PANO – The first victory on August 2^nd and 5^th 1964 marked the beginning of the glorious epic of the Vietnam People’s Navy, other military units and people of the North against the war of destruction of the US imperialists.

The Navy’s technical sector successfully fulfilled the task of ensuring good technical conditions for warships so that they could fight back the enemy’s modern warships and aircraft, despite difficulties and shortage of certain equipment.

Vice Admiral Do Xuan Cong, former Navy Commander who directly engaged in the naval battle that made the first historic victory of the Navy those days, said, “Right from the beginning of 1964, realizing the US imperialists’ move to employ air and naval forces to escalate the war of destruction in the North, the Navy Party Committee and Command promptly held meetings to outline tasks for the service in 1964, with the focus on getting the service’s troops ready to respond to any large-scale attacks of the enemy against the North…”

Archived photo

Under the leadership of the Navy Command, the Navy’s technical sector, comprising leading experts in ship and weapon repairs of Workshop 46 and Bai Chay Techincal Station, immediately repaired and installed a number of new weapons for patrol ships K210-A with the displacement of 79 tons. In details, upgrading was made for the ammunition holds, ammunition lifts, and barrel-cooling systems while the old 40mm and 20mm guns on board the ships were replaced with the double-barreled 37mm cannon guns and 14.5mm machine guns, which were more accurate with faster shooting speed. Direct-fire weapons such as DKZ-82 guns were mounted behind the ship’s bridge for shooting enemy’s ships at closer distance... Despite hard working in difficult conditions, the Navy’s technical sector could still fulfill its assigned tasks of repairing and upgrading weapons for the army. By early July of 1964, two-thirds of the patrol ships of the Navy had been upgraded with weapons and equipment fully assembled. The Navy’s technical sector also conducted technical service and maintenance for 123K torpedo ships of Battalion 135 on the naval base of Van Hoa Island (Quang Ninh province).

As the enemy increased operations in the Gulf of Tonkin, at the end of June 1964, torpedoes were mounted on ships of Section 3 under Battalion 135. The technical sector then sent its staff to the unit to provide instructions and training for the troops of the section. The ships with mounted torpedoes were then dispatched to Lach Truong, Thanh Hoa province, ready for combat to prevent US and Saigon ships from entering the waters of the North.

At noon of August 2^nd 1964, Section 3’s ships were sent to intercept the US destroyer Maddox entering the northern waters. The troops brought down a warplane and damaged another. On August 5^th 1964, warships of the Vietnam People’s Navy in coordination with the anti-aircraft, militia and self-defense forces and local people bravely fought off the enemy’s aircraft. In total, military units and people of the North shot down eight modern US jet fighters and damaged many others, marking the first glorious victory of the heroic Vietnam People's Navy.

Colonel Nguyen Xuan Bot, former Commander of Naval Brigade 172 who directly commanded the three torpedo ships that expelled US destroyer Maddox on August 2^nd 1964, recalled: “On the night of July 31^st and the early morning of August 1^st 1964, US destroyer Maddox entered the waters of Quang Binh province to gather intelligence information and provoke our naval force. We were off in Quang Ninh province when receiving the order to mount torpedoes and immediately reach Hon Me (Thanh Hoa province) to the destroyer. At that time, we had three ships, namely 333, 336, and 339. In terms of force balance, it looked like we were “hitting a rock with an egg” because destroyer Maddox was equipped with the most sophisticated weaponry of the US Navy at the time. The radar of the ship could detect small torpedo ships at a distance of 10-14 nautical miles. The bomb launchers on the destroyer could be used to neutralize both submarines and torpedoes aimed at it. Meanwhile, each of our ships was armed with only two torpedoes and a 14.5mm machine gun. As calculated by experts, to hit destroyer Maddox with one torpedo there must have been 12 vessels of our kind mounted with 24 torpedoes, attacking from four directions. Despite that odd power balance, with the high spirit of “determined to fight and to win,” we made our considerable contribution to the historic victory of the Navy, the whole military force and people. If it had not been for the careful technical and equipment preparation and hard training before the battle, we would have faced many difficulties as that was the first time the Vietnam People’s Navy had used torpedoes in combat.”