"Start of a NVA Company command section" Topic

And after a longer hiatus here is the next miniature. A NVA NCO blowing a whistle.

More at link

Very nicely done👍

Wow – he's using a STEN!

Certainly possible, but not something I've seen in photos or mentioned in any books I've read.

Ultra light weight.

No need for any servicing or maintenance (no point, see below)

Guaranteed to fire, if dropped or subjected to any trauma.

A marked safety feature, the trigger has a no-fire mechanism that cannot be overridden by the user.

I imagine he got his from the French?

Note right after the end of WWII. UK & Indian forces were the first troops to occupy (Vichy)French Indochina. To accept the IJFs' surrender there. To put then in POW Camps, etc. About 400 or so members of IJF joined Ho's Viet Minh insurgents. To continue the war against their wartime enemies.

The UK had to rearm some of the IJFs to assist them in dealing with the ever growing Viet Minh threat. The French eventually came in to reoccupied their former colonies in that region. At one point the UK, Indian, rearmed Japanese and the French were trying to eliminate the Viet Minh.

This is even before it became France's war alone to keep their Indochinese colonies. With France's final defeat in May of '54.

The STEN was used by both sides in the Vietnam War.

US special forces used them with suppressers for close kills. Check our MACV SOG pack for one.

The STEN on this figure is a Chi Com special that were rare but used from the 1950's onwards. The figure was designed as a political officer and so we wanted something a bit special to make him look different amongst the troops he was inspiring. Thus we gave him a Chi Com STEN. The main difference is that the magazine is set at an angle, which is not too clear in the picture. The Chinese did the modification to help stop jams.

Cheers, Paul

here is another picture from a different angle:

hope that makes Pauls point clearer

Thanks. An unusual weapon that does help the figure stand out.

Yes, MACV-SOG could and did carry a number of weapons that were not US made. When I was in Army ROTC, '75-'79, one of our instructors was SF with 2 or more tours in SE Asia. He talked about carrying an MP-40, IIRC.