Vietnam Photos: Weapons, etc.

All Photos but One Taken by Edwin E. Moise, Vietnam, 1986 and 1989

Weapons mounted on wall of Army Museum, Hanoi. The one on top looks like a variant of the AK-47, with a folding stock. The one in the middle is an AK-47, or a Chinese copy of one. The one on the bottom is the launcher for the Soviet-made RPG-2 (or the Chinese copy, called the Type 56). The Vietnamese called this the B-40.

Old 105mm howitzer.

Guns, looking locally manufactured, in Army Museum, Hanoi.

Locally manufactured rocket.

Locally manufactured rockets.

This huge mortar, 187mm, was made in a workshop in northern Vietnam approximately 1947. It was used for a couple of years, then retired from service when decent industrially manufactured weapons began coming across the Chinese border.

Mortar Chinese or Soviet made, 82mm, in Army Museum, Hanoi.

M-1 Mortar, 81mm, American-made, in Army Museum, Hanoi.

Light armored vehicle, probably captured from the French in 1953 or 1954.

Quad-50 (four .50-caliber machineguns mounted together).

This concrete blockhouse, built by the French probably in the early 1950s, was in Hanoi.

Interior of the blockhouse

These children, probably residents of the apartment buildings visible to the left, came swarming up to see what I was doing.

Very large blockhouse (of a size the French Army began to build toward the very end of the First Indochina War), on the Hanoi-Haiphong road.

Same blockhouse, closeup, showing the turret (presumably a weapons turret salvaged from a light armored vehicle that had been destroyed by a land mine) mounted as top armament.

Blockhouse in bank of canal, a few yards from the bridge by which the Hanoi-Haiphong road crossed the canal.

Heavily loaded bicycle, supposedly used to transport food to the Viet Minh forces at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

37mm antiaircraft gun (I believe this is the Soviet M1939, though it could be the Chinese copy, the Type 55). 37mm guns gave the Viet Minh a significant antiaircraft capability at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. In theory their fire could reach up almost 20,000 feet, but they were not accurate enough to be really effective against aircraft above about 4,500 feet.

Armored personnel carrier.

.50 caliber (or closely similar size) machinegun, in Army Museum, Hanoi.

Diagram of the Cu Chi tunnels.

37mm antiaircraft gun without shield.

Antiaircraft guns. Left: 100mm. Right: 57mm.

Clearer view of the same 100mm antiaircraft gun.

Mobile radar.

Mig-21.

Surface-to-air missile, Soviet-made. I believe this is a Dvina, which Americans usually called the SA-2 or SAM-2.

Map of Ho Chi Minh Trail in Army Museum, Hanoi.

Photo of truck on Ho Chi Minh Trail, in Army Museum, Hanoi.

Tank #843, in Army Museum, Hanoi. A Soviet-made T-54, this was the first tank to break through the gate of the Presidential Palace in Saigon, on the morning of April 30, 1975.

Tank #985 in Army Museum, Hanoi.

Vietnam Photos Index Page

c.v. for Edwin E. Moïse

Photos taken by Edwin E. Moise are copyright © 2002, Edwin E. Moïse, and may be reproduced only with permission.

Revised November 17, 2002.