1. Were tanks used in the war? I ask this because vietnam was largely jungle that would reduce tank's manuverability.
2. What does NVA means and what was it?
3. What does Charlie mean and what was it?

1. Were tanks used in the war? I ask this because vietnam was largely jungle that would reduce tank's manuverability.

Yes. Although their are no recordings of a tank on tank action both the U.S. and North Vietnam used tanks. The U.S. main battle tank at the time was the M48. North Vietnam used a hodge-podge of Soviet made tanks including T-54s.

The U.S. used tanks extensively through out the war. Especially at the re-taking of Hue. They were used as mobile gun/flamethrower platforms to support infantry rather than the traditional tactic of infantry supporting tanks.

In early years of U.S. involvement the NVA conserved what little tanks they had and were frequently victims of U.S. air strikes. The first time the NVA used tanks openly was in 1968 when a battalion of N. Vietnamese PT-76s overran a U.S. special forces camp at Lang Vei during the Tet Offensive.

North Vietnam also used tanks in the Easter Offensive of 1973 and especially the fall of Saigon in 1975.

2. What does NVA means and what was it?
3. What does Charlie mean and what was it?

NVA stands for North Vietnamese Army. This was the official military of North Vietnam. These were well-armed regulars who wore standard uniforms and ranks.

Charlie was originally Victor Charlie and was simply shortened to Charlie. Victor Charlie was the U.S. phonetic Alpha. designation of the Viet Cong. The word Viet Cong is short for Vietnamese Communist. The same way Viet Minh was short for Vietnamese who followed Ho Shi Minh.

They were pro-communist North Vietnamese irregular insurgents(guerillas) that were not part of the North Vietnamese Army.

Australia also sent a company of Centurian tanks to South Vietnam, where they proved to be dramatically effective. This deployment saved the Australian armoured force from disbandment - the conventional wisdom in the Army at the time was that tanks couldn't operate in tropical terrain. Given the enormous sucess of Australian and US tanks in South East Asiac in WW2 its hard to see any logical reason for this this view.

You'll find different armoured units in different areas had different combat experiences.

The Australian Centurian - wisely carried a high ratio of AP, BH & HE rounds were used to fight against bunkered, strongpoints and act as mobile reserve. The centurian was far superior to the bulldog, It could crash it was through jungle and operate in soft ground even with armoured side plating.

AP were used to collapse bunkers
BH were used against infanty and to clear jungle (deadly effect)

Did anyone ever hear about the story of the M48 tank that the VC captured and were using to provide power in one of their tunnels? I don't recall the exact details as a friend told me (so it could be a myth) and was wondering if anyone else had come across it :)

1. Were tanks used in the war?
Yes, the Patton Tank with it's 90 MM gun was used
2. What does NVA means and what was it?
North Vietnamese Army
3. What does Charlie mean and what was it?
Veit Cong was the name of the insurgents, or VC. The military has the phonetic alphabet.. i.e. A=Alpha, B=Bravo, C=Charlie, D=Delta, etc. So sometimes instead of being called the VC they were called "Victor Charlie" which was then shortened to just "Charlie"

[edit]OOPS sorry bugfatty, I went right to responding without reading your post, You had already explained all this... :crazyeye:

BUGFATTY got everything right, exept there was at least one tank battle, it was vietnamese pt-76 light amphibious tanks, 7 of them, IIRC against marines(i think) who had dug in several m48s and at least 1 duster(maybe 2), which is tank chassi with twin bofors 40mms, the vietnamese tanks retreated after having a few of their tanks destroyed, i think 2 or 3!

i dont remember details, google for it, i think the vietnamese had to cross a river to engage the marines, i read it on a site written by a guy who was there complete with photos, it might be up yet, look around!

south vietnam had some m-41 walker bullgog light tanks supplied by the u.s., the u.s,. also used m-24 chafee light tanks as" perimeter defense" at their bases.

BUGFATTY got everything right, exept there was at least one tank battle, it was vietnamese pt-76 light amphibious tanks, 7 of them, IIRC against marines(i think) who had dug in several m48s and at least 1 duster(maybe 2), which is tank chassi with twin bofors 40mms, the vietnamese tanks retreated after having a few of their tanks destroyed, i think 2 or 3!

i dont remember details, google for it, i think the vietnamese had to cross a river to engage the marines, i read it on a site written by a guy who was there complete with photos, it might be up yet, look around!

Well it was more of a skirmish than a battle. I think your talking about Ben Het March 69?

Those were U.S. Army troops from the 1/69 Armor. Not marines. I think only 2 NVA tanks were destroyed durring a short night-fight while retreating after a skirmish along the dug outs of several M48s.

pretty sure it was a day fight

it was tank on tank action, what do you want the battle of kursk?

not gonna happen in a country with mostly jungle!

pretty sure it was a day fight

it was a tank on tank battle, what do you want the battle of kursk?

not gonna happen in a country with mostly jungle!

1/69th Tank Vs Tank (http://rjsmith.com/ben-het.html)

yeah, thats the one