1/5/2024 0 Comments Vietnam tank battles![]() (A North Vietnamese PT-76 which was knocked out by a M72 LAW shoulder-fired rocket, a common anti-tank weapon of the South Vietnamese and American armies. This lightly-armored tank was more suitable for scouting and infantry support than direct tank vs tank battles. North Vietnam also used the Cold War-era PT-76 amphibious tank, also a Soviet design. (A North Vietnamese T-54/55 leads two T-34s during a training exercise in the 1970s.) The infantrymen are wearing the WWII-era M1 steel pot which was the ARVN’s standard helmet it’s whole existence.) North Vietnam used both types, with the T-54/55 being more common. (South Vietnamese infantry pose on a captured North Vietnamese Type 59 the Chinese copy of the Soviet T-54/55. North Vietnam also used the Type 59, a Chinese-made clone of the T-54/55. The main North Vietnamese tank was the Cold War-era T-54/55 of Soviet manufacture. All of Vietnam’s actual T-34s had the newer design common to the T-54/55.)īy the start of the main American involvement in the Vietnam War, the T-34 had already been pushed to the lowest tier of North Vietnamese armor. This particular vehicle has the older-style roadwheels. (A Type 63 SPAAG captured by South Vietnamese troops. On the other hand, it was surprisingly effective against helicopters and low-level planes like the A-1 Skyraider and A-37 Dragonfly. It was of course, completely useless against high-altitude B-52 Stratofortress bombers. The gun was optically-sighted and manually-operated, and of limited use against modern tactical strike jets. The Type 63 had the chassis and drivetrain of a T-34 but a thinly-armored open-top turret with a twin 37mm AA gun. The PAVN also operated the Type 63, a Chinese-made self-propelled anti-aircraft gun (SPAAG). This may be the artist’s imagination, as tanks were assigned to the regular army, not VC.) (From a Russian book on the Vietnam War, this artwork shows a T-34 in the red-blue-yellow colors of the Viet Cong. Vietnam typically retained the standard Soviet color schemes.) (The inside of a Vietnamese T-34, showing the sightpiece and breech of the 85mm main gun. Heavily armored and well-designed, the T-34 is generally regarded as one of the best, if not the best, tank of WWII and even in the 1950s and 1960s was still a formidable opponent. The T-34 weighed 35 tons and was armed with a ZiS-S-53 85mm main gun which could fire either armor-piercing or high-explosive rounds. The spare track links on the glacis provided a bit of extra protection.) (Preserved as a monument, this Vietnamese T-34 shows the DT 7.62mm bow machine gun and also a DShK 12.7mm machine gun fitted on an external mount of Vietnamese design. The North Vietnamese tanks were refurbished in the Soviet Union prior to transfer and most if not all had T-54/55-type road wheels, in addition to a newer (type 10RT) radio. The T-34s delivered to North Vietnam from the USSR were all of the T-34/85 version, with a 85mm main gun. As was the case with many Communist countries during the Cold War, the PAVN’s first tank type was the WWII-vintage T-34. ![]() The North Vietnamese army (officially the People’s Army of Vietnam or PAVN) decided to create a tank arm in October 1959.
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