Dien Bien Phu in the memory of the first anti-aircraft soldier (part 1)

(Dan Tri) - Many years later, Mr. Lam Duc Hap still remembers his two trips to China. One was as a Vietnamese volunteer soldier, and the second time he went to receive artillery aid from the Soviet Union to fight Dien Bien Phu.

At a ripe old age, veterans of the 367th Regiment - the first anti-aircraft artillery regiment of the Vietnam People's Army - still tell each other: "Before having 37mm anti-aircraft artillery, the Viet Minh troops only had forests and darkness. When we were able to bring anti-aircraft artillery back to fight French planes, we had both day and sky."

From Thap Van Dai Son to Dien Bien Phu

In the summer of 1949, Chinese people in Longzhou (Guangxi, China) witnessed fierce fighting between Chiang Kai-shek's army and a strange army in brown shirts and buffalo-faced hats advancing from the south. At that time, Chinese people whispered to each other, "These are Japanese fascists, who first fled to Vietnam and now have come back to attack us." Only those who looked closely could see on the soldier's chest a yellow ribbon with the words: "Chinese People's Liberation Army."

Mr. Lam Duc Hap, a veteran of the two campaigns of Thap Van Dai Son and Dien Bien Phu (Photo: Ngoc Tan).

Among the brown-shirted soldiers was Lam Duc Hap, a 19-year-old soldier from Ninh Binh. Hap and a Viet Minh regiment advanced to China to participate in the Thap Van Dai Son campaign - a secret campaign to help the Chinese Communist Party eliminate the last strongholds of the Kuomintang army. The campaign ended in October 1949 when Viet Minh soldiers from the south attacked and met the main army of the Chinese Communist Party from the north, the Vietnamese-Chinese coalition completely liberated the Viet Que border area from Chiang Kai-shek's army. In October of that year, the People's Republic of China was born. After completing the international mission in China, Hap and his comrades withdrew to the Viet Bac resistance base to continue the resistance war against the French colonialists that was reaching its fiercest stage. The Viet Minh soldier at that time did not know that the act of "giving blood and bones to help friends" was also the premise for friends to help him in preparing weapons for the decisive battle at Dien Bien. In 1953, in response to the need for anti-aircraft artillery to suppress the French air force, the Ministry of Defense decided to establish the 367th Anti-Aircraft Regiment and send elite soldiers to China for training in the use of 37mm anti-aircraft artillery.

Soldiers of Battalion 383, Anti-Aircraft Regiment 367, use a rangefinder to capture an aerial target (Photo: Archive).

Mr. Hap had attended primary school in the district town, so he was also classified as "educated" at that time. Because he was literate and knew basic calculations, he was chosen with the first group of Viet Minh officers to go to China to build the framework of the 367th Anti-Aircraft Regiment. According to Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Ngoc Long, former Deputy Director of the Institute of Military History, from Thap Van Dai Son to Dien Bien Phu is evidence of the two-way support, "give and take" between the Vietnamese and Chinese military and people in the cause of national liberation.

The first anti-aircraft officers

After 71 years, Colonel Tran Lien, former staff officer of Regiment 367, can still clearly recall his and his comrades' 6-month "study abroad" trip to China. Recalling the context at that time, Mr. Lien said that the Viet Minh troops learned many lessons after failing to capture Hoa Binh and Na San - strongholds many times smaller in scale than Dien Bien Phu.

Colonel Tran Lien, former staff officer of Anti-Aircraft Regiment 367 (Photo: Ngoc Tan).

That was also the time when the French colonialists received strong support from their American allies in terms of weapons and logistics. A series of C47 Dakota and C-119 aircraft were transferred by the US to France to establish an air bridge to supply supplies between Dien Bien Phu and the two airports of Gia Lam (Hanoi) and Cat Bi (Hai Phong). "We could not occupy Hoa Binh and Na San because the French had very strong aircraft and artillery support. Therefore, the Ministry of Defense decided to build two forces: heavy artillery and anti-aircraft artillery," Colonel Lien recalled. In October 1952, Mr. Tran Lien and 33 comrades were sent to Nanning (China) to study the air force. But because the Viet Minh army did not have the conditions to build an air force, the group switched to studying air defense. "While we were in Nanning, Comrade Nguyen Chi Thanh, Director of the General Political Department, came to brief us on our new mission. Accordingly, we would no longer study the air force but would go to the Shenyang Anti-Aircraft Officer School to learn how to use anti-aircraft artillery. Shenyang is a city in northeastern China, near the Korean war zone. There, Mr. Lien and his teammates heard the air defense alarm for the first time when American planes bombed over the Yalu River. "As students, we only heard the alarm and ran to take shelter, not participating in the battle," he recalled.

Veterans of Regiment 367 revisited the Dien Bien Phu battlefield in 2010 (Photo: provided by veteran Nguyen Tran).

After studying in Shenyang, Mr. Lien and his group of cadres became anti-aircraft officers. They marched back to Tanyang (Nanning) to begin the training phase of combat crews with the group of soldiers from Vietnam. At this time, the number of troops of the 367th regiment was full with 6 37mm anti-aircraft battalions. By August 1953, the training course was completed. The battalions took the graduation exam of firing live ammunition. "We took the graduation exam by firing artillery at balloons released by the school to simulate enemy aircraft," Mr. Tran Lien smiled and recalled. Until the artillery was pulled into Dien Bien Phu, the units of the 367th regiment had never experienced shooting at real aircraft. On November 24, 1953, at the Tanyang artillery school, the 367th regiment held a departure ceremony. Mr. Tran Lien was then a staff officer, in charge of the operation to bring the 394th and 383rd battalions back to the country. At that time, not only Mr. Lien but all soldiers of the 367th regiment were well equipped by the friendly country, the gunners wore steel helmets, and officers from the platoon up had leather shoes. Soldiers did not have to walk but could sit in motor vehicles. "We had to give political education to our comrades. Now our soldiers and laborers all walk, they don't even have shoes, and the anti-aircraft soldiers sit in cars. We should cover up, don't show off to our comrades," Mr. Lien recalled.

General Vo Nguyen Giap met with anti-aircraft artillery forces after the Dien Bien Phu victory (Photo: Archive).

During the entire journey of pulling the artillery from China to Tuan Giao, Mr. Tran Lien clearly remembered the order of General Vo Nguyen Giap: "Getting the artillery to the destination safely and secretly is considered a 60% victory". That was a very important order because the Viet Minh had determined that the 37mm anti-aircraft artillery would be a big surprise for the French army at Dien Bien Phu. But it was also a very difficult order to carry out because on the way to pull the artillery, French reconnaissance planes were constantly circling to look for signs of troop movements. After a week of secret marching, they pulled 24 37mm anti-aircraft guns to the assembly point in Tuyen Quang. On the morning of December 21, 1953, the 367th Regiment received orders to march to Tuan Giao to participate in the Dien Bien Phu campaign. The marching formation at that time included soldier To Vinh Dien and the anti-aircraft artillery number 510.681, which would later be closely associated with his name. (continued)...

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