Riverine artillery refers to artillery employment on a river, generally on floating barges. Transport of field artillery is difficult through the moist ground and riparian forest adjacent to low-gradient rivers. Traditional naval artillery is mounted on deep-draft vessels unsuited for operations in shallow rivers.
France developed the Dinassaut (assault river division) concept early in their effort to fight communist guerrillas in French Indochina. The value of artillery was demonstrated by French ships when coastal Mon Cay became the only French garrison along the Chinese border to survive a 1950 Viet Minh offensive. [1]
During the Vietnam War, the United States employed riverine artillery due to the difficulty of transporting and emplacing artillery pieces in marshy areas. The formation of a riverine task force (composed of 2d Brigade of the 9th Infantry Division and the U.S. Navy River Assault Flotilla 1) increased the importance of artillery support in riverine areas, and fixed locations near river areas proved unsatisfactory. In December 1966, 1st Battalion, 7th Artillery positioned M101A1 105 mm howitzers aboard LCM-6 landing craft, with the intent that the craft be towed to a supported area and moored to a riverbank. [2]
Later, it was established that the LCM-6 was too small to serve effectively, and howitzers were positioned on Navy AMMI pontoon barges. When these proved to difficult to move and to have too deep of a draft, barges formed of Navy P-1 pontoons were the workable solution. [3] M101A1, and later M102 howitzers were mounted onto a baseplate welded to the barge deck, allowing the howitzer to be traversed 360 degrees.
A complete battery of riverine 105 mm artillery consisted of three howitzer barges, and five LCM-8s for support staff such as the Fire Direction Center.
In November 1920, the Regimentul Artileriei Fluviale (Riverine Artillery Regiment) was formed as part of the Romanian Naval Forces. The Regiment had 14 armed barges: 8 armed each with a single 152 mm Canet gun (Russian guns captured in 1918 along with the barges they were mounted on), 4 armed each with four 120 mm guns Canet and 2 armed with two 102 mm guns Obuchov M1910 each. [5] By early 1941, the Regiment had two sections of 152 mm guns, one section of 47 mm Škoda guns and one section of 40 mm Bofors AA guns (each section had two guns). [6]
The Romanian riverine artillery took part in the 1924 suppression of the Tatarbunary Uprising and also saw action during World War II, sinking 1 Soviet armored boat during Operation Munchen.
The M102 is a light, towable 105 mm howitzer used by the United States Army in the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the Iraq War.
A monitor is a relatively small warship that is neither fast nor strongly armored but carries disproportionately large guns. They were used by some navies from the 1860s, during the First World War and with limited use in the Second World War.
The Vietnam War involved the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) or North Vietnamese Army (NVA), National Liberation Front for South Vietnam (NLF) or Viet Cong (VC), and the armed forces of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), United States Armed Forces, Republic of Korea Armed Forces, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Royal Thai Armed Forces, Australian Defence Force, and New Zealand Defence Force, with a variety of irregular troops.
In the Vietnam War, the Mobile Riverine Force (MRF) (after May 1967), initially designated Mekong Delta Mobile Afloat Force, and later the Riverines, were a joint US Army and US Navy force that comprised a substantial part of the brown-water navy. It was modeled after lessons learned by the French experience in the First Indochina War of Dinassaut and had the task of both transport (of soldiers and equipment) and combat. The primary land base was at Đồng Tâm Base Camp, with a floating base which operated in the major rivers of the Mekong Delta. Soldiers and sailors went out in river boats from the floating base to assault the Viet Cong. During part of the 1968-69 period, there were two such mobile bases operating in different parts of the Delta, Mobile Riverine Groups Alpha and Bravo. The MRF played a key role in the Tet Offensive.
River monitors are military craft designed to patrol rivers.
A brown-water navy or riverine navy, in the broadest sense, is a naval force capable of military operations in littoral zone waters. The term originated in the United States Navy during the American Civil War, when it referred to Union forces patrolling the muddy Mississippi River, and has since been used to describe the small gunboats and patrol boats commonly used in rivers, along with the larger "mother ships" that supported them. These mother ships include converted World War II-era mechanized landing craft and tank landing ships, among other vessels.
The Romanian Naval Forces is the principal naval branch of the Romanian Armed Forces and operates in the Black Sea and on the Danube. It traces its history back to 1860.
Dahlgren guns were muzzle-loading naval gun designed by Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren USN, mostly used in the period of the American Civil War. Dahlgren's design philosophy evolved from an accidental explosion in 1849 of a 32 lb (14.5 kg) gun being tested for accuracy, killing a gunner. He believed a safer, more powerful naval cannon could be designed using more scientific design criteria. Dahlgren guns were designed with a smooth curved shape, equalizing strain and concentrating more weight of metal in the gun breech where the greatest pressure of expanding propellant gases needed to be met to keep the gun from bursting. Because of their rounded contours, Dahlgren guns were nicknamed "soda bottles", a shape which became their most identifiable characteristic.
122 mm corps gun M1931/37 (A-19) was a Soviet field gun developed in late 1930s by combining the barrel of the 122 mm gun M1931 (A-19) and the carriage of the 152 mm howitzer-gun M1937 (ML-20). The gun was in production from 1939 until 1946. It saw action in World War II and remained in service for a long time after the end of the war. Vehicle-mounted variants of the gun were fitted to the IS-2 and IS-3 tanks of the Iosif Stalin series of tanks and the ISU-122 self-propelled gun.
The landing craft mechanized (LCM) is a landing craft designed for carrying vehicles. They came to prominence during the Second World War when they were used to land troops or tanks during Allied amphibious assaults.
The M101A1 howitzer is an artillery piece developed and used by the United States. It was the standard U.S. light field howitzer in World War II and saw action in both the European and Pacific theaters and during the Korean War. Entering production in 1941, it quickly gained a reputation for accuracy and a powerful punch. The M101A1 fires 105 mm high explosive (HE) semi-fixed ammunition and has a range of 12,330 yards (11,270 m), making it suitable for supporting infantry.
The 122 mm howitzer M1938 (M-30) is a Soviet 121.92 mm (4.8 inch) howitzer. The weapon was developed by the design bureau of Motovilikha Plants, headed by F. F. Petrov, in the late 1930s, and was in production from 1939 to 1955. The M-30 saw action in World War II, mainly as a divisional artillery piece of the Red Army (RKKA). Captured guns were also employed later in the conflict by the German Wehrmacht and the Finnish Army. Post World War II the M-30 saw combat in numerous conflicts of the mid- to late twentieth century in service of other countries' armies, notably in the Middle East.
122 mm howitzer M1910/30 was a Soviet 121.92 mm (4.8 inch) howitzer, a modernization of World War I era 122 mm howitzer M1910. It was the most numerous divisional howitzer of the RKKA at the outbreak of Great Patriotic War and remained in service throughout the war.
The 29th Infantry Regiment ("Pioneers") is a unit of the United States Army first formed in 1813.
The 152 mm gun-howitzer M1955, also known as the D-20, is a manually loaded, towed 152 mm gun-howitzer artillery piece, manufactured in the Soviet Union during the 1950s. It was first observed by the West in 1955, at which time it was designated the M1955. Its GRAU index is 52-P-546.
The Mk 18 Mod 0 was a 40x46mm grenade launcher used by the United States Navy during the Vietnam War and also the last known hand crank operated firearm since the Gatling gun. It was replaced by the Mk 19 grenade launcher in service with the United States Armed Forces.
The Type 41 3-inch (76 mm) naval gun otherwise known as the 8 cm/40 3rd Year Type naval gun was a Japanese dual-purpose gun introduced before World War I. Although designated as 8 cm (3.15 in), its shells were 76.2 mm (3 in) in diameter.
The 75 mm 50 caliber Pattern 1892 was a Russian naval gun developed in the years before the Russo-Japanese War that armed the majority of warships of the Imperial Russian Navy during the Russo-Japanese War and World War I. The majority of ships built or refit between 1890 and 1922 carried Pattern 1892 guns. During its career the role of the guns evolved from one of anti-torpedo boat defense to coastal artillery and anti-aircraft use.
The Obusier de 155 mm C modèle 1881 - was a French howitzer designed by Colonel Charles Ragon de Bange and employed by the French army during the First World War.