-SOG Secret Weapons (video)

Mark Felton Productions ^ | 2/19/26 | Mark Felton

[MAGA2017]

American soldiers fighting in Vietnam armed with WWII German MP40s? Sounds ridiculous, but it's absolutely true. One special forces unit used a few old MP40s on operations obtained via the CIA - the famous MACV-SOG.

Well, as those of you who have followed this channel for many years will know that I have made a video about this very subject though in the case of German World War II weapons from the perspective of their use by North Vietnam and the VietCong rather than by the Americans. Then I came upon this photograph taken in the mid 1960s in Vietnam, clearly showing a U.S. soldier carrying a World War II German MP40 machine pistol. His uniform is odd and his equipment is odder,but there is a logical explanation to this image.

The soldier in the photograph belonged to a very secret military organization active in the Vietnam War, known today by the acronym MACV SOG, which stood for Military Assistance Command Vietnam Studies and Observation Group. Sounds harmless enough, but in fact, MACV SOG was one of the most lethal and effective military forces deployed by the United States to Indo-China. And it's no surprise that it was directly linked to the CIA rather than the U.S. military...

[Robert DeLong]

Guilty as charged. I was influnced by this one statement in the post:

Then I came upon this photograph taken in the mid 1960s in Vietnam, clearly showing a U.S. soldier carrying a World War II German MP40 machine pistol. His uniform is odd and his equipment is odder,but there is a logical explanation to this image.

Which made me stop reading right there. In fact, I probably didn't even finish readiing the entire sentence as presented. 🤣

Had I read the next sentence, before posting, where they mention the CIA was where these weaopans were aquired from, I might have watched the video. Which I have now watched. 😁👍

Thanks for setting me straight. 😁👍

Impossible to watch every video presented. It might have helped had the poster added that the video was less than 10 minutes in length. 😁👍

[GingisK]

The M60 was not derived from the MP40; it was a hybrid from the Maschinengewehr 42.

I can assume you didn't see my corrective post immediately following the first one.

Thanks for the interesting tidbits regarding the MP40 lineage. Firearm development is a captivating subject.

[GingisK]

I’ve taken the M60 apart, never seen an MG42 in the “flesh”.

[NFHale]

Yes I did, thank you!

Love the development aspect too. Brilliant minds at work over the last 150+ years.

[Tallguy]

In the War of Independence (1947 - 48) the Israelis were flying a mish-mash of aircraft including Czech-built Me-109’s.

The Arab Armies had a few German Stugs for armor in the ‘56 War.

The French had a battalion of Panzer-V “Panthers” that they operated until their homegrown tanks re-appeared.

Europe had a pretty free-wheeling arms smuggling industry with all that WW2 weaponry sloshing around.

[ansel12]

Normally watching videos is also a no go for me but this one was informative and the images were needed to flesh out the information.

Something that I remember well was that the Vietnam war produced not just combat veterans but especially among the green berets were some cold stone killers, at Tigerland you could see it in some of the Special Forces older guys with their jungle formed slender bodies and black dead eyes and nothing but no nonsense intensity, the majority were normal combat vets, but on a few, it really showed.

[shotgun]

My sister was dating a guy in 1975 and he showed up on our farm one day with an actual MP3. He had recently received it from his late brother who had served in Vietnam and shipped it home in a stereo speaker.

We had some fun that day.

[jmacusa]

No it wasn’t. The MG42 was the gun the US military used for the M60.

One of the draw backs to the MP 40 is that long magazine makes it tough to fire from a prone position and the MG 42’s problems were it ate too much ammo and the barrels tended to heat up fast.

[shotgun]

Sorry, meant to type M3

[NFHale]

Just imagine all of those crates of BARS, Thompson’s M1 Garand, etc., etc. that were on supply ships that got sunk… Still wrapped in waterproof paper, still greased up with Cosmoline….

Probably completely useless now with saltwater acting on them over 80 years later.

[NFHale]

Yeah, they are a lot of fun to shoot… They just chug chug chug away

[spintreebob]

There were other “oddities” in the Vietnam war. I was personnel clerk in a Artillery battery with 2 8” and 2 175mm guns. We were a bastard unit. We had no parent unit. Our Lt (promoted to Captain) reported to nobody on organization charts.

The rumors were that we had tactical nukes in the locked cabinets that would be used if the US ever got into a Dien Bien Pho situation. But having nukes also presented a risk. By not reporting any chain of command, no senior officer could be blamed in any mishap that might occur.

But the young, risk taking officer fresh out of West Point had a path to rapid advancement...if things went well.

[butlerweave]

I have a K98 Israel converted to 7.62 ,LOL

[FreedomPoster]

My dad loved the M3 grease gun, and no, I don’t think it was an MP40 knock off. developed in response to, yes.

It was often used for vehicle crews because it was compact and reasonably reliable.

[Vermont Lt]

My grandfather was the liaison with the British Army for the Enfield production in the US (in Chicopee, MA). In the same shops they made the Thompson. My Dad talks about going in there when he was home on leave and getting to shoot all of the weapons they had at their test range. He said the Thompson was a bitch to shoot.

He eventually has an EIB, so he knew about weapons.

I loved going to the Armory in Springfield and seeing all the stuff they made there.

Thanks for your information.

[notdownwidems]

Is that what was known as a ‘burp gun’?

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Nazi MP 40s. I didn’t know that German machine pistols had their own wing in the Nazi Party. Did they have a special salute or unique arm bands?

[Robert DeLong]

Yes, I too found it to be informative. But then you have to watch it to come to that conclusion. I was watching Steve Bannon's War Room on RAV at the time, so I really didn't have the time during the commercial break it was in at the time I started looking at that post. 😁👍

Fortunately, I never had to experience the war. I considered going into the miltary, but never did. But I certainly can understand why some of them who returned certainly had theat expresion of which you described. I never, ever, hated those people who went to that conflict. I stood with them and their call toduty

I hated those who hated them.

My father & grandfather both were involved in WWII. My father in Italy, and my grandfather in Germany. Neither one offered up their experiences, and my inquires were limited to be sure because of that.

[Charles Martel]

Yes, both the M3 and the Sten had designs that appear to be MP-40 derivatives. Lots of earlier designs are part of the lineage, too - the WWI-era MP-18, for example. Mark Novak has a good restoration video of one of those on YouTube.

[Who is John Galt?]

There were other “oddities” in the Vietnam war...

Probably true for most wars. Here's one I ran across in Jean Huon's Military Rifle & Machine Gun Cartridges, under ".30-30 Winchester":

"Although never adopted as a service cartridge, it has seen limited use as issue ammo in many countries... including the United States... Some horse-drawn wagon drivers and mountain troops used Winchester [Model 1894] carbines during World War I."

But don't tell the Democrats that grandpa's deer rifle was a military weapon, or they'll try to ban it...

;^)