In early 1952, the Dong Bang Brigade (Division 320) obeyed the order of the General Command to enter Thai Binh, together with the people in the enemy's rear to fight the French. Enemy posts and watchtowers were uprooted in large numbers, and strong mobile troops were defeated in sweeps. The French soldiers, bodyguards, foreign legionnaires, security forces, and puppet militia disintegrated piece by piece.
Like other villages in this area, Tho Cach village, An Tho commune, Thuy Anh district (now Thuy Quynh commune, Thai Thuy district) was liberated. This was the hometown of young man Nguyen Duc Nhu. Excited like a bird released from a cage, Nhu and many other young men in the village eagerly joined the army. Nhu was admitted to Company 52, Battalion 346, Regiment 57, Division 304. After several months of training, Nhu participated in the Hoa Binh Campaign as a gunner of a Borenno machine gun.
On the days before Tet Giap Ngo (1954), Nhu's unit was ordered to march to participate in the Dien Bien Phu Campaign. The weather was bitterly cold, clothes were not warm enough, food was poor and lacking... But the spirit of the whole unit was excited to be present in a big campaign. The daily work was very urgent: digging bunkers, fighting bunkers, artillery bunkers, making fake battlefields, cutting trees, chopping firewood, transporting rice and salt..., racing against time to meet the opening date of the campaign. Receiving gifts sent by the people: Chung cakes, cigarettes, tobacco, candy..., the soldiers suddenly remembered that Tet had come and understood that the rear was sending their trust, looking forward, waiting for the soldiers to win and make achievements.
Enemy positions on Him Lam hill were destroyed on March 13, 1954, the opening day of the campaign. Photo: Archive
At the beginning of the campaign, Nhu's unit was assigned the task of destroying the enemy at the Him Lam hill stronghold. The trench encirclement increasingly tightened the enemy in the bunkers and bunkers. Many times they broke out but were pushed back and suffered heavy casualties.
Him Lam and Doc Lap bases were destroyed one after another; Ban Keo surrendered. The French artillery commander in Dien Bien Phu committed suicide. The door to the central area was opened. The machine gun, with Nhu as the main gunner, contributed to the victory in the opening battles. Two of Nhu's squad members remained and were later buried in Doc Lap Hill cemetery.
Nhu's unit went to the outer ring to reorganize, rested for a few days, then moved to fight in the A1 hill area. Nhu's company coordinated with the engineering troops, day and night digging a tunnel under the deep floor, while fighting the enemy. The tunnel grew longer each day, reaching deeper into the A1 bunker, with branch tunnels in each section, punching holes to let in light and air. Although the enemy knew, they were helpless to neutralize their artillery. The tunnel grew deeper and farther, our troops used the enemy's parachute flaps that were dropped outside the fence to sew into bags, scooped dirt into the bags, tied ropes, and sent signals to the people outside the tunnel door to pull the dirt and rocks out and dump them into the forest.
The work went on like that, for how many days and nights, Nhu couldn't remember clearly. The tunnel was dug, explosives were moved in, bag by bag, moving forever. Later we learned that it was a ton of explosives brought into the tunnel, right at the foot of the central bunker of Hill A1. The urgent order: "Everyone quickly get out of the tunnel and go far away from the door". A few dozen minutes later, a loud explosion shook the mountains and forests, as if the hill had cracked open. That was the explosion of 1,000 kg of explosives that Nhu himself had helped move into the tunnel. The gunfire and the roar of enemy tanks fell silent. It was the dawn of May 7, 1954.
The A1 hill stronghold, the enemy's throat, was destroyed. The airport, Muong Thanh bridge and De Castries' command post suffered the same fate at 5 p.m. the same day. On A1 hill, the cracked reinforced concrete bunker and the collapsed tank in front of the tunnel were signs of the "Thousand-pound explosion" victory. In this battle, Nhu suffered a severe nervous shock, tinnitus and headaches, and more than ten years later he became completely deaf.
On the afternoon and night of May 7, 1954, the sound of bombs, planes, and enemy tanks fell silent. Instead, cheers like thunder resounded in the mountains and forests. Soldiers, laborers, and people of all ethnic groups hugged each other with great joy. The mountains and forests seemed to shrink, the red fire lit up the sky of Dien Bien, clearly illuminating the landscape. The entire Northwest mountains and forests did not sleep that night to celebrate the Great Victory.
(excerpt from the book " Echoes of Dien Bien", People's Army Publishing House, Hanoi, 2004)
According to People's Army Newspaper
Source
Comment (0)