The Battle of the Paracel Islands was a military engagement between the naval forces of the People's Republic of China and Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in Paracel Islands on January 19, 1974. The battle was an escalation of the Republic of Vietnam Navy's efforts to expel Chinese fishing vessels from the vicinity of some of the Paracels.
During the course of the battle, the People's Liberation Army Navy established permanent control over the Crescent Group of the Paracel Islands.
Although this result was not part of China's original military objectives, it completed China's control over the Paracels.
Balance of forces
There were four warships from the South Vietnam participated in the battle: three frigates, Trần Bình Trọng (HQ-5),[1] Lý Thường Kiệt (HQ-16),[2] and Trần Khánh Dư (HQ-4), [3], and one corvette, Nhật Tảo (HQ-10).[4] In addition, a platoon of South Vietnamese naval commandos, an underwater demolition team, and a regular ARVN platoon were stationed on the islands.
China had four warships for most parts of the battle: PLAN corvettes # 271, #274, # 389 and # 396; they were very old and small warships with length of 49 meters and width of 6 meters, and had not been well-maintained for years. This force was reinforced by two Kronstad-Class submarine chasers (# 281 and # 282) at the end of the battle. In addition, two PLA marine battalions and an unknown number of irregular militia landed on the islands.
In comparison, the total displacements and weapons of Vietnamese were remarkably more than those of China. There were four ships of each side engaging in the battle. The supporting and reinforcement forces of China’s PLAN did not actually take part during the battle.
Source
Battle of the Paracel Islands - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia