Unknown facts about US warships in the Vietnam Navy

Along with landing craft 501 and 505, the Vietnamese Marine Corps also uses LCM landing craft manufactured in the US.

After 1975, the Vietnam People's Army captured a number of landing ships from the Republic of Vietnam Navy. The most numerous of these were the LCM-8 and LCM-6 landing ships.

The LCM-8 class of small mechanized landing craft is 22.26m long and 6.4m wide. The LCM-8 can carry a maximum of more than 50 tons of cargo or 1 M48 (M60) tank and 200 soldiers.

Thanks to its compact size and effective flexibility in shallow waters, despite being around for a long time, the LCM-8 is still used in the navies of many countries around the world.

Landing ship 501 in the Vietnam Navy.

The LCM-6 class of small mechanized landing craft was produced by the US since 1924 with a full load displacement of 64 tons, 17.1 meters long, and 4.3 meters wide. The ship is equipped with two 12.7 mm heavy machine guns. The LCM-6 can carry a maximum of more than 34 tons of goods or mechanical vehicles or 80 soldiers.

But the most notable of these were two large landing ships of the LST-491 and 542 type. After 1975, the Vietnam People's Army captured and put into service two ships with the designations 505 (the old US name was USS Bulloch County, the ARVN called it HQ-504 Qui Nhon) and 501 (the US name was USS Maricopa County, the ARVN called it HQ-501 Da Nang).

Before 1975, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam had 6 LSTs with serial numbers 500, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505. HQ-505 belonged to the LST-491 class used by the US Navy in the Normandy landing campaign.

On April 8, 1970, the ship was donated to the Republic of Vietnam Navy and renamed Quy Nhon with the registration number HQ-504.

The LST-491 class ship manufactured in the US has a displacement of 3,698 tons fully loaded, is 100m long and 15m wide. The ship is equipped with 2 GE 12-567 diesel engines allowing it to reach a maximum speed of 22km/h.

The ship is capable of carrying more than 140 soldiers, tanks, armored vehicles, and two landing craft (LCVP). The LST-491 class is equipped with a 76mm gun, eight 40mm guns, and twelve 20mm guns. The deck is capable of receiving a light helicopter.

The 501 ship of the LST-542 class is basically the same as the LST-491 class but has a slightly smaller total weight, about 3,640 tons, and a reduced crew of 100 people.

While operating in the Vietnamese Navy, LSTs actively participated in the task of transporting goods to remote islands, protecting maritime sovereignty. In particular, ship 505 participated in the campaign to protect the sovereignty of the Truong Sa archipelago in 1988.

Ship 501 is still active today in our navy and until now it is still the "biggest open-mouthed monster" in the Vietnam People's Navy.

However, maintaining the operations of these ships is very difficult due to lack of spare parts. Currently, only LCM-8 and LST-542 are still in operation.

To survive until today, the LCM-8 and LST-542 ships have been improved and upgraded many times by the Vietnam Navy.

According to Baodatviet