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story identification - M-113 armored vehicle from Vietnam to sword and sorcery land, fights dragon



Read it around 1978-9. Wizard plucks an M-113, about to be RPG-d from the jungles of Vietnam, with its crew and dumps it into a medieval hack and slash land with various non-human races and some magic.


The new king there is near-sighted and wasn't anyone's first pick when his dad died, but he ends up doing a good job. I believe the APC meshes in with the whole war of succession bit.



The US soldiers have a number of adventures, eventually barely kill a dragon (wizard had aimed for a tank, not an APC) and get sent back home, 10 seconds earlier, where they expect the unlucky RPG gunner and nuke his butt.


There was a second book as well, tank commander goes back to live in sword and sorcery land, but I don't think the author did much else after.



Answer



"The Doomfarers of Coramonde" by Brian Daley. Possibly a duplicate of this question.


The plot is pretty much as you describe along with a sequel, "Starfollowers of Coramonde".



Just yesterday, Sergeant Gil MacDonald and his APC crew had been fending off an ambush in a Viet Nam jungle. In the middle of the firefight, some kind of magic spell had transported them to this Fantasy Land complete with flying dragons, wizards, crazy castles, and dispossessed princes. They would stay trapped here forever unless they could rescue the sorceress Gabrielle. Master magician, Amon, held her captive in his palace; and to reach her, Gil and his men would have to infiltrate Hell itself.



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