battle, Cold War

Battle of Lạng Sơn

Name: Battle of Lạng Sơn
Location: Lạng Sơn, Vietnam

Battle of Lạng Sơn was a battle fought in 1979 at Lạng Sơn, in what is now Vietnam. Its exact site is not recorded; the atlas places it at Lạng Sơn. It was part of the Sino-Vietnamese War. The recorded result: Chinese victory.

See it on the globe Read the article

Fought1979

WhereLạng Sơn, Vietnam21.848N, 106.758E, placed at the location, approximate

OutcomeChinese victory

BelligerentsChinaagainstVietnam

Part ofSino-Vietnamese War1979

Where it sits in the Sino-Vietnamese War

5 placed engagements of the Sino-Vietnamese War in time order; taller ticks are more widely documented. Each tick is a link.

Record

Date	1979 (year precision)
Place	Lạng Sơn, Vietnam 21.848N, 106.758E
Kind	Battle, Cold War
Territorial change	Capture and brief occupation of Lạng Sơn by Chinese troops
Strength	At least 8 regular divisions; ~130,000 troops; Fire support: 1st Artillery Division; 70th Anti-Aircraft Division	1 regular division; plus regional troops and militia; Total ~13,000 troops; (Reinforced by the whole 327th, 337th, 338th Divisions since 2 March)
Casualties and losses	Chinese source: 1,271 killed; 3,779 wounded; Vietnamese source: ~19,000 casualties; 76 tanks/APCs destroyed	Vietnamese source: 3rd Division: 6.6% killed, 8.4% wounded; 327th Division: no data; 337th Division: 650 killed; 338th Division: 260 killed; Chinese source: 10,401 casualties; (including ~300 killed of 42nd/327th Regt.); 50 tanks/APCs destroyed
Commanders	Xu Shiyou Zhang Tingfa	Hoàng Đan Nguyễn Duy Thương

Placed at Lạng Sơn; the exact site is not recorded. with the nearest other engagements in the atlas. Present-day coastlines, rivers and borders; towns from Natural Earth.

Nearest engagements

Battle of Nui Bop 1885, same recorded site
Lạng Sơn Campaign 1885, 2.1 km S
Battle of Bang Bo 1885, 16 km N
Battle of Bạch Đằng AD 981, 95 km S
Operation Léa 1947, 100 km W

In the same war

Before: Battle of Móng Cái 1979
All 5 engagements of Sino-Vietnamese War

Elsewhere in 1979

Battle of Lạng Sơn is one of 4,429 engagements of the 20th century in the atlas and one of 269 in present-day Vietnam.

Sources

Identity, coordinates, dates and the war from Wikidata Q23020687, released under CC0. Result, belligerents, commanders, strength and casualties from the infobox of the English Wikipedia article Battle of Lạng Sơn (1979), revision 1370448428, read 2026-11-14, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the article's text is not reproduced here. Present-day country and state from Natural Earth. Dates before 1582 follow the Julian calendar as recorded.