Successful acquisition: which captured self-propelled guns were especially appreciated in Vietnam

During the complete defeat of the pro-American South Vietnamese regime in the spring of 1975, a large number of various modern weapons and military equipment became the trophies of the DRV army soldiers.

For example, only 105-mm towed M101 howitzers were captured more than 1,000 pieces, as well as 250 155-mm M114 and a large amount of ammunition for them.

These artillery systems are still in service with the Vietnamese People's Army. So, 105-mm guns of overseas origin were used during the creation of mobile self-propelled installations on the chassis of Russian Ural-4320 all-terrain vehicles.

One of the longest-range self-propelled guns in the 70s, the 175-mm M107, was considered a particularly valuable acquisition. There are about eight dozen of them in total.

They had ten-meter barrels and could hit targets at distances up to 32700 meters. The mass of the projectile was 66.81 kg, and the charge was 24.95 kg. Muzzle velocity - 914 m/s. However, the rate of fire did not exceed two rounds per minute.

The weight of the self - propelled gun itself reached 28200 kg . The maximum thickness of the armor is 13 mm. At the same time, the bottom was not armored at all. The engine power is 405 hp, the maximum speed on the highway is 55 km/h. The power reserve is 720 km .

Interestingly, during the march on board the self-propelled gun, in addition to the driver, there were four more gunners, in the combat position, the calculation increased to thirteen people, including eight loaders.

The M107s were actively used by the Vietnamese in the 80s in Cambodia against the Halfpot fighters. Currently, these self-propelled guns, maintained in a combat-ready state, although with a heavily spent barrel resource, are concentrated on storage bases.

Alexey Brusilov