Hobby Master HG3324 North Vietnamese T-54B Main Battle Tank - "815", Unidentified Unit, Hanoi, North Vietnam, 1975 (1:72 Scale)
"The Vietnamese people deeply love independence, freedom and peace. But in the face of United States aggression they have risen up, united as one man."
- Ho Chi Minh
The T-54 and T-55 main battle tanks were the Soviet Union's replacements for the World War II era T-34 tank. The T-54/55 tank series is the most numerous in the world, and very widely employed, especially by former client states of the Soviet Union.
The T-54 and T-55 tanks are very similar and difficult to distinguish visually. Many T-54s were updated to T-55 standards. Soviet tanks were factory-overhauled every 7,000 km, and often given minor technology updates. Many states have added or modified tank equipment (India affixed fake fume extractors to its T-54s and T-55s, so that Indian gunners wouldn't confuse them with Pakistani Type 59s).
The T-54 can be distinguished by a dome-shaped ventilator on the turret front-right, and has a SGMT 7.62 mm machine gun in a fixed mount in the front of the hull, operated by the driver. Early T-54s lacked a gun fume extractor, had an undercut at the turret rear, and a distinctive "pig-snout" gun mantlet. The T-55's new turret has large D-shaped roof panels, visible from above.
Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a North Vietnamese T-54B main battle tank.
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Dimensions:
Length: 4-inches
Width: 1-1/2-inches
Release Date: August 2023
Historical Account: "Bungle in the Jungle" - During the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) used T-54s, along with its Chinese-built copy (the Type 59), extensively against the South Vietnamese ARVN and their allied US forces.
The NVA and the ARVN engaged each other with tanks for the first time during Operation Lam Son 719 in February 1971. During that battle, 17 M41 Walker Bulldog light tanks of the ARVN's 1st Armoured Brigade claimed destroy 22 NVA tanks, a total of 6 T-54s and 16 PT-76 light amphibious tanks, at no loss to themselves, but their friendly units lost 5 M41s and 25 armored personnel carriers (APCs), mainly M113 APCs.
On Easter Sunday, April 2nd, 1972, the newly activated 20th Tank Regiment of the ARVN, comprising approximately 57 M48A3 Patton main battle tanks (note that ARVN regiments were equivalent to US battalions, and ARVN squadrons were equivalent to US companies or troops) received reports from friendly intelligence units of a large NVA armored column moving towards Dong Ha, the largest South Vietnamese city near the Vietnamese DMZ located on the 17th Parallel. At about noontime, the tank crewmen of the ARVN's 1st Squadron observed enemy armor moving south along Highway 1 towards Dong Ha and promptly concealed their tanks on high ground with a good vantage point against their enemy. Waiting for the NVA tank column to close to between 2500 and 3000 meters, the 90mm main guns of the Patton tanks opened fire and quickly destroyed nine PT-76s and two T-54 tanks. The surviving NVA armor, unable to locate their enemy's positions, hastily turned about and withdrew shortly afterwards.
On 9 April 1972, all three squadrons of the 20th Tank Regiment (57 M48 tanks) fought hard against enemy armour, firing upon NVA tanks accompanied by large masses of infantry, again while occupying the strategically important high ground. This time, similarly, the Pattons opened fire at approximately 2800 meters. A few answering-shots from the North Vietnamese T-54s fell short and the NVA tanks began to scatter after suffering considerable losses and heavy casualties. By the end of the day, the 20th claimed destroy sixteen T-54s and captured one Type 59 at no loss to themselves. (The NVA confirmed six tank were destroyed)
NVA armored units equipped with the T-54 tank achieved one of their greatest victories in April 1972 when the NVA 203rd Armored Regiment attacked the ARVN's 22nd Infantry Division based at Tan Canh Base Camp, which dominated a main route into the city of Kon Tum, located near the 17th Parallel. After a two-day-long intense artillery barrage, eighteen T-54 tanks from the NVA side attacked the South Vietnamese infantry camp at dawn from two different directions, thus breaking apart the ARVN unit into two and splitting up its forces, which quickly abandoned its positions and withdrew. T-54 tank No. 377 had managed to destroy seven ARVN M41s before it was finally destroyed by M72 LAW anti-tank rocket launchers fielded by the South Vietnamese infantry. The NVA destroyed 18 M41 light tanks together with 31 M113 APCs and captured 17 M41s as intact, while losing only two T-54 tanks and one PT-76 tank in the armored skirmish.
At the very end of the Vietnam War on April 30th, 1975, an NVA T-54 tank smashed through the opulent main gate of the RVN Presidential Palace in their capital city of Saigon, accompanied by onrushing North Vietnamese troops, at the conclusion of North Vietnam's conquering of the South. This widely seen image has come to be regarded by many as perhaps the defining moment of the end of the bloody 20-year-long conflict in Vietnam, and the fall of Republic of Vietnam and the imminent end of American participation in anti-communist activities in that region of Southeast Asia. According to the Pentagon, during the 1975 Spring Offensive, the ARVN forces lost 250 M48A3 tanks, 300 M41 tanks, 1,381 M113 APCs, 1,607 guns, 200 RCL guns and 63,000 M72 LAWs.
During the Vietnam war, NVA tank units were involved in 211 battles, claimed 20,000+ enemy killed, destroyed more than 2,000 enemy tanks/APCs, 870 other military vehicles, and 3,500 enemy bunkers, and shot down 35 aircraft or helicopters, overwhelmingly using T-54s. The NVA lost an estimated 250 (1972 - 150, 1973-1975 - 100) T-54s during the war.
Following the Vietnam War, Vietnam's T-54/55s and Type 59s continued to see much combat activity against neighboring Cambodia and China to their north between 1978 and 1979. Just like many developing countries around the world which continue to operate the T-54/55, at least 900 T-54s, along with a similar number of T-55s and Type 59s, are still in active military service with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam until the present day. Some of them are slated to be replaced by the more modern T-90S/SK.
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