Hello, and thanks for reading! I am starting work on the Takom T-54B, to be built as a North Vietnamese T-54, and while looking for reference pics, I have noticed something...I can't seem to find any pics of the NVA T-54/55 tanks in that push into Saigon (or elsewhere) with fuel drums on the rear of the tank! I am talking in actual use, NOT the static displays that I have found. Can anyone find ANY pics of NVA Armor that use the 55 gal. rear mount fuel drums?

So far I have never seen one photo of any T-54 nor T-55s being used during the Ho Chi Minh Campaign(1975 Spring Offensive) with the rear drums on the back.It was likely removed before the final offensive.

Helion has a 3 volume paper back series titled Target Saigon. Volume 1 is out now and volume 2 and 3 are due out later. Maybe they will have pictures? Volume 3 Final Collapse has a cover picture of a T-54/55 crashing through the presidential palace gates.

Wasn't removing the rear-mounted fuel drums the standard procedure before entering combat?

Hi;

The NVA Armor was never supplied with extra fuel drums when they operated south of the DMZ; The NVA armor that I encountered in the HCM trail were Naked so to speak. Even the two T-34/85s that we ran into lacked the side fuel drums. We did however engaged A type-85 & PT-76 that did have extra fuel drums but they were in Laos !

CHEERS; MIKE.

"Laos" ? I thought we were never there with ground troops.....