Battle of the Paracel Islands

Jeff Head said:

I think the Vietnamese vessels came charging in, and the Chinese vessels, in coming out to meet them simply maneuvered in amongst them.

I do not believe the Vietnamese were in a formation prepared for this type of engagement and for mutual support with their gunfire.

I am not sure I would call it incompetence...probably more of a situation where they rushed in to do one thing (shell the positions of the Chinese soldiers), and got involved in another (naval gunfire battle) and were not prepared with the proper contingencies.

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I think the then South Vietnamese were too busy resisting the North, so they mainly focus on their land troops thus they navy had less training and less skillful.

PS. during the protest of China's oil rig, I was in Vietnam and I told some Vietnamese about the Paracel battle 1974 and the Spratly battle in 1988. Few of them have heard about it.

antiterror13 said:

As usual Jeff, excellent. Also I'd like to add that the US and China just started the honey moon period (Nixon visited China in 1972, only 2 years earlier), so no way the US would help Vietnam.

I don't understand why China didn't send the fighters from Hainan in the first day of the battle?

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One article read yesterday mentioned that the islands were too far away from Danang for F-5's to take part, but it supposed that MiG-21's from Hainan, much farther away, might be underway to the islands the next day.

Jeff Head said:

1) South Vietnam brought to few troops who were defeated in their only opposed landing...and they were not supported in that landing by their Navy. it was only after they retreated that the Navy cme in to try and reduce the defenders...when they were met by the PLABN vessels.

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It's doubtful South Vietnam could have landed enough troops to make the difference. Had Vietnam landed a battalion of Marines, they would have been cut to pieces in the same way (lack of sea and air cover). With 20/20 hindsight, it's clear the battle was decided with the exit of 7th Fleet.

the Baidu article has some nice photographs.


Four Chinese vessels took part in the main battle.
2 Type 6604 (Ｋｒｏｎｓｔａｄｔ ｃｌａｓｓ) sub chasers (271、274)
2 Type 6610 (T43 class) mine sweepers (389、396)

These are old and not well maintained vessels. China was still in the grip of the Cultural Revolution at that time. The crews were green and many became sea-sick. The two classes of Chinese boats and do nominally 18 and 14 kt respectively. But in reality, the veterans of the battle reported that they can barely do 10 kt. The South Vietnamese ships were nominally faster but probably even less well maintained. It is still amazing that the Chinese boats going at 10 kt managed to out maneuver their counterpart.

2 Hainan Class sub chasers (281、282) were sent as reinforcement.

These were brand new at the time, capable of over 30 kts. But due to communication mix-up, the two Hainans did not arrive in time for the main battle.

on Jan 20th

PLAN initiated amphibious assaults on the Xisha island still held by South Vietnam.
271、396、281、282 took part in the these battles.
additional reinforcement include 1 Jiangnan class frigate, sub chaser 275 and Shanghai Class gunboats, 653、612、667、663, 639、619、629、649.

Modified from:

Great work on outlining that chart, but is there a typo with two 389s?

joshuatree said:

Great work on outlining that chart, but is there a typo with two 389s?

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Oops! Yes there is.

I will fix it. Refresh later and it should be correct.

More:


VIETNAMESE VESSELS


PLAN VESSELS



Taken from:

So the nominally weaker party won. I wonder about the commanders on both sides. How were they trained, how did they prepare for this engagement?

delft said:

So the nominally weaker party won. I wonder about the commanders on both sides. How were they trained, how did they prepare for this engagement?

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Well, that map makes it appear like two of the Vietnamese vessels came in first and attacked the four Chinese vessels.

Then the other two Vietnamese vessels came in from around the other side...attempting a potential pencer.

Problem is, that has to be coordinated and syncrhonized to be effective, or the other side can defeat each force in detail.

In addition, the second group of Vietnamese vessels apparently significantly damaged on of their own vessels with friendly fire, further reducing any advantage the Vienamese had.