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Field Artillery In The Vietnam War

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Field Artillery in the Vietnam War:
The Evolution and Lasting Impact on the U.S. Army Artillery Branch
Evan Arbuckle, Matthew Mahler, Jerico Spencer,
Caleb Rhoades
13F ALC Class #003-16 Field Artillery in the Vietnam War:
The Evolution and Lasting Impact on the U.S. Army Artillery Branch
The Vietnam War, a conflict in Southeast Asia, was primarily fought in South Vietnam. The battle occurred between government forces aided by the United States and guerrilla forces aided by North Vietnam. The war began soon after the Geneva Conference divided Vietnam in 1954 into the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Tensions escalated quickly from a Vietnamese civil war into an …show more content…

Army artillery still played a vital role as well in combat operations. “The standard tactic of artillery support was to create a small military encampment known as a ‘fire base.’ Fire base locations were geographically selected to optimize its artillery fire, and be able to defend it in case of enemy attack.” (Miller, 2015). These fire bases were normally set on higher terrain to establish a 360 degree field of fire, increase protection from guerilla attacks, and provide the most effective coverage within the cannons …show more content…

Additionally, the terrain made it difficult to have an accurate gun system due to the land being very soft and unstable. Firing batteries were forced to come up with a way to keep the cannon from bogging down. It was hard to keep the gun in place because every time it fired it would sink slowly into the ground, this forced them to keep conducting checks on the gun to make sure it was still going to be accurate. Maneuvering in these marshy areas also proved to be a problem when trying to bring in the self-propelled weapon systems or supply trucks. In order to get around this problem artillery batteries started utilizing floating barges, referred to as Riverine Artillery. An average riverine battery consisted of three pontoon barges and five LCMs—three as push boats for the barges, one as a fire direction center and command post, and one as an ammunition supply vessel. “Without these new developments in riverine artillery. U.S. maneuver force activities in the delta area would have been seriously curtailed or often would have had to take place out of range of friendly field artillery” (Ott, 1995, p. 80). Riverine artillery was one example of how artillery commanders made technological advances to overcome the obstacles presented in Vietnam.
The Vietnam War was also a turning point

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