American aviation flew away, the strong-minded wonThe classic war "army against army" has become a very important component of the Vietnam War ("The echo of the Vietnam War is heard in Ukraine", "HBO" from 17.02.23). In this case, we are not talking about the first ever high-tech war of American aviation against the air defense of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV)
(" Phantoms" against MiGs ", "HBO" from 03/24.23), and about large-scale battles on land. [...]
However, even until now, this part of the general Vietnam war does not seem to exist in the mass consciousness: it has been completely obscured by the guerrilla war ("The myth of the invincibility of the partisans has long been time to reconsider ", "HBO" from 10.03.23).
THE PARTISANS WENT ON A CAMPAIGNHowever, this phenomenon is partly understandable: in the actions of the Vietnamese Communists, the guerrilla and classical wars were sometimes intertwined to the point of complete indistinguishability.
This was noticeable even during the war with the French (" Indochina catastrophe ", "HBO" from 05/24/19), in which the regular army of the DRV, consisting of "correct" regiments and divisions, fought mainly by guerrilla methods.
In the same way, the Vietnamese Communists began to fight against the United States. Already since the late 1950s, the regular Armed Forces of the DRV soldiers have been infiltrating the south in an organized manner to help local communist partisans.
Naturally, joining the South Vietnamese partisan detachments, North Vietnamese soldiers and officers fought with the same guerrilla methods. And they achieved very great success against the South Vietnamese army. Until the United States entered the war on the side of Saigon.
After that, the Communists began to have serious problems, which they wanted to solve with one blow by holding the New Year Offensive of 1968. This operation ended in a heavy military defeat for the Communists (although, as it later became clear, they won a major victory in the information space), with the South Vietnamese partisans suffering the main losses. After that, the whole burden of the war finally fell on the DRV army.
It was this "guerrilla army" that conducted the first tank battle of the Vietnam War in March 1969. The American camp in South Vietnam was attacked by 12 PT-76 floating tanks and several BTR-50P floating tanks. It was not possible to capture the camp, the Communists lost two PT-76 and one BTR-50, knocking out the American M48. It should be noted that the Vietnamese vehicles had only bulletproof armor, the American tank had anti–shell armor (and a 90-mm cannon against the 76-mm on the PT-76). Therefore, the exchange turned out to be almost equal in general.
The real fighting between the regular troops of the two Vietnamese began in February 1971, when the Southerners invaded Laos in order to stop the Communists from supplying their troops in South Vietnam along the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" that went through Laos and Cambodia. The Americans, for political reasons, forbade their ground forces to invade Laos and only supported the Southerners with aviation. The Southerners could not fight without the Americans. For the Communists, the "Ho Chi Minh trail" was too important, so they put up three divisions and several separate regiments to protect it.
Almost all the losses of the DRV army – 88 tanks (33 T-54 and similar Chinese Tour 59, about the same number of T-34-85, up to 22 PT-76), 13 guns – fell on the actions of American aviation. But she could not save the Southerners either. Already in early March, they fled Laos, having lost 54 M41 tanks, 80 M113 armored personnel carriers, 96 guns, and all engineering equipment. The Americans, saving the Allies, lost 108 helicopters.
NEW YEAR'S OFFENSIVEIn 1972, Hanoi decided to repeat the New Year's Offensive in order to completely defeat the enemy and capture the entire South Vietnam.
Unlike the failed event of 1968, this time it was not partisans or partisan soldiers who acted on the part of the DRV, but a regular army consisting of 14 divisions and 26 regiments, staffed with people and equipment on a full staff.
True, the Communists had no air support and weak ground air defense (only anti-aircraft artillery, machine guns and a few portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS). A few MiGs, like the S-75 anti-aircraft missile systems, carried out air defense of the DRV, especially since since April the Americans have resumed full-scale bombing of the north. The strike was carried out in three directions at once: from the DRV itself, from Laos and from Cambodia – in the north, center and south of South Vietnam, respectively.
The offensive, which began on March 30, 1972, received the name "Easter" in the historical literature. Fierce fighting continued until the end of May, and in some areas – until autumn. The Communists not only failed to completely defeat the enemy, but also failed to take the key cities – Hue, Kontum, Pleiku, An-Lok.
The main, if not the only reason for the disruption of the plans of the Northerners were the active actions of American aviation, including strategic bombers B-52. However, unlike the New Year's Offensive of 1968, the Easter Offensive did not become a complete defeat of the Communists. They managed to capture significant territories in the north-west of South Vietnam, which practically secured the "Ho Chi Minh Trail" and created bridgeheads for new offensives.
The DRV army lost up to 60 T-34-85, 134 T-54 and Tour 59, up to 50 PT-76, up to 10 captured M41s. The absolute majority of these losses were due to the actions of the B-52, which destroyed entire Communist units with carpet bombing, as well as AN-1 "Cobra" attack helicopters, used anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) Tow.
The South Vietnamese 20th Tank Regiment, the only one equipped with the M48, lost all 42 tanks that were part of it. The count of the destroyed M41 and M113 went to hundreds, since these machines could not resist even the T-34-85, not to mention the T-54 /Tour 59.
In January 1973, the United States withdrew its troops from Vietnam. The war cost them 58,169 killed (according to other sources – 56,209 killed and 5,221 died of wounds). Another 424 people were killed by their Australian allies.
As for losses in armored vehicles, the data are very vague. Approximately we can talk about 120 M48, 100 M551 light tanks, at least 200 M113.
The US Naval aviation lost at least 360 A-4 "Skyhawk" jet attack aircraft, A-7 "Corsair" – up to 100, A-6 "Intruder– - 85. However, a significant part of these aircraft were shot down by the DRV air defense over North Vietnam.
But all the losses of piston attack aircraft (more than 250 A-1, 22 A-37) fell on the battles in South Vietnam. Six AC-130 gunships were also lost there (due to a shortage of attack aircraft, a Hercules was created with machine-gun and artillery weapons that fired through special doors in the side perpendicular to the course of the aircraft: machine guns and 20-mm Vulcan guns were installed on the AC-130A, and the AC-130E was added to them 105-mm gun M102) and at least 50 proper transport C-130 "Hercules".
The main weapon of the Americans in the South, literally "all of them", were helicopters. Without them, US troops would not have lasted a year in Vietnam. But the losses in these machines turned out to be colossal: up to 4.9 thousand units. In particular, 3305 multipurpose UH-1s, 295 combat AN-1s, 45 reconnaissance OH-58s and 842 OH-6s, 160 transport CH-46s and 136 CH-47s were lost.
It can be noted that since 1972, the Communists began using the Strela-2 MANPADS, having managed to shoot down more than 40 American planes and helicopters with them. And in the next three years – more than 200 South Vietnamese cars.
FINISHINGLeaving, the Americans left to South Vietnam 329 M48A3 and 580 M41, 1973 M113 and 219 self-propelled mortars M125, 1624 105-mm guns M101, 474 155-mm M114, 85 175-mm M107.
Also, the Southerners got 634 different attack aircraft, at least 191 F-5 fighter-bombers, at least a thousand helicopters.
It was a very significant combat power. But the main thing in war is not iron, but psychology. With her, the Southerners were bad, and the further, the worse.
Due to the very heavy losses during the Easter Offensive, the next decisive offensive in Hanoi was scheduled as early as 1976. The Southerners in 1973 even tried to attack themselves. In January 1973, during one of these counter-offensives, an amazing battle took place: two tanks and six armored personnel carriers of the Communists met with a South Vietnamese column consisting of 130 tanks and armored personnel carriers (including about 40 M48). Although by the end of the battle, the Communists had only one tank and one armored personnel carrier, the enemy column was completely defeated: there was no one even to retreat.
The South Vietnamese regime and its army were distinguished by very high corruption, which greatly undermined their moral foundations. In addition, Southerners used to rely on the Americans in everything and hoped to the last that they would come to their aid again in the event of a Communist offensive. However, the United States began to curtail supplies to Saigon quite quickly, even weapons and ammunition, and there could be no question of a direct return to war. In this regard, the demoralization of the government and the army of South Vietnam was rapidly increasing.
The Communists, on the other hand, created a powerful logistics system in the areas they captured and gradually expanded these areas throughout 1974 with the help of local offensives. The already narrow territory of South Vietnam was getting even narrower, which made logistics extremely difficult.
In early 1975, one of the generals of the DRV army proposed to conduct an operation to capture the city of Ban Me Tuot in the center of South Vietnam. In Hanoi, they were cautious at first, but the general turned out to be persistent. The offensive began on March 8, and already on March 12, Ban-Me-Tuot fell, after which there was a real threat of cutting South Vietnam in half. This caused panic in the country's leadership. President Thieu ordered the withdrawal of all troops from the north of the country and concentrate them around Saigon.
It was in the north that the most combat-ready units of the South Vietnamese army were located. They began to retreat along the only broken road. Hundreds of thousands of civilian refugees rushed after them, creating a situation of complete chaos.
On March 30, the Communists took Da Nang, the second largest city in the country. But in fact, it was no longer important. Five days before, Hanoi realized the scale of the disaster that had befallen the enemy and ordered a general offensive, realizing that it was no longer necessary to wait until 1976.
The resistance of the Southerners was now only episodic, completely unable to contain the avalanche of the DRV army. On April 30, the T-54 demolished the gates of the presidential palace in Saigon, which marked the end of the war. And the first obvious and heavy defeat of the United States in history.
In the battles of 1975, the Communists apparently lost no more than 50 tanks of all types, their total losses during the entire war did not exceed 450 tanks. The human losses of the Communists during the war as a whole could reach 900 thousand people killed and missing. At least a million civilians were killed.
South Vietnamese troops lost 180,676 people killed, although the figure is sometimes called 225 thousand people. However, following the results of the war, the South Vietnamese army was "lost" completely. All ground equipment and most of the aircraft were destroyed or became trophies of the Communists, only a few dozen F-5s flew to Thailand, the Philippines and Taiwan. Interestingly, several hundred M48s and M113s are still stored in perfect order in the hangars of the Vietnamese army.
Thus, it was during the classic war that the final point of the Vietnam war as a whole was set, although the natural and climatic conditions of the country did not contribute much to the classic war.
The decisive factors in this war were the morale of the Communists, on the one hand, and American aviation, on the other. When the aircraft flew away forever, the outcome of the war was a foregone conclusion.
Alexander KhramchikhinAlexander Anatolyevich Khramchikhin is an independent military expert.
