The Vietnam War’s Only Tank Battle: A Challenge for American Strategy

In the pre-dawn hours of March 3, 1969, soldiers at Ben Het Special Forces Camp in the Central Highlands near the Laotian border heard something unusual in the jungle. They had patrolled the area for months, fought skirmishes, and endured artillery attacks. But this time, the sound was different.

From the darkness, North Vietnamese tanks opened fire on the camp. Green Berets and their Montagnard allies scrambled to defend an outpost built for guerrilla ambushes, not armored assaults. Flares lit the sky as tank shells slammed into the perimeter. American M48 Patton tanks fired back, and suddenly the defenders found themselves in the Vietnam War’s only tank-on-tank engagement. Though small in scale, it exposed the faltering state of America’s mission in the region.

Ben Het Special Forces Camp

Ben Het sat in a stretch of the Central Highlands 15 miles from Dak To Air Base. The camp was near the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a key route for funneling North Vietnamese troops and supplies south.

A detachment of about 12 U.S. Special Forces soldiers used the camp to train Montagnard allies and raid NVA supply lines. Nearly 400 Montagnards formed the bulk of the defense, supported by several hundred South Vietnamese troops.

Recognizing the camp’s threat to its supply lines, the NVA targeted it for destruction. In the months leading up to the attack, the 202nd Armored Regiment shelled the outpost and harassed its patrols.

Expecting a major strike, U.S. commanders reinforced the camp with four M48 Pattons from the 69th Armor Regiment, two M42 self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicles, and a platoon of 175mm artillery.

Vietnam is remembered for ambushes, booby traps, and helicopter assaults. But at Ben Het, the war briefly took the form of a conventional tank battle in the jungle.

The Only Tank Battle in Vietnam

On March 2, American troops reported hearing engines in the jungle. They prepared their weapons and loaded HEAT rounds in the Pattons.

The following night, the camp came under intense rifle, mortar, artillery, and rocket fire. Beneath the barrage, soldiers heard the rumble of approaching armor.

An NVA PT-76 amphibious tank struck a mine, its explosion illuminating the advancing column. Nearly a dozen PT-76s, supported by BTR-50 personnel carriers and infantry, charged the camp.

American tanks fired at muzzle flashes in the dark. One Patton knocked out an enemy tank. A second NVA column approached from another direction. Mortars launched flares to expose them, but the illumination also gave the attackers better aim. An enemy round struck a Patton, killing two crewmen and wounding two others.

Montagnards held their lines, suppressing infantry as a replacement crew rushed into the damaged Patton. Another U.S. tank destroyed a second PT-76. As the fight dragged on, American tanks ran out of HEAT rounds and switched to less effective HE shells.

Both sides exchanged artillery, while mortars lit up the sky with illumination rounds. The battle lasted only hours but was among the most violent skirmishes of the war. An NVA BTR was destroyed before the surviving vehicles withdrew under fire from an AC-47 gunship.

By morning, the defenders counted two PT-76s and a BTR-50 destroyed. The enemy recovered their dead, so casualties remain unknown. U.S. losses included two Americans killed and two wounded, along with one Montagnard dead and several wounded. Analysts believe the NVA’s main objective was to knock out the camp’s 175mm artillery.

Significance and Lessons

The attack shocked American commanders. Like the Tet Offensive a year earlier, it showed the NVA could mount coordinated, conventional assaults, not just guerrilla raids.

The fight also underscored the vulnerability of isolated U.S. outposts. Without Pattons reinforcing the camp, Ben Het might have fallen. The year before, the same NVA regiment overran a Special Forces camp at Lang Vei, proving how precarious these strongpoints were. The Montagnards and CIDG forces would be unable to withstand an armored attack.

The surviving NVA were reinforced and continued to attack Allied forces in the area for the rest of the war.

Ben Het was a tactical victory for the Americans, but strategically meaningless. NVA supplies and armor continued flowing into the Central Highlands. After U.S. forces drew down, the South Vietnamese took over the camp — and eventually lost it to another armored assault.

The engagement proved the NVA were growing bolder and more capable. With Soviet-supplied armor, they could challenge American firepower directly. It was a warning sign: technology and superior weapons could win battles, but not the war.