The Night PT-76 Tanks Overran Elite Special Forces at Lang Vei.

Описание: February 6, 1968. 11:30 PM. Lang Vei. The fog is thick enough to hide a ghost. Inside the wire, 24 Green Berets and 500 indigenous strikers prepare for an infantry assault. What they get instead is a nightmare: the rhythmic, crushing sound of tracks. Out of the mist roll Soviet-made PT-76 amphibious tanks. This is the first time the North Vietnamese Army uses armor in the South, and the Americans are armed with rockets that bounce off the steel hulls.

This video deconstructs the Battle of Lang Vei, a catastrophic failure of intelligence and logistics. We analyze the PT-76 tank, a light amphibious vehicle whose thin armor was surprisingly resistant to the flawed M72 LAW rockets of 1968. We explore the NVA's engineering miracle—building underwater bridges and camouflaged roads to move armor hundreds of miles down the Ho Chi Minh Trail undetected.

We break down the heroic, desperate defense of the Tactical Operations Center, where Green Berets called airstrikes on their own position as tanks drove onto the roof of their bunker, and the innovative use of A-1 Skyraiders dropping napalm at point-blank range to break the siege.

Ultimately, this is a story about the changing nature of the war. The fall of Lang Vei signaled the end of the "guerrilla" phase and the beginning of conventional, mechanized warfare that the US strategy was unprepared to fight.

Key Statistics:

Defenders: 24 US Green Berets, ~500 CIDG/Laotian troops.

Attackers: NVA 24th Regiment & 198th Tank Battalion (11-13 tanks).

US Casualties: 10 KIA/MIA, 11 WIA (nearly 90% casualty rate for the A-Team).

Indigenous Casualties: ~300 KIA/MIA/Captured.

NVA Losses: ~7 tanks destroyed/damaged.

🎖️ FEATURED UNITS & WEAPONS:

5th Special Forces Group (Detachment A-101)

North Vietnamese Army 198th Tank Battalion

PT-76 Amphibious Tank

M72 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapon)

A-1 Skyraider

#VietnamWar #LangVei #GreenBerets #TankWarfare #MilitaryHistory #CombatAnalysis #SpecialForces #ColdWarHistory #NVA

📚 SOURCES & FURTHER READING:

Tanks in the Wire: The First Use of Enemy Armor in Vietnam by David B. Stockwell

Seven Firefights in Vietnam (Office of the Chief of Military History)

The Battle of Lang Vei (CIA Historical Review Program)

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