{"id":60887,"date":"2017-12-13T15:07:15","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T15:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/12\/13\/how-north-vietnams-p-4s-missed-the-mark\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T10:32:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T10:32:20","slug":"how-north-vietnams-p-4s-missed-the-mark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/veterans\/2017\/12\/13\/how-north-vietnams-p-4s-missed-the-mark\/","title":{"rendered":"How North Vietnam’s P-4s missed the mark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At approximately 3:05 p.m. on August 2, 1964, USS Maddox fired three warning shots at three North Vietnamese P-4 patrol torpedo boats approaching the destroyer at high speed. Over the next 20 minutes, the Maddox fired more than 280 5-inch and 3-inch rounds at the fast-moving and evasively maneuvering PT boats. Two of the boats fired their 14.5 mm machine guns and released their torpedoes at the destroyer. One 14.5 mm round hit the Maddox\u2019s bridge wing but both torpedoes missed. The North Vietnamese crews had launched them from too far away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three PT boats were damaged by the follow-on airstrike in support of the Maddox. That attack was a factor in Congress\u2019 Aug. 7 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which enabled President Lyndon B. Johnson to take military action against North Vietnam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China delivered a dozen P-4 torpedo boats (improved Soviet Komsomolets-123s built under a license agreement) to North Vietnam between 1961 and 1964. The aluminum-hulled vessels were fast and maneuverable but they lacked radar. In the Chinese version, the torpedo boat\u2019s Soviet-supplied 12.7 mm machine guns were replaced with more powerful 14.5 mm weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more from HistoryNet<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n