Recoilless Weapons: From the Mountains of Korea to the Rivers of Vietnam

This 75mm shell currently on display at the Hampton Roads Naval Museum is designed to be fired from the Chinese Type 52 recoilless rifle. The perforations on the case allow the propellant gases to escape during firing, which then vent through the back of the rifle’s breech and eliminate any recoil.  This Chinese-made high-explosive 75mm round was captured in 1967 by an intelligence platoon of the Republic of Vietnam Navy (VNN) in the Rung Sat Special Zone (a partial map of which is in the background of the photograph), a vast mangrove swamp known to harbor Communist insurgents for most of the Vietnam War.  A U.S. Naval Forces Vietnam Zippo lighter, monogrammed to be presented by Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, is shown for scale. (M.C. Farrington)

By A.J. Orlikoff
Hampton Roads Naval Museum Educator

Prologue: Korea, 1952

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Donald Kirkpatrick poses for a photo during his time in the Korean War. Serving from October 1951 to July 1953, the Mansfield, Ohio native was drafted into the Army and received additional special training in heavy weapons, including with the M20 recoilless rifle. The younger brother of a Battle of the Bulge veteran, Kirkpatrick served until being recalled to the United States and honorably discharged in July 1953. An accomplished plumber and volunteer firefighter, Kirkpatrick never forgot his experiences in the Korean War. (Mansfield [Ohio] News Journal)

Army Staff Sergeant Donald Kirkpatrick, while assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd infantry Division, was stationed at a defensive position on a mountaintop along the 38th parallel. With Korean People's Army (North Korean) soldiers holding a neighboring mountain, it was Kirkpatrick’s job as a heavy weapons observer to ascertain how best to bombard the North Korean position. Wary of the North Korean artillery which had previously bombarded their position and killed one of his friends, Kirkpatrick came up with a new plan.

American army soldiers fire a M20 recoilless rifle during the Korean War. While designed to be a light infantry anti-tank weapon, the M20 was ineffective at penetrating the thick armor of Soviet built T-34 tanks. Army units adapted and utilized the light weight of the recoilless rifle as a portable infantry support weapon. In this purpose, the M20 excelled as its light weight allowed American units to effectively suppress and destroy enemy bunkers and entrenched positions.(U.S. Army photograph)

Kirkpatrick realized that one of their heavy weapons, an M20 75-mm recoilless rifle, had allowed the North Korean artillery to zero in on their position as the powerful back blast kicked up dust plumes that could be seen from miles away. Kirkpatrick remembered, “It [the M20] was a direct-fire weapon and they [North Korean troops] could see where we were because of it [back blast]. Me and a couple of other sergeants, we came up with the idea of setting up an 82-millimeter mortar a ways back from the recoilless crew. When the North Koreans would fire on the recoilless, we’d start dropping mortars on them. The enemy couldn’t see us at all because we were down behind the rifle.” Turning a weakness of the M20 into strength, the men of the 23rd bombarded the North Korean artillery position with mortar fire, silencing the North Korean artillery, at least for another day. Kirkpatrick never forgot his experiences serving in the Korean War using the M20 recoilless rifle.

An assortment of American arms, including bazookas, captured during the Korean War on display at the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) in April 2010. The North Koreans' allies from the People's Republic of China studied and replicated such arms, which included American recoilless rifles, which ultimately found their way into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and were used by their armed forces as well as Viet Cong cadres operating in the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). (John Pavelka/ Flickr/ Wikimedia Commons)   

More than a decade later, American servicemen fighting another war against Communists also experienced the M20 recoilless launcher, but this time it was used by the enemy.

Vietnam: Recoilless Weapons Rebound

American and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces were fighting a much more unconventional type of war in Vietnam than in Korea, countering an insurgency. The operational challenges associated with this type of warfare were numerous and the Viet Cong (VC) were not going to make it easy.  VC forces, outmatched by superior American and ARVN forces, employed ambush tactics against Army and Navy forces with whatever weapons they could get their hands on.

Although easy to use, the Chinese Type 52/56 did require training to use effectively. In this photo, Viet Cong recruits pose for a photo with a Chinese Type 52 while being trained to use the weapon. Notice that the Type 52 is angled for use as an indirect fire weapon, lobbing shells at a high trajectory (like a mortar) to hit targets hundreds of yards away. The man 2nd from the right is holding a shell for the weapon.  (Australian War Memorial)

The VC used a number of Soviet and American-designed weapons such as the RPG-7, the B-40, and the Type 51 (a copy of the American bazooka) to combat U.S. Navy and Republic of Vietnam Navy (VNN) riverine assets.  Many if not most were made in the People's Republic of China.  One of them would have been very familiar to Kirkpatrick.  The 75-mm recoilless rifle round on display in the exhibit, The 10,000 Day War at Sea, the U.S. Navy in Vietnam, 1950-1975, is made for a Chinese Type 52 Recoilless Rifle, an exact copy of the American M20 Recoilless Rifle that Kirkpatrick used in Korea.

Found among the photographs Army Staff Sgt. Ernest W. Payne of Charlotte, North Carolina, took during the Vietnam War is this captured recoilless rifle at an unidentified camp in South Vietnam.  Although it bears a passing resemblance to the American M18 57-mm recoilless rifle, which was used during the Korean War, it is most likely a Chinese Type 65 82-mm smoothbore recoilless gun copied from the Soviet B10. (Ernest W. Payne Papers,VW 22, Vietnam War Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC)

An unidentified U.S. Army Soldier leans on a captured enemy recoilless rifle (Most likely a Chinese Type 65) from the photo collection of Staff Sgt. Ernest W. Payne, who served at Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Calvary, 1st Air Calvary Division from 1967 to 1968. (Ernest W. Payne Papers,VW 22, Vietnam War Papers, Military Collection, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC)

Most rocket weapons used by Viet Cong fighters were recoilless launchers.  Known as Dai-bac Khong Giật (DKZ) by Viet Cong fighters, recoilless rifles and launchers were an integral component of their war effort.  Recoilless weapons were effective and easy-to-use rocket launchers capable of accurately launching an explosive warhead anywhere, depending on the rifle and expertise of the user, from 100 to 400 meters away.  As the name suggests, recoilless launchers were ingeniously designed to minimize recoil through a forceful ejection of gas from the rear of the weapon.  This creates reverse thrust, counteracting the recoil from the launch of a projectile.  This system allows the construction of light-weight, portable launchers without bulky recoil-countering components.

German soldiers in World War II, seen here after firing the 10.5-cm Leichtgeschütz 40, were the first force to widely utilize recoilless rifles in combat. Translating to “Light Gun 40,” the 7.5-cm Leichtgeschütz 40 was first used during the German invasion of Crete, where 22,000 Fallschirmjäger paratroopers attacked British and Greek units on Crete. It was the first mass airborne invasion in history and, despite heavy losses, the German paratroopers succeeded in accomplishing their objectives. Due to the success of the 7.5-cm Leichtgeschütz during the invasion, other recoilless rifle variants were produced such as the larger 10.5-cm variant which were organized into artillery units as opposed to an infantry support role. Favored by the Fallschirmjäger paratroopers and Gebirgsjäger mountain troops for their light weight, recoilless rifles proved to be a viable and effective weapon during World War II. (Wikimedia Commons)

The first recoilless rifles were designed by German and Soviet weapon designers in the 1930s. In particular, the German Leichtgeschütz 40 proved to be particularly effective, with the 7.5 cm variant providing critical light infantry support to German paratroopers during the invasion of Crete. The German designs were loosely copied by American manufacturers and were adopted by the Army towards the end of World War II, including in the form of the M20 recoilless rifle. Firing a spin-stabilized 75-mm HEAT round, the M20 first saw widespread service during the Korean War as a light infantry anti-tank weapon. The M20 proved to be ineffective at penetrating the thick armor of Soviet built T-34 tanks but Army units adapted and utilized the light weight of the recoilless rifle as a portable infantry support weapon, using it effectively against enemy bunkers and artillery positions.

The United States quickly produced much more effective anti-tank weapons, such as the M40 recoilless rifle and the M72 LAW. Largely obsolete by the time of the Vietnam War, the M20 suited the uses of the Viet Cong well. While the M20 was ineffective at penetrating the thick armor of Soviet tanks, it was perfectly capable of taking on the unarmored fiberglass hulls of Navy river patrol boats (PBRs) on the rivers of South Vietnam. China produced unlicensed copies of the M20 in the form of the Chinese Type 52 after capturing M20s during the Korean War. Identical to the M20, Type 52 recoilless rifles were produced in their hundreds and sent down the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

The Type 52 was extensively used by People's Army of Vietnam (North Vietnamese) and Viet Cong fighters during the Vietnam War.  Its advantages were the same as the widely-used B-40 launcher; The Type 52 was light-weight, easy to transport, easy to use, versatile, and packed a powerful punch. With a range of up to 400 meters and a muzzle velocity of 300 meters per second, the Type 52 was more than capable of ambushing Navy riverine forces from the banks of rivers, canals, and waterways. Breech loaded and fired from a tripod, a trained crew of two to three guerrillas could quickly fire multiple shells at an enemy. The Type 52 could also be used in an indirect fire role, with a kilometer range when lobbing high-explosive shells at high arc of trajectory into American or ARVN bases. The Chinese Type 56, another M20 variant, improved on the original M20 design with the addition of a fin-stabilized warhead as opposed to a spin-stabilized one, adding to its armor piercing capability, accuracy, and range. The weakness of the Type 52/56 was the same that Kirkpatrick had observed; the powerful back blast of the weapon was highly visible, exposing the location of the weapon and its crew.

The original record photograph of the 75-mm recoilless rifle round. (Naval History and Heritage Command Curator Branch)

The 75-mm Type 52 shell on display stands as poignant reminder of the paradoxical nature of the Vietnam War.  An American weapon was copied and produced by a Cold War rival and shipped to a Communist guerilla force fighting an unconventional asymmetric war against American forces. VC guerillas effectively used the Type 52 and other recoilless weapons to engage American riverine forces. Although the VC were defeated time and time again on the battlefield by American and ARVN forces, their ability to efficiently resupply with cheap and reliable weapons like the Type 52/56 enabled them to continue fighting throughout the conflict.

The display area showing the Chinese-made 75-mm recoilless round currently on display in the Riverine section of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum's new exhibit, The Ten Thousand-Day War at Sea, The U.S. Navy in Vietnam, 1950-1975. (M.C. Farrington)

Dealing with a Dictator below his "Line of Death"

USS America (CV 66), USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67), USS Nimitz (CVN 68), and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) fill Piers 11 and 12 at Naval Station Norfolk to the brim in numerical order on October 1, 1985.  America's deployment to the Mediterranean beginning in March the following year would be an eventful one, capped by strikes against Libya.  (Wikimedia Commons)

USS Coral Sea (CV 43) passes USS Farragut (DDG 37) as she passes Norfolk Naval Shipyard in 1985.  The following year, both ships would become involved in military operations against Libya. (Hampton Roads Naval Museum file)

By Thomas Grubbs
Contributing Writer


Introduction

The phrase “state sponsor of terrorism” is one that has been thrown around so often in the last twenty years that it has lost some of its gravity.  That being said, there are some nations, particularly the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran, that do engage in such acts to near universal international condemnation today.  Older readers may recognize that one nation has been left off of this list: Libya.

Muammar Gaddafi

Libya is a large nation on the North African coast, sandwiched between Egypt to the east and Tunisia and Algeria to the west. Located along ancient trade routes between Africa and Europe, the nation has been inhabited since the late Bronze age by the ancestors of the Berber people and incorporated into the Carthaginian, Roman and Ottoman Empires before being conquered by Italy in 1911. Interestingly, the Barbary Wars of the early 19th century that marked the first tentative steps onto the international stage by the United States Navy were waged against pirates operating from Libyan ports that marked the start of a long and difficult history between the two nations. During the Second World War, it was the scene of heavy fighting between the British 8th Army and the German Afrika Corps. At the end of 1951, a newly independent Libya was handed over to the Libyan people as a constitutional monarchy under the hereditary leadership of King Idris I.

The discovery of significant oil reserves in 1959 transformed what was one of the poorest nations on earth into one of the wealthiest. However, thanks to the incompetence and corruption of the king and his inner circle, most of the resulting oil wealth fell into the hands of a few extremely wealthy individuals. Idris was overthrown on September 1, 1969, in what has become known as Al Fateh Revolution by a group of rebellious army officers led by a young signal corps colonel named Muammar Gaddafi.

Col. Gaddafi in 1970. (Stevan Kragujevic via Tanja Kragujevic/Wikimedia Commons)

Born into a poor Berber family in 1942, Gaddafi entered the Royal Military Academy in 1963 as this was the only method of upward social mobility for poor Libyans at the time. Disgusted by Idris’ corruption and close ties to the West, he was the ringleader of the Al Fateh Revolution that overthrew the monarch and replaced him with what was on the surface a progressive liberal democratic government. A promoter of Islamic Socialism and an Islamic modernist, he built closer ties to neighboring Egypt, expelled the nation’s Jewish and Italian minorities, removed western military bases on Libyan soil (including Wheelus Air Base, which was at one time the largest American military facility outside the United States), made Sharia law the basis of the Libyan criminal justice system and unsuccessfully lobbied for pan-Arab political union under Libyan leadership.

The centerpiece of an intensive cult of personality, he ruled by decree and maintained control of both the military and foreign relations apparatus despite the formation of the Basic People’s Congresses, allegedly a system of direct democracy. He wrote down his political and societal views, known as the Third International Theory, in the Green Book which became required reading for all Libyans. In addition to the political reforms, he also attempted to eradicate endemic diseases such as malaria, raised the minimum wage, improved higher education, nationalized and expanded the oil industry that provided much of the national GDP and removed many societal restrictions on women to vastly improve the standard of living within the country.

Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat shares a laugh with Col. Gaddafi in 1977. (Wikimedia Commons)

By the late 1970s, he became more and more communistic in outlook, consolidating power into his own hands, seizing control of the press, suppressing civil liberties, seizing private property and monetary wealth over a certain amount, and dismantled the existing legal system, drawing significant domestic backlash primarily from Islamic fundamentalists. His personal eccentricities (all female bodyguard corps, sleeping in a traditional Bedouin tent both in Libya and abroad, wearing of military uniforms or traditional Arab garb, etc) made him the darling of the international press. His press conferences, some posted to YouTube, make for comedic gold. Colonel Gaddafi may have been nuttier than a fruitcake but being crazy does not necessarily make one an idiot. He wisely leveraged Libya’s significant oil wealth into building up an impressive role on the world stage and improving the lives of his people. These actions would make him far more enemies than friends and bring him to the attention of a superpower not willing to tolerate his antics.

Gulf of Sidra and disco bombing

Libya, as stated earlier, was home to vast oil reserves, the sale of which allowed Libya to provide foreign aid to less fortunate nations in Africa along with entering into a political and military alliance with Egypt. However, Gaddafi’s eccentricity and unpredictable nature, combined with his insistence that Egypt launch a cultural revolution along the lines of the one in Libya, rapidly deteriorated relations between the two. In addition, Gaddafi was virulently anti-western and anti-Israel, winning him no allies in Europe. He provided material and monetary aid to the PLO and militant left-wing terrorist groups around the world, including the Red Army faction in Germany, Action Direct in France, the PIRA in Ireland and most infamously the Black September Organization that perpetrated the Munich Massacre in 1972. These acts soon rendered Libya an international pariah. However, third world nations soon saw Gaddafi as an anti-colonialist crusader and natural ally of theirs.

Gaddafi knew that his antics would sooner or later draw military retaliation from Europe or the United States, so he purchased significant amounts of armaments on the open market, mostly from the Warsaw Pact or the Soviet Union. Some equipment, primarily self-propelled guns, missiles and fighters were purchased from Italy and France. This made Libya a regional power, able to influence events around the North African coast and to a lesser extent in the Mediterranean basin.

Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi had been supporting anti-western terrorism for several years when he declared a “line of death” in the Gulf of Sidra, north of the Libyan coast.  Determined to offer a response, President Reagan ordered a battle force into the area in March 1986.  Libya fired surface to air missiles at American aircraft and three fast missile attack craft towards the fleet.  U.S. Navy aircraft disabled the shore battery, sank two of the patrol craft, and damaged the third. In his 1997 painting, "Moment of Impact, Operation Prairie Fire," artist Morgan Ian Wilbur depicts the end of one of Qaddafi's patrol boats. (Navy Art Collection, Accession No. 97-057-A)

As part of his anti-Western, anti-colonial stance, Gaddafi financed a variety of leftist terrorist groups operating throughout Europe. The Western response to Libyan provocations was primarily limited to UN declarations and freedom of navigation operations by the United States Navy in the Gulf of Sidra, which had been claimed in its entirety by Libya. These freedom of navigation exercises provoked a series of low-level clashes between the two sides throughout the first half of the 1980s with the Libyans coming off second.

An F/A-18A Hornet with the Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314 "Black Knights" catches a wire aboard USS Coral Sea (CV-43) off the coast of Libya on March 18, 1986. (Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Knepp/ Wikimedia Commons)

The final straw came with the bombing of a nightclub in West Berlin in the early morning hours of April 5, 1986, that left three dead, including two U.S. Army sergeants, and 229 injured. Combined with the existence of terrorist training camps on Libyan soil, a more robust response was required. American president Ronald Reagan demanded a military retaliation for the death of innocent civilians in the terrorist attacks. The result was Operation El Dorado Canyon. 

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger briefs the press concerning strikes made against Libyan targets by aircraft from the Coral Sea, Saratoga, and America battle groups on March 25, 1986, weeks before much larger strikes coordinated with U.S. Air Force aircraft took place against multiple Libyan targets during Operation El Dorado Canyon. His hand is gesturing below Gaddafi's so-called "line of death" in the Gulf of Sidra, while the coastline is outlined showing Libya's territorial waters as recognized by the U.S. (Defense Visual Information Archive)

Operation El Dorado Canyon

Gaddafi knew that sooner or later he would be subject to military retaliation from the victims of the terrorist assaults that he had helped finance. Therefore, he embarked on a truly impressive buying spree on the international arms market that gave Libya one of the densest air defense networks on earth. In the skies, some 220 MiG 21, 130 MiG 23 and 125 MiG 25s from the Soviet Union and a further 120 French Mirage F1s provided a potent shield. On land, 108 SA2, 108 SA3, 50 SA8 and 50 SA6 launchers backed by 27 French made Crotale surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) could make life dangerous for any aircraft that got through. A third line of defense was provided by 200 Soviet ZSU23-4 self-propelled radar-guided anti-aircraft (SPAAG) weapon systems. Needless to say, the effort required to breach these defenses would need to be on an equally massive scale.

President Ronald Reagan meets with bipartisan members of the U.S. Congress to discuss the air strike on Libya, Operation El Dorado Canyon, in Room 208 of the Old Executive office building on April 14, 1986. (University of Texas via Wikimedia Commons)

President Reagan targeted several locations, mostly in Benghazi, for the retaliatory air strikes, codenamed Operation El Dorado Canyon. The intent was to send a message that Libyan support of terrorism would not be tolerated. A total of 18 F-111 attack bombers flying from bases in the United Kingdom would strike Bab al Aziza barracks, Murat Sidi Bilal camp and Tripoli airfield.

A U.S. Navy Grumman F-14A Tomcat aircraft from fighter squadron VF-33 Starfighters, left, and a Grumman KA-6D Intruder aircraft from attack squadron VA-34 Blue Blasters prepare to take off the aircraft carrier USS America (CV 66) during flight operations off the coast of Libya on April 17, 1986. A Grumman EA-6B Prowler from Marine tactical electronic warfare squadron VMAQ-2 Det.Y Playboys is visible in the background. The aircraft were assigned to Carrier Air Wing 1 (CVW 1) aboard America for a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea from 10 March to 15 September 1986. On April 15, 1986, America´s aircraft participated in Operation El Dorado Canyon.
(Photographer's Mate Airman David Casper/ U.S. Defense Imagery, VIRIN DN-ST-86-10023 via Wikimedia Commons)

A further 15 A-6E Intruders from the aircraft carriers USS America (CV 66) and USS Coral Sea (CV 43) would strike Jamahiriya Barracks and Benina Airfield. All locations were related to command and control of the Libyan military machine or were home to defending fighters. The raid was made harder by the fact that many nations, most notably France, denied American overflight of their territory for fear of retaliatory terrorist attacks.

Grumman F-14A Tomcats from fighter squadron VF-33 Starfighters are visible through the steam of the catapults on the aircraft carrier USS America (CV-66) during flight operations off the coast of Libya on April 17, 1986. The aircraft were assigned to Carrier Air Wing 1 (CVW-1) aboard America for a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea from March 10 to September 15, 1986. On April 15,1986, America´s aircraft participated in "Operation El Dorado Canyon", the bombing of Libya. (Photographer's Mate Airman David Casper/ U.S. Defense Imagery, VIRIN DN-ST-86-10024 via Wikimedia Commons)

The Americans struck in the early morning hours of April 15, 1986. The entire raid took less than 12 minutes from beginning to end and inflicted heavy damage to all targets. Bab al Aziza was all but leveled by 13 2000-lb bombs while Murat Sidi Bilal was hit by a further 12. Tripoli and Benina airfields absorbed a further 60 and 72 500-lb bombs respectively. Jamahiriya was pulverized by no less than 70 500-lb bombs. 
 
Heavy use of anti-radiation missiles prevented meaningful intervention from the Libyan SAMs while the darkness provided protection from the MiGs and Mirages. A single F-111 was shot down over the Gulf of Sidra by a ZSU23-4 with both crewmen killed on impact. All surviving aircraft arrived back in England or back on board their carriers by 10am Libyan time less a single aircraft that was forced to land in Rota, Spain, the victim of an overheated engine.

A flight deck crewman checks an A-7E Corsair II aircraft from attack squadron VA-72 Blue Hawks aboard the aircraft carrier USS America (CV 66) during flight operations off the coast of Libya on April 17, 1986. The aircraft is armed with an AIM-9L Sidewinder missile on the fuselage station, a Mark 20 Rockeye II bomb on the middle wing pylon and an AGM-45 Shrike missile on the outside wing pylon. VA-72 was assigned to Carrier Air Wing 1 (CVW 1) aboard America for a deployment to the Mediterranean Sea from March 10 to September 15, 1986.  Two days earlier, America´s aircraft participated in Operation El Dorado Canyon. (Photographer's Mate Airman David Casper/ U.S. Defense Imagery, VIRIN DN-ST-86-10022 via Wikimedia Commons)

Aftermath

The attack on Bab al Aziza narrowly missed Colonel Gaddafi and his family who evacuated minutes before the bombs hit. This in turn led to speculation that Gaddafi was deliberately targeted and that Libyan sympathizers within the Italian government had provided advanced warning to the Libyans of the incoming attack.

In his later years, Gaddafi used a monument symbolizing Libyan defiance against the Operation El Dorado Canyon air strikes (and the downing of one of the F-111s conducting the operation) as a backdrop.  During the revolution that toppled him in 2011, the monument was defaced and removed. (Daily Mail)

An estimated 60 Libyans lost their lives in the bombings, including the alleged adopted daughter of Gaddafi. There is considerable debate over whether or not the deceased infant presented to the international press was indeed Hana Gaddafi and even if Colonel Gaddafi had an adopted child at all. Gaddafi retaliated to the attack by firing a pair of SCUD missiles at the American Coast Guard Station on the island of Lampedusa that missed. It is also believed that the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and the hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 were done in retaliation as well. The UN condemned the attack as an unwarranted act of aggression by the United States while the USSR and China described the attack as unprovoked. Survivors of the attacks on both sides received monetary compensation for their losses from a $1.5 billion compensation fund established by Libya in 2008. Hard feelings persist regarding Operation El Dorado Canyon and its aftermath on both sides to this day.

Conclusion

No civilized nation can tolerate the existence of terrorism, be it a small group of fringe extremists or a massive state-sponsored organization. Like the pirate of an earlier age, the terrorist is hostis humani generis: an enemy of the human race. Despite the near universal condemnation by the international community, Operation El Dorado Canyon was a proportional and justified response to a terrorist attack that could not have gone unanswered. Col. Gaddafi managed to successfully rehabilitate his international reputation after the tragic events of 9/11 and was removed from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism in 2006.

U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz stands by the iconic statue of a fist crushing an American warplane, which was long associated with Col. Qadhafi’s Bab AlAzizya compound in Tripoli, but now serves a symbol of the city’s central role in the February 17 Revolution in the center of Tripoli Street in Misurata, Libya, on November 26, 2011. Cretz's successor as ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, was killed by Islamic militants in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.  (U.S. State Department photo)

Tired of the regime’s incipient corruption and the regime’s crackdown on a rising tide of fundamentalist Islamism, the Libyan people rebelled as part of the Arab Spring uprising in April 2011. Forced out of power, he took refuge in a loyalist stronghold in Sirte. Attempting to flee again on October 20, his convoy was attacked by NATO aircraft supporting anti-Gaddafi irregulars in the area, forcing him to seek refuge in a nearby construction site. Anti-Gaddafi militia, following up on the airstrike, captured both Gaddafi and a number of his companions while he was hiding in a culvert drainpipe. Muammar Gaddafi was summarily executed by the militiamen on the spot with footage of the dictator’s violent demise widely broadcast on western media. Unfortunately, Gaddafi’s death did not end the Libyan Civil War, which continues to this day with heavy civilian casualties and an ongoing NATO military intervention. 

Editor's Note: Thomas Grubbs earned a master's degree in military history from Southern New Hampshire University and is currently a park ranger interpreter at Vicksburg National Military Park. His research interest is in the history of the dreadnought battleship. 

Scourge of the Brown Water Navy

The remains of a B-40 rocket propelled grenade (RPG) round that struck Lieutenant Ron Wolin's river patrol boat (PBR) during the Tet Offensive in January 1968, one of the artifacts featured in the Brown Water section of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum's new exhibit, The Ten Thousand-Day War at Sea, The U.S. Navy in Vietnam, 1950-1975. (M.C. Farrington/ Courtesy of Ron Wolin)

Although most of what Lt. Wolin wrote has since faded from the stabilizing fin of the B-40, the date is still legible (M.C. Farrington/ Courtesy of Ron Wolin)

By A.J. Orlikoff
Hampton Roads Naval Museum Educator

At about 0600 on January 30, 1968, Lieutenant Ron Wolin was shaving when he was alerted of increased enemy activity on the Ham Luong River.  Reports continued to filter in of enemy attacks. This was the beginning stage of what would be known as the Tet Offensive: a massive nationwide assault by the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong (VC) on Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and American forces. 

Lt Ron Wolin with a captured Viet Cong flag aboard his PBR in South Vietnam.  Note the uniform shirt at left with his River Section 534 unit patch, which Wolin designed. (Courtesy of Ron Wolin)

The commanding officer of River Section 534, Wolin ordered his available river patrol boats (PBRs) to deploy and relieve an assault on the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) Compound in Ben Tre.  Upon approach to the compound, Wolin noticed enemy forces crossing a bridge across a large canal and ordered his forces to attack. The PBRs of River Section 534 made several attack runs in the canal, strafing the VC forces on the bridge and on the banks with relentless fire, disrupting the enemy assault on the MACV compound.

on March 26, 1968, a strike force of river patrol boats (PBRs) head down the Bassac River to assault the Viet Cong stronghold on Tan Dihn Island. PBRs adapted their tactics to minimize the threat of enemy rockets, favoring fast moving assaults while utilizing their superior firepower to strafe enemy positions. While casualties were unavoidable given their lack of armor, the adaptability of Navy riverine forces undoubtedly saved lives and helped break the back of Viet Cong forces during the Tet Offensive. (U.S. Navy photo/ National Archives and Records Administration)

On one of their passes, a B-40 rocket slammed into Wolin’s PBR. Wolin recalled “First thing I knew I’m looking up on my back and I didn’t realize for a few seconds what had happened. I was thrown into the armor plate.…I remember looking down at my leg and realizing my pants had been blown open. I thought, ‘Gee, that’s strange.’” The rocket hit had wounded every man on board and completely knocked out their controls. Drifting towards a bank in the canal, only the timely intervention of another PBR saved Wolin and his men from capture. Wolin refused to be taken to a hospital, for he knew that this would mean losing command of River Section 534. As a result of his leadership, bravery, and valor, Wolin was awarded the Silver Star for his actions in blunting the VC assault on the Ben Tre MACV Compound.

Shattered fiberglass and fractured aluminum at the stern of a river patrol boat (PBR) caused by an enemy B-40 rocket is shown in this photo from October 1969. The B-40 rocket was regarded as the scourge of American riverine forces due to its light weight, ease of manufacture, and strong explosive force.  PBR hulls were originally designed for civilian pleasure craft but were adapted into fast shallow water draft vessels capable of engaging the enemy in the vast waterways of the Mekong Delta and the other rivers of South Vietnam. As a result, PBRs had no armor and were vulnerable to B-40 attacks. (U.S. Navy Photo)

Wolin had survived an attack from B-40 rocket, the scourge of the U.S. Navy’s riverine forces. NVA and VC forces used a variety of rocket launchers to counter American riverine forces operating in South Vietnam and the B-40 was by far the most feared of them. Though often inaccurate, the B-40 was an extremely cost effective means to engage superior American naval forces in the Mekong Delta.

An unfired, demilitarized B-40 rocket-propelled grenade is shown next to the remains of the B-40 that hit Lt. Ron Wolin's PBR during the Tet Offensive. An additional section (not shown) made of wax-coated cardboard and containing propellant would have extended behind the tail boom fins. (M.C. Farrington/ Courtesy of Ron Wolin)

Closeup of the markings on the warhead of Ron Wolin's B-40. The warhead diameter was 80 millimeters. (M.C. Farrington/ Courtesy of Ron Wolin)

The most effective recoilless weapon used by the Viet Cong was the B-40 rocket launcher. A North Vietnamese copy of the Soviet Manufactured RPG-2 (the less famous predecessor of the ubiquitous RPG-7), the B-40 packed a powerful punch. The B-40 was capable of launching a high explosive fin stabilized 80 mm PG-2 high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) round at ranges of up to 150 meters away.

This Viet Cong propaganda film frame grab shows the B-40 in launching configuration after the grenade assembly has been inserted into the launcher from the front.  The launcher was a 40mm-wide steel tube equipped with a trigger mechanism and simple sight and was sheathed in wood to protect the grenadier from the intense but brief but intense heat generated at launching. (BBC) 

A close cousin, the B-50, was also used by Viet Cong forces, instead firing the Chinese Type 50 HEAT round. Originally designed by the Soviet Union to penetrate up to 7 inches of tank armor, the B-40 easily penetrate the unarmored fiberglass hulls of PBRs and was even capable of damaging the armored vessels of the Mobile Riverine Force. A single direct hit from a B-40 was enough to completely disable a PBR, as was the case with Wolin’s. The B-40 remained a primary threat to American riverine forces throughout the Vietnam War.

On January 30, 1968, the Viet Cong and NVA launched a massive country wide offensive across South Vietnam. Designed to coincide with the lunar holiday ceasefire, the Tet Offensive surprised American and ARVN forces, with the Viet Cong even directly attacking the US Embassy in Saigon. While Tet was ultimately a crushing defeat for the Viet Cong, the surprise, intensity, and ferocity of the attack stunned the American public and further soured public opinion on America involvement. As illustrated in the above photo, Viet Cong fighters often used the rivers of the Mekong Delta for transportation and it was up to the riverine forces of Task Force 116 and 117 to stymie the Tet Offensive along the rivers of the Mekong Delta. (U.S. Army Photo)

The threat of B-40 attacks forced PBR crews to adapt to an incredibly challenging combat environment. Not only did PBR crews have to patrol the rivers of the Mekong Delta, interdict enemy supply boats, and engage hostiles, they had to so with the threat of a single rocket hit incapacitating the entire boat. This type of vulnerability, unprecedented in U.S. naval history, caused Navy riverine forces to utilize the PBR's advantages of speed, firepower, and communication to counter the threat of recoilless rocket attacks.

This November 1967 photo taken from the cockpit of a Navy Seawolf gunship, captures a low altitude rocket attack on a Viet Cong position along the shore of the Ham Luong River. Established on April 1, 1967, the HAL-3 (Helicopter Attack Squadron 3) “Seawolves” were formed to provide mobile and fast fire support to any beleaguered friendly units in the Mekong Delta. (U.S. Navy Photo  XFV-2053-B-11-67)

While recoilless weapons were relatively accurate against a stationary target, a PBR speeding at 25-30 knots was much harder target to hit, especially when the enemy fighter was under fire from one of the boat’s numerous weapons. PBR crews also used teamwork, communicating with other PBRS and naval assets like HAL-3, “The Seawolves” to counter potential threats with overwhelming force. Recoilless rifles were a potent threat to American riverine sailors yet they never hindered the effectiveness and lethality of American riverine forces in the Mekong Delta. American riverine forces met the challenge of Viet Cong head on and accomplished their missions with bravery and honor.

A shirt that was worn by Lt. Ron Wolin while he was commanding officer of River Section 534, River Patrol Force (Task Force 116) in South Vietnam, currently on display in the riverine section of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum's new exhibit, The Ten Thousand-Day War at Sea, The U.S. Navy in Vietnam, 1950-1975. (M.C. Farrington/ Courtesy of Ron Wolin)

Lt. Ron Wolin's uniform shirt along with the B-40 and B-40 fragment currently on display in the Riverine section of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum's new exhibit, The Ten Thousand-Day War at Sea, The U.S. Navy in Vietnam, 1950-1975. (M.C. Farrington)