Interesting NVA history theory

[Bunker]

Here is presumably one of their underground facilities but I can't source the photo. Supposedly it's in a book about the Vietnam War but I can't confirm it. Other than workshops this is the only photo I have seen of any facility during the Vietnam War. Doesn't prove anything regarding this topic but does show some level of machining, assuming the photo is authentic. 

[Loose}{Cannon]

I'm confident they had some level of repair ability. 

[Power Surge]

Regardless, that's still a neat picture!

[Loose}{Cannon]

I see a bunch of helmets stacked up and no guns....   

But if that's a barrel on the lathe....  Thats one big azz barrel.   

[Dannyboy53]

Interesting discussion but I have one observation for what it's worth. We tend to inject our thought processes into the Oriental mind of say 50 years ago and this is ridiculous in the extreme in my opinion. We can not know anything at all of what these folks would or might have thought...pure conjecture and nothing more.

I think this may be causing some confusion in the great research going on in this membership.

[montigre]

Interesting discussion but I have one observation for what it's worth. We tend to inject our thought processes into the Oriental mind of say 50 years ago and this is ridiculous in the extreme in my opinion. We can not know anything at all of what these folks would or might have thought...pure conjecture and nothing more.

I think this may be causing some confusion in the great research going on in this membership.

Can you please be a little more specific regarding what aspects the Western mindset is being injected into the research?  Thanks.

[Dannyboy53]

Can you please be a little more specific regarding what aspects the Western mindset is being injected into the research?  Thanks.

More simply put...we can not presume to think like those folks did half a century ago. Please note I did not say "injected into the research"!

[montigre]

I discovered the reason for the fat star stamp.  The stamp is based on the National flag of North Vietnam which was the fat star or the Viet Minh flag used from 1945 to 1954.



From 1955/56 to the present, the more streamlined star became the politically accepted emblem

[martin08]

Reverting back to the gunbroker auction description which started this thread (Rolling Thunder flattened the factory in 1965, and then the M21 replaced the Star-1):  No 'physical' evidence exists for the factory or the bombing of the factory.  But there are physical attributes of the M21 which would preclude its production as post-1965.

Now, the what if:  Did North Vietnam simply have a contractual agreement with China for these specifically Star-1 stamped guns with sequential serials, and just didn't have enough coin to buy lots of them?

[Power Surge]

The best thing about this topic is that it can never really be answered. And exploring all the theories makes for interesting observations.

Personally, I don't believe that the different stars on the receivers correspond to the date change of the flag. It makes zero sense for that point in time. The flag change was 54 into 55. The Chinese weren't even making the SKS in 54, and they were just learning to make them in 55 and not into their own full production till 56. So why would the Chinese be making another country their own SKS, when they themselves are just starting to learn to make it? Makes no sense.

I think people may be looking too much into the star differences. Remember what I said earlier.... the North Korean guns have a fat star stamp on their stocks, and they NEVER used a fat star for anything.

Now I've seen people mention that the Chinese switched to short lug in 65, so why are the "65" NVAs long lug if they were built in 65?

Well, think about it....  There's only a couple thousand estimated NVAs for each year. Jianshe is switching to short lug barrels, but still have a few thousand longs left. Wouldn't it make sense to use them up on a gun you're making for someone else?

Just some food for thought

[Loose}{Cannon]

I dont personally put too much on the fat vs sharp star. I just think its interesting.