Unforgettable historical mark on Tan Chau land

Command bunker of Thanh Hoa Provincial Military Command during the period 1965-1973.

In order to carry out the plot to cut off the support of the great Northern rear base to the Southern front line, the American invaders mobilized their forces to fiercely attack Thanh Hoa - an important strategic area, the gateway to the battlefield, focusing on traffic targets. In the face of the plot and actions of the American imperialists, closely following the Central Government's policy, Thanh Hoa province quickly directed the shift in economic - cultural development, traffic - transportation from peacetime to wartime, issued a resolution on the task of recruiting soldiers, building support forces for the battlefield, identifying it as "the top priority task, a sacred national duty, a matter of political responsibility, a great rear sentiment towards the great front line; a loyal sentiment towards the Southern compatriots, towards the sister province of Quang Nam and a noble international task".

Under the direction of the armed forces on combat preparations and the organization of People's air defense work to deal with the enemy's plot, the Provincial Military Party Committee (now the Provincial Military Command) proposed to the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee to instruct branches, levels, and localities to strengthen leadership, raise vigilance, prepare for combat readiness, and organize People's air defense work in their localities and units such as: Deploying air defense alarm work, building shelters, organizing air defense emergency systems, fire prevention and fighting; making plans to evacuate, disperse, and relocate people out of the key areas of US imperialism's attacks; moving all activities, production, work, and study of agencies, enterprises, schools, hospitals, cooperatives, etc. into a state of war. District and town military agencies directly guided enterprises and cooperatives with combat forces, built battlefields, made shelters, and organized alarms to both produce and fight...

Being a land with a relatively diverse terrain, including hills, rivers, lakes, etc., in addition to the wide, long fields interspersed with mountains, Tan Chau commune has Go mountain, a 30m high dirt mountain, 10ha in area, densely forested; Dong Chai mountain is small, low, located in the middle of the fields... The people here are simple, hard-working, and have a revolutionary spirit. These are favorable conditions for building working and commanding tunnels for the resistance.

In that bustling and urgent atmosphere, the people of Tan Chau commune contributed tens of thousands of working days and gathered materials to build trenches and trenches, preparing conditions for the evacuation of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Military Command to the locality. At that time, two trenches were built in Tan Chau commune. One of them was where comrade Ngo Thuyen, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Thanh Hoa Provincial Resistance Administrative Committee, directly worked and commanded the resistance. The second trench was built right on the large field (commonly known as Ma Cau camp) in Tho Son village, where comrade Trinh To Phan, Provincial Military Command, worked and commanded the resistance.

The command bunker of Thanh Hoa Provincial Military Command during the period of 1965-1973 was designed in the shape of the letter Chi, with 2 doors. The northwest door was 1.7m high, 80cm wide, and about 60cm below ground level. The northeast door was the same size as the northwest door, about 150cm below ground level. The tunnel was about 10m long, divided into four branches, each branch was about 2.5m long on average. The tunnel wall was 1.4m high, built with 17 rows of bricks; the top was built in a dome style; the border between the tunnel branches was designed with ventilation holes 15cm in diameter. The tunnel floor was paved with bricks, and brick platforms were built under the floor to provide seats for working and meeting to discuss combat plans...

During the years of the fierce resistance war against the US, under the rain of bombs and bullets of the enemy, our army and people united as one, raising their spirit and will to fight. From the most difficult conditions, under the tunnels and bunkers lacking everything, the strategic meetings, decisions, command orders, and encouragement of soldiers and people were still transmitted throughout the battlefields and trenches. Although life was still miserable, facing the harsh reality of war, the masses of people still believed in and loved the resistance, ready to devote all their efforts to the cause of fighting for national independence. All together fanned the boiling, burning flame of resistance, causing the "Americans to leave" and the "puppet regime to fall", contributing greatly to bringing the resistance to victory.

The working bunker of the Thanh Hoa Provincial Military Command during the period of fighting against the American imperialists’ destructive war in the North from 1965 to 1973 has always been preserved and promoted by generations of Tan Chau commune residents. So that the pride in the revolutionary tradition of the homeland will flow forever and transform into a driving force that urges each person to constantly strive, train, and contribute to building the homeland and the country.

Article and photos: Dang Khoa

*The article uses materials in the book "Revolutionary historical relics of Thanh Hoa province" (2019, Thanh Hoa Publishing House) of the Propaganda Department of Thanh Hoa Provincial Party Committee.

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/dau-an-lich-su-khong-the-quen-tren-manh-dat-tan-chau-246152.htm