Operation Silver Bayonet Diorama

Drawing to a close my scale modelling visit to Vietnam, here are a few of the diorama features which, while not specifically referenced, may have been spotted in the pictures published over the last few weeks.

Vietnam Bicycle Troops

First up the bicycle troops, who will have been seen loitering in the background of the UH-1 Huey and M113 model shots. 

1/72 Scale Viet Minh Cycle Troops

For my cyclists, I used HaT's set of four WW2 Japanese bicycle infantry. In the absence of specific Viet Minh figures, the Japanese uniforms were a closer fit to how the Vietnamese regulars were dressing than a set of stormtrooper helmeted WW2 German soldiers which would have been the alternative! They also came with a great war pedigree; it's probably not well known that the dramatic way in which the Japanese troops advanced across Malaya to capture Singapore in 1942 was given the name of the “Bicycle Blitzkrieg” ... yes, they cycled into battle!

Bicycle Blitzkrieg

Being made of quite a soft and malleable plastic, and requiring a good deal of assembly, made this set quite a challenging and frustrating build, especially when considering the small part they eventually played in my diorama! Many of the soldiers arms were separate, as were the bikes' handlebars, and putting everything together such that it all matched up correctly was not as straight forward as it should have been. The general sculpting was good and the detail reasonably sharp but the proportions of the hands to the rest of the body on a couple of the troops seemed comically oversized; a feature of being designed to wrap around the handle bars. The bikes, were also nicely detailed and, with pedals and chain, all to scale.

 HaT's set of four WW2 Japanese bicycle infantry

I felt I had to include bicycles in my diorama because they were so dominant in maintaining the Viet Minh’s supply lines which, despite the unprecedented and prolonged bombing campaign by the US, were kept open using what is now recognised to have been the largest military bicycle-transport operation in history. To put this into context, between 1964 to 1973, the US conducted 580,000 bombing missions, dropping more than two million tons of ordnance on the Ho Chi Minh trail. This equates to a single aircraft dropping it's bomb load every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years! Although the Vietnamese dodged the bombs running 600 Russian-made Molotova 2.5-ton trucks as well as sampans, ponies and some 200,000 porters along the Trail, the mainstay of their logistical network was composed of 60,000 resilient bicycle-pushing men and women. In their fight, first against the French and then the US, the Vietnamese favoured, not unsurprisingly considering their colonial history, the French-made Peugeot bicycle, with the Czech-built Favorit their next bike of choice. 

With their large carrying capacity, bicycles were particularly effective on Vietnam’s narrow roads and tracks in the dry season, and easily modified to carry large loads. 

Bicycles on the Ho Chi Minh trail

In addition to transporting men and supplies, the bicycle served the needs of the wounded on the battlefield. In 1968 a Peugeot subsidiary produced a model especially for the North Vietnamese Army that contained surgical and medical kits and two headlights, with detachable extension cables for lighting a small field hospital. And a rudimentary form of medevac was devised using two bikes lashed together with long bamboo poles from which one or two stretchers could be suspended!

Interesting cycling factoid, Škoda, the Czech car manufacturer, started making bicycles in 1895 and still are, and made their first Škoda Favorit in 1936. Although nothing to do with the Favorit bike manufacturer which has roots back to 1922, and yes also still makes bikes, I found it sufficiently interesting to share. 

Soviet 37mm 61-K Anti-Aircraft Gun

North Vietnam’s light anti-aircraft artillery units were widely deployed and downed more American planes and helicopters than all other North Vietnamese weapons systems combined. American airmen flying over North Vietnam faced one of the most intensive and highly developed air defence systems in history and although the North’s fighter planes and its surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) got the headlines, it was the light anti-aircraft guns that inflicted the heaviest losses. North Vietnam deployed more than 8,000 anti-aircraft guns around key targets throughout the country, inflicting more than 75 percent of aircraft  combat losses. 

North Vietnam’s light anti-aircraft artillery unit

The model I selected to engage the Huey gunship in my diorama was the Soviet 37mm anti-aircraft gun, aptly produced by the Russian scale model maker,  Zvezda! This was a very crisp and well moulded kit, uniquely having all its parts clipping together and requiring no glue! I loved it.

Introduced in 1938 the 61-K was the Soviet Union’s primary anti-aircraft gun of World War II. It was based on the Swedish Bofors which the navy had purchased back in 1933. Competitive firing trials conducted in 1940 between the 61-K and the Bofors 40 mm, then being used widely by the British and its allies, found no substantial differences between them. 61-K was also made under licence by the Chinese and subsequently the new Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and went on being produced until the 1980s. 

North Vietnam reportedly deployed more than 8,000 anti-aircraft guns for air defence during the war, the majority of which being acquired direct from the Soviet Union and the remainder from China. Those located in Cambodia and South Vietnam were committed primarily against helicopters ... so my diorama is quite accurate in its portrayal of Huey gunship versus the 61-K anti-aircraft gun. 

Huey gunship versus the 61-K anti-aircraft gun

Soviet 37mm 61-K Anti-Aircraft Gun

Other Accessories & Features

I couldn't have a Vietnam War scene without a paddy field and so a small water filled area with grass like vegetation was created at the edge of the diorama. I had originally intended for this to play a larger part of the battle scene but a 'walk-on role' was all that was left after the rushes were cleared away! 

Paddy field and sandbags

In the middle distance of the above pictures you will also be able to make out sand bag protection around a slit trench. A set of these sandbags were provide within the Operation Silver Bayonet kit together with a number modelled into a wall which I used in the M48 Patton Tank diorama of the Camp Holloway helicopter base attack ... see additional picture below. 

You'll also see in this picture the watchtower, guard post and stores building also included in the kit. The signs were scratch built from actual photos of the base signage and the barbed wire was a late edition to complete the scene. If you look carefully, you'll also see a shot of the Westland Whirlwind, which has dropped in on Camp Holloway from Malaya! Although you may have seen this type of helicopter in Vietnam, it would, however, have been in the guise of the original US version, the Sikorsky H-19 Chickasaw, as no British piloted aircraft took part in the Vietnam conflict.

More sandbags, barbed wire, military buildings and scratch built signage 

Returning our attention to sandbags, in the 'drone shot' below of Operation Silver Bayonet you'll see an additional horseshoe shaped set of separately acquired resin sandbags, giving shelter to the troops protecting the anti-aircraft gun. 

The drone view of Operation Silver Bayonet

For trees I used a mix of palm and deciduous, both from UK manufacturers. The palm trees needed a lot of recolouring, and I even suspect that the maker of these could very well have been working from both a black and white photo and a palette of primary colours! Thinking of my carbon footprint, I did not, however, want to further outsource my supply to China, even though their tree illustrations looked fantastic. The deciduous trees were sufficiently nondescript to fit into a jungle environment, perhaps, I like to think, looking just like the rubber trees found growing in this part of the world!

Red earth, also typical of the region, was, as in my earlier MASH diorama, sourced from a local Jurassic cliff fall. The larger lumps worked well as stone for the walls and the finer grains for the dusty paths cut through the shrub. The red glow effect, to portray fire and exploding ordinance, were supplied by a set of rear bicycle lights ... another apt addition to the diorama, considering where we came in!