Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tai Ba, chairman of the Truong Son-Ho Chi Minh Trail traditional association in Hoa Binh province, and his comrades have recalled the days of building and protecting the arterial supply route for the southern battlefield as the Traditional Day of Truong Son Army Corps (May 19, 1959) is approaching.


 Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tai Ba, chairman of the Truong Son-Ho Chi Minh Trail traditional association in Hoa Binh province.

Ba volunteered to join the army in 1962 when he was only 18 years old. After three months of training in the northern province of Bac Ninh, he and others marched southward.

He said to meet the requirements of the resistance war against the US, the Politburo, the Party Central Committee and President Ho Chi Minh on May 19, 1959 decided to open the strategic Truong Son – Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Corps 559, whose name stood for May 1959 when the trail was blazed, grew from 500 hand-piked men to a division-level unit on October 23, 1961. It was tasked with opening the track in the Truong Son jungle.

Recounting the hard-but-glorious decade-long task, Ba said Vietnamese soldiers shot down enemy aircraft and used collected bombs to pay the way through mountains to the South.

Truong Son soldiers and youth volunteers stayed optimistic and ready to sacrifice their lives to protecting the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which Ba said, was not only the large-scale supply route but also a big battlefield spanning 11 Vietnamese provinces, seven southern Lao localities and four northeastern Cambodia provinces, with a total length of nearly 17,000km.

The US launched more than 150,000 air strikes, with tens of thousands of B52 sorties, and more than 4 million tonnes of bombs, more than half of the bomb tonnage they pounded away across Vietnam, along with 120 raids and 1,235 commando operations. The bodies of more than 20,000 Truong Son officers and soldiers have still remained on the battlefield, and 30,000 others were injured.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was considered an indelible eight trigram formation in the jungle.

 


Related Topics


Initial workdays of merged departments, agencies: A smooth transition

March 3 marked the first official working day for specialised agencies under the provincial People's Committee following the merger or transfer of functions and tasks from the previous agencies. On this day, the newly merged departments and agencies took proactive steps to arrange personnel, organise workflows, and implement tasks efficiently, ensuring that administrative procedures were carried out smoothly without interruption.

Kim Boi integrates organisational apparatus restructuring with political task implementation

Kim Boi district of Hoa Binh province has thoroughly implemented and adhered to Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW on restructuring the organisational apparatus of the political system towards a streamlined, efficient, and effective direction, ensuring no disruption of work.

Da Bac works hard on streamlising political apparatus

By mid-February, Da Bac district completed a plan to streamline its organisational apparatus and personnel work, marking a milestone in efforts to promote restructuring towards a leaner, more efficient organisational system, closely following directives from the Party Central Committee’s Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW, and Conclusion No. 121-KL/TW, and Resolution No. 27-NQ/TU of the provincial Party Committee and Conclusion No. 1103-KL/TU by the provincial Party Organisation’s standing board.

Kim Boi commune Party Committee develops "four-good Party cell" model

Imbued with President Ho Chi Minh's teaching "The Party cell are the Party’s grassroots foundations. A strong Party cell ensures the effective implementation of the Party’s policies and continuous progress in all tasks," the Party Committee of Kim Boi commune, Kim Boi District, has rolled out the "four-good Party cell" model. The initiative has created a positive change, enhancing the leadership capacity and fighting spirit of Party organisations and their members.

Hoa Binh province discusses key socio-economic development plans

The Standing Committee of the Hoa Binh Provincial Party Committee convened on February 27 to discuss key socio-economic development plans, with Party Secretary Nguyen Phi Long chairing the meeting.

First meeting of Party committee of Hoa Binh Party agencies

The first meeting of the Party committee of Hoa Binh Party agencies for the 2020-2025 period was held on February 26.alternate member of the Party Central Committee and Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Nguyen Phi Long attended the event.