The Brutal Tank Showdown For The Fate Of Vietnam | Greatest Tank Battles | War Stories

1968 it is the bloodiest year the vietnam war american tanks are caught up in the thick of the fighting there's a common misconception that tanks you know were not used very much in vietnam the tank commander said bring it to the left bring it to the left start shooting to win the war the americans unleash the military might of their armored forces our two tanks put out savage firepower but the north vietnamese fight back sending their own tanks into battle next thing i remember seeing was a round coming toward us now north and south fight to decide the fate of vietnam tank versus tank in the final phase of the war the north vietnamese armor really did prove decisive [Music] the city of hawaii in central vietnam with its historic citadel and temples hue has long been revered by the vietnamese people as the old imperial capital and a center of their culture but today many buildings lie in ruin riddled with shell and bullet holes scarred by the fighting during what the vietnamese people call the american war 1968 war is raging in vietnam as forces from north and south battle for control of the country since 1954 vietnam has been divided into north and south along the 17th parallel the north is led by ho chi minh who is fighting to unify all of vietnam the partition of the country into two parts which the leaders in the north primarily ho chi minh simply refused to accept it was always their goal to reunite vietnam as a single country more than just a national conflict the fighting in vietnam is also a front line in the global cold war between america and russia the american interest in the vietnam war was directly related to the cold war it was to prevent soviet influence in asia they thought if south vietnam fell next to fall would be indonesia and the philippines and all of asia would become communists by 1965 american leaders believe the only way to stop ho chi minh's fighters is by committing u.s ground forces to vietnam on march 8 a small expeditionary force of 3 500 marines and two platoons of tanks lands at denial the americans are caught up in wave after wave of guerrilla attacks by the communists ambushes rocket-propelled grenades and landmines inflict heavy casualties on the americans the american tanks weren't ready for the vietnam war in 1965 but the broader point has to be made the american military establishment wasn't ready in an effort to crush the enemy the us increases its troop levels to half a million while its armored force grows to hundreds of tanks from 1965 to 1968 the american numbers and tanks increased in south vietnam because they believed the communists were going to launch more conventional operations northern commanders are indeed preparing a large offensive in 1968 they will attack all across south vietnam during the lunar new year holiday known as tet and the americans will now have the opportunity they want to destroy the enemy with their overwhelming firepower they believed that they could bring the communists to a conventional battle they could defeat them january 1968 a fateful year the vietnam war begins in hue city the streets are crowded with vietnamese celebrating the new year and amongst them are thousands of communist fighters who have infiltrated the city disguised as civilians january 31st explosions rock the city the ted offensive begins 75 000 communists attacked villages and cities across south vietnam and nowhere is the fighting more fierce than the city of hue american and south vietnamese defenders are overwhelmed as guerrilla fighters appear out of nowhere within a day the communists control much of hawaii the city hawaii had particular symbolic importance to the south vietnamese as it was the ancient capital of the country american and south vietnamese reinforcements rushed to the scene including m-48 tanks from the marine corps third tank battalion we'd always train that we're going to be in the jungle and we're going to be in scrub and in this third world country and all of a sudden we're in a city i got there and some of the buildings were burned up and and there were fires going on in the city and they actually were fighting street by street and house by house they call us and say okay saddle up and we jump in the tanks and take off the m48 patent is ideal for tank on tank combat with a 90 millimeter gun and 110 millimeters of frontal armor but on city streets it is vulnerable to anti-tank weapons fired at close range urban combat is is always nasty because you're fighting at extremely close ranges it's like fighting in a three-dimensional maze we got to a corner of a street i'm looking through this tiny little periscope all of a sudden kind of in the distance i see a couple figures running the tank commander said where bring it to the left bring it to the left he said bring it further to the left and start shooting and nine times out of ten you didn't know what you're shooting at you just shoot we'd have this five minutes of crazy action and then we pull back but in hue there is no front line to pull back from the fighting is everywhere we park the tanks and wait for the next call to action and i didn't want to get out of the tank the first time because the north vietnamese were all around tanks in particular are vulnerable because any place that you have open windows open doorways rubble of buildings the tank can be attacked from ground level the tank can be attacked from above [Applause] two tanks were next to each other two tank crewmen who had been out they were all sitting around the north vietnamese mortar came in right in between the two tanks and and took two or three of the guys out of the 14 or 15 crewmen that went up there that first day almost every one of them had been medevaced out and had been replaced by somebody else when you came in country in a combat zone like vietnam they give you a little time to kind of acclimate and you get some orientation as to what to expect but there was no time for that with ted we found out that we were going to be going in the way and we walked in that's where we first found the vehicle that's the tank that i wound up on we were basically replacing the crew that got hit and uh i found myself as a replacement gunner it was in pretty horrible shape just to be expected you know the tank commander had basically had his face taken off so there was blood around the tank commander's cupola and you could see it inside the turret the interior of the tank maybe covered the blood body parts things like this but they just stuck you in that tank and you kept going so i thought oh my god what am i what's going to happen now all i remember is the platoon commander telling us what to expect you know this was not tank country he says we're going to be going down streets in an urban environment tanks offer the disadvantage that they're constrained to the roads and areas they can move through so the communists could more easily lay ambushes than areas where they believe the tanks would go guys might be hanging out the window trying to drop a satchel charge on top if somebody's firing at you with heavy weapons out in front you're basically stuck in the street and all you can do is back up the tank goes a lot slower than the stuff he's firing at you days after the armored reinforcements arrive the americans still cannot dislodge the communists from way the united states was concerned about public opinion in the battle of hawaii in that having the vietnamese communists seized the city for a period of time was embarrassing as the fighting drags on u.s commanders worry that images of tanks destroying the historic city will anger the american public the rules of engagement in hue were more restrictive because it was an urban area and one of the odd things about this war came home to me is fact i had heard about it but i thought it was just the veterans kind of putting on the new guys they were telling me that sometimes they found themselves in a firefight and had to request permission to fire back i said no that doesn't happen i was going down a street and i just happened to be looking through a gunner scope at a window in a building and i saw this flash and a branch from a tree just flew off like something had hit it i'm looking at this building drivers saw the weapon but i didn't know what he had the rpgs were the north vietnamese primary anti-tank weapons they were essentially a reusable grenade launcher but it was absolutely deadly to cruise i tell the can't command let me put a round in there he says no wait for what he has to call in and request his mission to fire had visions of uh 900 rock propelled grenades all pumping holes into the tank and turning it into a zebra the time kind of slowed down the tank commander got his permission and before he had the word fire out of his mouth i put a hole in the building the communists are finally driven from hawaii but much of the city lies in ruins american casualties are high and confidence in a swift victory in vietnam is shaken the american public opinion was the great casualty of the ted offensive prior to the tet offensive american politicians said we can see the light at the end of the tunnel we are about to defeat the vietnamese communists the fact that the vietnamese communists could launch a major offense across south vietnam suggested that the light was nowhere near the end of the tunnel 40 000 south vietnamese civilians are casualties of the tet offensive and over 45 000 communist fighters are dead or wounded yet ho chi minh's forces still fight on other battlegrounds where they hope to turn the tide of war the remote mountains of central vietnam a rusting american tank recalls fierce battles that raged here in 1968 a reminder that the north vietnamese were entering a new phase of the war with a new weapon their own tanks the nva had tanks as early as 1959 however they were in a school they didn't employ their tanks in battle until 1968. at that point the nba were equipped with the pt-76 it was a soviet-made tank an amphibious tank it was useful to infiltrate south vietnam so they can move them from north vietnam through the number of water courses they would have had to cross and now the nva will use their tanks to spearhead a major attack to seize the large american combat base at quesan they will infiltrate from north vietnam through laos and across the border along highway 9 and attack quesam [Music] it was believed that the overrun of caisson would be a prelude to a much larger operation to take parts of the northern provinces of south vietnam had they been able to take the northern provinces it would represent a discernible victory highway 9 south vietnam january 1968. the nva begin their advance along the highway nva infantry and tanks will attack their main objective k-som first they must take a small u.s special forces base which guards the route just 10 kilometers away at long bay the north vietnamese mass nearly 2 000 troops and 16 tanks to attack lang bay defending the base are just 24 american special forces soldiers supported by 450 local mercenaries well we got a call from the captain at long bay that said uh okay long grier go ahead and bring your troops on in we're going to disperse you around the perimeter so that we can defend this camp he said the other night that there was uh some tanks over in laos he said he thought there was about three or four of them and i said okay why are you telling us tanks had never been used in the south vietnamese war before and what was going over in laos was their business so when we moved in we established our position started digging bunkers and everything [Music] the north vietnamese artillery in the mountains begins firing on long bay special forces base they could look right down on top of us so they were they were putting some pretty effective farmers every night february 6 1968 night falls over lang bay and so at this point we feel like this may be it the communists are about to unleash their attack leading the assault will be pt 76's from the nba's 198th tank battalion pt-76 is a soviet-designed light tank with a crew of three it's armed with a 76.2 millimeter main gun but it has only 17 millimeters of frontal armor when the north used tanks at lang bay for the first time it represented the beginning of a shift in their strategy they were prepared to blend conventional operations with guerrilla operations as the pt-76s reach the perimeter wire of the base the sudden appearance of so many nva tanks catches the americans by surprise sergeant in the bunker with me he said sir i only got one thing to tell you we got tanks in the wire are you serious tanks in the wire let's go man all of a sudden i'm like whoa look at that that's that's a that's a russian tank man it's a pg-76 the americans scramble from their bunkers and ready their main anti-tank weapon the 106 millimeter recoilless rifle and it boom the 106 goes off they knocked out the first tank opened the breach put in the second round knocked out the second tank around knocked out third tank [Music] but the americans are soon out of ammunition for the 106s just as the nva sends more tanks into the attack the americans fire mortars to try and stop the second wave of tanks but the nba press on a pt 76 tank bears down on long rear and so i dropped down below the wall you know i had a light anti-tank weapon and i open it up pull the safety out the m-72 light anti-tank weapon or law fires a 66 millimeter high explosive anti-tank round that should penetrate the armor of a pt-76 i click it i throw it down give me another one the law is proving unreliable and the pt 76 tank is closing so i've tried three of these things and they wouldn't fire so the third one i lined up the site right at the very front where i thought the driver would be on the tank and i can watch the round it's going down through like that and hits right where me boom and goes straight up in the air i'm like it's not supposed to do that the rocket bounces harmlessly off the pt-76 now the tank crew turned their attention to the american bunker and then the tank stops he goes starts moving this big barrel toward us you know i thought it's time to get out of this bunker the north vietnamese have adopted the american tactic of using the overwhelming firepower of the tank lang va's defenders are on the verge of defeat after a few hours of combat the north vietnamese control most of the language base longrear and the remaining special forces fall back to their last defendable position the tactical operations center or talk which is this uh underground bunker where all the radios and the command signals go out and everything the nva lose no time in pressing home their attack on the defenders in the tactical operations center and sure enough we hear a tank and here he comes but the americans have learned a lesson about the pt 76 and i said i think we can kill him from the side i said don't shoot him in the front it don't work we fire that law on that tank boom so we knocked that one out and here comes one behind it and so i fire but it doesn't kill it they can't go anywhere it knocked the track so now they're swinging the gun around so i still have a law on my shoulder and i went ahead and fired it pt 76 is destroyed the relentless nva tank attack closes in on long grier and the defenders another tank comes out here we go with the old so i knew what was fixing to happen desperately short of anti-tank weapons longrear heads into the talk to look for more so i took off downstairs just as i get to the bottom and the concussion knocked me through the the interest so that was pretty much uh the beginning of the end for us the nva tanks have overrun langvae trapped in the talk bunker the americans refused to surrender i mean they were hanging through the whole throwing hangar nation shooting and saying all of a sudden this tank pulls up on top of this bunker we can we can see the dirt falling off this next corner driving a several ton steel beast and pivoting it over and over again above the bunker was likely in their minds to have caused a surrender but langvae's defenders hold out in the bunker in an act of desperation they call for an airstrike on the nva who are on top of their own position such decisions are never taken lightly they're going to engage in something that might sacrifice their own lives for a greater care the dangerous tactic pays off as the aerial strikes force nva tanks and infantry to pull back and allow the american-led troops to escape on february 7th the north vietnamese finally take lang bay they lose seven tanks in the attack but prove their armor can be decisive against the americans with langvae eliminated the nva now focused their attack on the large american base at nearby k sam in quesam the survivors from lang bay including longrear are arriving of the 24 american special forces 21 are casualties but they find they have traded one version of hell for another kaisan is under an intense artillery barrage with shells landing every 10 seconds in early 1968 caisson was surrounded it had been isolated by north vietnamese forces immediately prior to the tet offensive and subjected to a prolonged bombardment the north vietnamese besiege quesad trapping some 6600 marines and south vietnamese troops and a detachment of m-48 tanks i volunteered for a tank assignment and volunteered to go to caisson the siege of caisson to me personally was i hope the closest i'll go i'll ever get to hell [Music] advancing on the american base is a battalion from the nba's 325 c division numbering some 600 troops they prepare to assault the outpost on hill 64 near the west end of khesan combat base and a position known as the rock quarry the rock quarry was a null where there were two tanks one in front of and one in back of each other kind of hidden from the enemy february 8 1968 in the early hours of the morning nva soldiers close on the american perimeter we would come out very voraciously at night looking for enemy with our xeon scope they dug trenches and tunnels leading up to our lines until they were 50 to 100 meters from our trenches and our lines nva soldiers crawl silently forward to place explosives under the barbed wire they could melt through our lines like a hot knife through butter of course we didn't know what was coming and now nva commanders give the signal to attack and i distinctly heard the the bugle and i knew what it meant and saw the flares it is the signal to detonate dynamite and blast holes in the perimeter wire nva machine guns and mortars begin firing into the base we were hit with a barrage of artillery mortars nva infantry storm up the hill towards the american position it was alpha one nine's outpost it was on hill 64. and they were being overrun the marines pull out of their bunkers and withdrawal the nba reached the top of hill 64 intent on destroying the american positions but there was just a couple things that were in the way of it and that was two tanks in places like caisson tanks couldn't hold ground but they could certainly try to prevent someone else from taking it the american tanks maneuver behind the enemy attackers but are forced to fire on their own positions now held by the nva so we've got to put some heat in there and that's what the tank commander that's what the gunner were screaming and yelling and called for we fired a dozen dozen half rounds and we put many of those right into the same bunkers that our troops were only minutes before our tanks put out savage firepower the counter-attack forces the nba to withdraw but not before they demolish the american bunkers in the battle for hill 64 the north vietnamese lose 150 dead tanks played a critical role in the siege of caisson we displayed to the enemy that we could be at any point that they would choose and that we could be there in a matter of moments the nva lose thousands of men attacking queso the siege is finally lifted in april but soon after the americans withdraw altogether from the base that they had fought so hard to keep 1968 is the deadliest year of the war for the united states with over 15 000 americans killed in combat the death toll fuels the anti-war movement with protests erupting throughout the us and around the world [Music] 1968 does represent a turning point for the american will to fight what the american public discovered was that they were going to have to pay a much greater cost to save south vietnam from the communists and it's at that point that the american public began to turn in much larger numbers than it had before [Music] while the united states grows weary of the war the north vietnamese remain determined to continue fighting and defeat their enemies new offensives are planned and tanks will be crucial as the communist campaign to unite the country expands ho chi minh guerrilla fighters are now a modern army ready to take on the most powerful nation on earth 1969 to replenish their forces in south vietnam the nva moved troops supplies and tanks to the south by the ho chi minh trail a series of routes running thousands of kilometers through the jungles the ho chi minh trail was a nickname of the communist route for communications logistics and infiltration into south vietnam to disrupt the enemy's supply chain the americans have a line of fire bases along the ho chi minh trail from which to attack the communists one of the most isolated is ben head special forces camp located in south vietnam central highlands near where the ho chi minh trail run through neighboring laos and cambodia benhett was an important objective because of its location had they been able to take benhatt it would have opened the door to operations that might cut the country in two the base occupies three hills with the west hill nearest the trail it's protected by the tanks of b company from the u.s army's first battalion 69th armored regiment [Music] in early 1969 nva commanders decide to assault benhett spearheading the attack on the base are up to 10 pt 76 tanks the nba believed that tanks would play a decisive role at ben had march 3rd 1969. three m-48 tanks are dug in on the west hill protecting benhett firebase we had them dug in they were in trenches you know all that was sticking out was a gun tube and what have you as night falls over the base all is quiet until the americans hear engine noises coming from across the nearby border special forces unit had a team out with one of their lieutenants and they reported that there was tanks moving down around the area between us and the borders we got our night vision scopes out and devices started looking we saw the pt-76s out there the first tank on tank battle of the vietnam war is about to begin to be honest with surprise overall and it was coming our way benhead does represent a tank on tank action by accident i have difficulty believing the north vietnamese would employ a pt-76 against an m48 two pt 76s are quickly knocked out but the third closes on the american tanks and opens fire the next thing i remember seeing was a round coming toward us the closer it got to us the bigger that round looked it looked to me like he was going over but it didn't it hit the loader's hatch and when it did it blew a tank commander out of the cupola he blowed me off the back deck he and i wound up 15 20 foot behind the tank he cut the lower two crewmen who were to my left half and two each one of them half of them on the back deck the lower half on the ground the pt-76 shell has killed and wounded the crew of the m-48 putting it out of action the remaining u.s tanks pummel the nba attackers finally the communists withdraw at the first break of dawn the next morning is when they saw at least two tanks had been destroyed though the north vietnamese will launch more infantry and artillery attacks in the months that follow they fail to capture ben het but the tank on tank battle fought here marks a deadly escalation in the conflict the use of tanks by the nba represents an increase in the nba's confidence and ability to wage conventional war by july 1969 more than 40 000 americans have died in vietnam and there is still no end of the war in sight on september 2nd north vietnamese leader ho chi minh dies but his dream of a united independent vietnam lives on you can kill 10 of our men for every one weekend of yours but even add those off you will lose and we win win the americans start peace talks with the north vietnamese and announce they will begin pulling out their troops we have adopted a plan which we have worked out in cooperation with the south vietnamese for the complete withdrawal of all u.s combat ground forces the american tankers had been among the first to arrive in south vietnam when the u.s believed they could win a swift victory with their overwhelming firepower now they are amongst the first to head home as north vietnam moves from guerrilla to conventional warfare their tankers prepare to play a greater role in their fight to unite the country and as the american war is ending the fighting in vietnam enters its decisive phase 1972 most american forces have withdrawn from vietnam leaving the south alone to defend itself because of the american withdrawal the south vietnamese economy was weaker they didn't have as much money to spend on their own defense the north however strengthens its forces with help from the soviet union and communist china who supply them with powerful new tanks soviet aid allowed them to rebuild their forces for future operations the north vietnamese did believe that they could defeat the south in a conventional war in 1972 spring 1972 the communists launch a new offensive the attack will be their largest of the war and it will be spearheaded by hundreds of tanks when people think of vietnam and tanks most people make the assumptions jungle but there were areas that were very very good for the employment of tanks particularly the northern provinces the main tank assault falls on the border provinces where the communists believe the enemy is weakest this was the first time the north vietnamese used tanks and mass during the war in vietnam for the attack the north vietnamese field 30 thousand troops and more than 150 tanks defending the northern provinces are nearly 30 000 south vietnamese troops and dozens of m-48 tanks march 30th 1972 the attack begins as nba troops swarm across the border into south vietnam with them come two regiments of armor which includes the most modern tank they have the t-54 the t-54 is a soviet designed main battle tank intended for tank on tank warfare it's armed with a 100 millimeter main gun and has nearly 10 centimeters of frontal armor the nva planned to use their tanks to capture the provincial capitals of quang tree and whey giving them control of the northern provinces in order to do so they must cross a vital bridge over the kua viet river at the town of dongha the dongha bridge was important because it could handle armor traffic had it fallen into communist hands they would have been able to continue further south and get to saigon as the nva tanks close in on dongha the south vietnamese army rushes its newly formed 20th tank battalion to defend the bridge they have 42 m-48 tanks and are ordered to hold dongha at all costs the south vietnamese tanks take up position on high ground overlooking the bridge they wait for the nva tanks to come into range as the nva tanks approach the bridge they enter a killing zone the south vietnamese opened fire with deadly accuracy 11 enemy tanks are hit but a t-54 reaches the bridge and starts across a lone south vietnamese marine aims to stop it with an anti-tank weapon if the bridge is captured intact the nva can advance to quang tree city his first shot misses he has one rocket left [Applause] his second shot jams the enemy's turret the disabled t-54 pulls back the defenders blow the bridge stopping the nva tanks from crossing [Music] the communist offensive continues for another seven months by which time the north loses hundreds of tanks [Music] but they gain control of some 10 percent of south vietnam the vietnamese communists believe the end was in sight in early 1975 the nva mounts yet another offensive their tanks begin to attack southern positions and advance towards the capital saigon april 30th 1975. as the last americans flee tanks of the nva's 203rd armored regiment roll into saigon one of the iconic images of the war is one of those tanks pushing down the gates of the presidential palace in saigon the vietnam war is finally over the entire country is now ruled by the communists in the final climactic phase of the war the north vietnamese armor really did prove decisive [Music] over 5 million vietnamese people die in the battles that raged in the war for vietnam the war cemeteries and memorials bear witness to the terrible price they paid to be unified and independent [Music] you

Channel: War Stories

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Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, tet offensive documentary, tet offensive explained, tet offensive vietnam war documentary, vietnam war, us forces in vietnam, greatest tank battles, history shows, military strategies, greatest tank battles tv show, south vietnam, tet offensive vietnam, tet offensive

Id: QcjTWVL8X9Q

Length: 47min 57sec (2877 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 26 2021