Hue-Da Nang Campaign: A move that completely changed the situation of the war

Tanks of Brigade 203, Division 304, Corps 2 enter to liberate Da Nang (March 29, 1975). (Photo: Hoang Giang/VNA)

The victory of the Campaign had strategic significance, along with the victory of the Central Highlands Campaign, completely changing the situation of the war, creating basic conditions, contributing to the complete liberation of the South, ending the resistance war against the US, saving the country.

Seize the opportunity, make up your mind, act accurately

When building the strategic plan to liberate the South in 1975-1976, the strategic agencies basically agreed that after attacking the Central Highlands, the second blow would be Hue-Da Nang; the third blow would be Saigon.

At the expanded Politburo meeting (December 18, 1974 - January 2, 1975), the General Staff persistently defended the idea that there must be three offensives and that it was impossible to attack Saigon directly from the Central Highlands. In addition, in the final strategic battle, the strength of the North, the great rear area, must be mobilized.

In mid-March 1975, the initial victory of the Central Highlands Campaign, especially the key battle to liberate Buon Ma Thuot town, shook the entire enemy defense system on the battlefield in South Vietnam. Opening up the possibility of a great victory for the revolution.

Enemy war vehicles in Duc Lap fortified military sub-region fell into the hands of the liberation army during the Central Highlands Liberation Campaign. (Photo: VNA archive)

Realizing that the strategic opportunity was favorable and came sooner than expected, on March 18, 1975, the Politburo met and decided to add to the strategic determination to focus on liberating the South in 1975.

The Politburo emphasized that in order to successfully carry out the basic tasks set out, the immediate task of the entire Party, army and people at this time is to launch the second strategic attack - liberating Hue, Da Nang and the coastal provinces of the Central region.

Implementing the strategic determination set forth by the Politburo, our army and people stepped up attacks on the enemy on the Tri-Thien battlefield and the coastal provinces of Zone V, putting pressure on them and forcing them to concentrate their forces on defending major cities, including Hue and Da Nang.

On March 21, 1975, on the Tri-Thien and Nam-Ngai battlefields, our troops opened fire simultaneously, separating Hue from Da Nang, cutting off Highway 1, and blocking the enemy at the Thuan An and Tu Hien seaports.

Hue City was completely surrounded and isolated. On March 22, 1975, the 1st Corps Forward Command fled to Da Nang by air.

Losing their commander and facing the pressure of our attack, the enemy troops in Hue began to fall into disarray. Although the enemy forces were large, they no longer had the will to fight and were only concerned with retreating.

On the night of March 24, 1975, from all directions, our combined arms units began to enter the city. Supported by the people and the special forces, our army attacked straight into the center of Hue city, destroyed the puppet 1st Corps Command at Mang Ca, occupied Ngo Mon Gate, City Hall, Police Department... and planted the victory flag on top of Phu Van Lau. On March 26, 1975, Hue city was completely liberated.

The flag of the Provisional Revolutionary Government flies on the flagpole of Hue city. (Photo: Lam Hong Long/VNA)

After losing Hue and then losing Tam Ky (Quang Ngai), Nguyen Van Thieu declared to "defend" Da Nang at all costs and said that after liberating Hue, if we wanted to attack Da Nang, it would take at least a month of preparation.

But they were wrong. To create momentum for the liberation of Da Nang city, right from the beginning of the Central Highlands Campaign, local troops in Quang Ngai, Quang Nam, and Quang Da provinces destroyed small, scattered targets, cut off traffic, destroyed warehouses, and exhausted enemy forces and war vehicles.

At 5:30 a.m. on March 28, 1975, with the motto "fastest, most timely, most daring, but sure to win," from all directions, our troops launched an attack on Da Nang city.

130mm, D74, and DKB artillery fiercely suppressed targets at Hon Bang, Tra Kieu, Da Nang airport, Son Tra port, and Nuoc Man airport.

Meanwhile, the troops quickly approached the city. By 3:00 p.m. on March 29, 1975, our troops occupied the entire Da Nang joint base and Son Tra peninsula; by 5:00 p.m., the city was completely liberated.

Thus, in a very short time, our army and people destroyed the enemy's defense system, liberating five provinces: Quang Tri, Thua Thien, Quang Da, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai, including two large cities: Hue and Da Nang.

The victory of Da Nang ended the victory of the Hue-Da Nang Campaign.

The flag of the Provisional Revolutionary Government flies on the flagpole of Hue city. (Photo: Lam Hong Long/VNA)

It can be affirmed that with the precise, bold and timely decisions of all levels, our army and people quickly and successfully carried out the offensive to liberate Hue-Da Nang, smashing the enemy's strategic plot to regroup, decisively contributing to completely changing the strategic balance of forces, creating a leap in the war situation completely in our favor.

A leap forward in the war situation

The second strategic attack to liberate Hue-Da Nang had an extremely great significance, demonstrated by the fact that we completely destroyed and disintegrated the enemy's 1st Army Corps and 1st Military Region, dealing a heavy blow to the Saigon government and army as well as the US's plan to prolong the war.

The Hue-Da Nang campaign directly crushed the enemy's strategic regrouping plot, and together with the Central Highlands campaign, contributed decisively to completely changing the strategic balance of forces, creating a leap in the war situation completely in our favor, accelerating the historic Ho Chi Minh campaign.

In just a short time, we destroyed many main enemy divisions, including many elite divisions such as the Marine Division, the 1st Infantry Division, the Air Force Division, eliminating 120,000 enemy soldiers from combat, disintegrating 137,000 civil defense troops; capturing 129 airplanes, 179 armored tanks, 327 artillery pieces, more than 1,100 military vehicles and boats...

In terms of military art, the Hue-Da Nang offensive was a wise, flexible and timely change of direction of our attack, creating a rapid chain collapse of the enemy. (Photo: Hoang Giang/VNA)

The victory created a new strategic area of ​​great significance in many aspects. The newly liberated provinces in the Hue-Da Nang Campaign, together with a newly liberated area in the Central Highlands provinces, created a complete strategic rear area that was beneficial for ensuring logistics and technology, convenient for maneuvering by road, sea, and air, connecting with the socialist North, the great rear area of ​​the whole country, promptly responding to the need to strengthen forces and supplement materials for a large-scale attack on Saigon in the shortest time.

In terms of military art, the Hue-Da Nang offensive was a wise, flexible and timely change of direction of our attack, creating a rapid chain collapse of the enemy.

During the attack, our army quickly cut off Route 1, isolated Hue and Da Nang, formed a siege, and attacked overwhelmingly with combined arms strength from many directions, not giving the enemy time to respond and retreat.

The Hue-Da Nang offensive was also a combination of extremely close operations, proactive and bold attacks when the opportunity arose by the army and people of Tri-Thien Military Region, Military Region 5, Army Corps 2 and main force units stationed in the area. It was truly a strategic offensive of great significance in many aspects.

Along with the victory of the Central Highlands Campaign, the Hue-Da Nang Campaign changed the balance of power between us and the enemy in the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising, contributing to bringing our people's resistance war against the US to quickly reach final victory.

The campaign also left many valuable lessons. These were lessons about seizing opportunities, making determination, and taking precise actions; lessons about strictly following the strategic direction of the Party Central Committee, always sticking to the main goals and main tasks to complete assigned tasks; promoting the initiative, flexibility and creativity of direct forces, local forces and localities; maximizing the strength of key factors, here being the main troops in the strategic offensive.

Those valuable lessons continue to be distilled and applied by our Party to the cause of building socialism in the current period, most clearly manifested in seizing opportunities, promoting internal strength, taking advantage of favorable objective conditions, overcoming difficulties, and excellently completing the set goals./.

(Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/chien-dich-hue-da-nang-nuoc-co-thay-doi-han-cuc-dien-chien-tranh-post1019918.vnp