Upon deployment to Vietnam, the Australian SASR Troopers were initially armed with a standard L1A1, which was comparable in size to the US M14 and not well suited to jungle operations.
To overcome this, they unofficially field modified them by chopping down the heavy barrel off immediately in front of the gas block for easier handling. They removed the hand guard/bipods and added an a XM148 40mm grenade launcher mounted below the barrel or a pistol grip.
The original L1A1 was not fully-automatic, so they simply filed down the selector, or inserted a ‘foreign body’ to block the sear. They would typically be equipped with 30-round magazines, either the straight version specifically made for the L2A1, or the slightly curved on used on the L4 Bren conversion.
The end result was simply called “The Bitch”
When contact was initiated, the typical SASR 5-man patrol would lay down massive amounts of fire. The sound and flash of the chopped barrels added to the ‘shock and awe’ effect, which disoriented the enemy. The combination of full auto fire, huge muzzle blasts and ear splitting gunfire would often make the enemy think they had blundered onto a full platoon or a heavy weapons company. One trooper made the comment that without the flash hider, the muzzle blast would cauterize the wound at 15 inches and that it sounded like a 50cal going off. #fuckaround #improvise #stayzero #zerofoxtrot