Memories of opening the Truong Son road of Hai Duong soldiers

"Piercing" Truong Son

After joining the army in September 1965, Mr. Le Hong Son, current Chairman of the Truong Son - Ho Chi Minh Trail Tradition Association of Hai Duong province, and 1,500 soldiers of the 5th Regiment of Hai Duong had 3 months of training in Ninh Binh. In December 1965, he and the soldiers of the Regiment went to the South to fight.

“At first, we were ordered to support Phu Yen province. After more than a month of marching, we crossed the Truong Son mountain range and set foot in Laos. Here, we were ordered to return to Quang Binh, to supplement the forces of Group 559 and carry out the task of opening Route 20, breaking the unique route connecting East Truong Son and West Truong Son of the Ho Chi Minh trail system,” Mr. Son recalled.

On the first day of the Binh Ngo Lunar New Year (January 21, 1966), at the foot of Dong Tien slope, the Command of Group 559 issued the order for a road-clearing campaign called “Breaking through Truong Son, opening the way to victory”. When the first explosive block opened the campaign, from the east and west, road-building forces simultaneously launched, with the participation of thousands of cadres, engineers and youth volunteers. Cadres and soldiers of Regiment 5 and 3 youth volunteer teams constructed the western front from Lum Bum to Ta Le.

“Instead of receiving weapons and ammunition, we received saws, shovels, crowbars, and rams to carry out our tasks. The Central Military Commission’s order allowed the road to be opened in no more than 105 days, so the plan was implemented to complete one kilometer of road surface in one day. The units were divided into three teams working non-stop, day and night. One team chopped down trees, another drilled holes to place explosives to break rocks, and another leveled the road surface. To ensure secrecy, we had to camouflage ourselves as we went along,” said Mr. Nguyen Dinh Dong (in Thong Kenh commune, Gia Loc).

At that time, the road was opened entirely by human power without the help of machinery. Thousands of cubic meters of boulders were thrown over the shoulders of male and female youth volunteers into the fast-flowing waters of the Tra Ang, Ca Roong, A Ki, Ta Le rivers… to create underground roads running under the water. Dozens of hills of earth and chicken liver rocks were also cut and leveled by the engineering troops and youth volunteers to make roads.

For Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Nghiem (in Tu Cuong commune, Thanh Mien), the most difficult part of building this road was the section through Phu La Nhich pass because on one side of the road was a steep cliff and on the other side was a deep abyss. Mr. Nghiem said: “For many consecutive days and nights, we had to hang ourselves on the cliffs, using rattan and reed ropes to tie around our bodies as safety ropes. In pairs, one person held a spear, the other held a 10-15 kg sledgehammer, punching holes and stuffing explosives into the cliff to break the mountain and open the road. Everyone's hands were blistered, and we had to wrap them in rags to prevent burns. After the mines exploded, tons of rocks fell down, piled on top of each other, and we had to use human strength to push them down the abyss.”

While telling the story, Mr. Nghiem read us some verses of poetry: "Phu La Nhich Pass is steep and rocky/ Clouds cover the back of the pass all year round/ Bamboo clumps are sparsely growing beside the rocky crevices/ Soldiers of Thanh Dong are diligently climbing". He said that these were verses written by comrade Pham Trong Hong, former Political Commissar of Regiment 5, for the soldiers of the Regiment. "Through these verses, we can imagine the dangers and difficulties when opening a route through Phu La Nhich Pass", Mr. Nghiem said.

Hunger does not discourage

The opening of Route 20 went smoothly and safely for the first 15 days. From the 16th day, enemy scouts saw the dust and rocks so they focused on attacking along our entire formation. From then on, fierce fighting between us and the enemy took place day and night, from the beginning until the road was opened.

“When we were discovered and bombarded by the enemy, we had to change our plans. Each battalion had a 12.7mm artillery company. When an aircraft arrived, the soldiers of this company would be tasked with shooting down the aircraft. At construction sites, we dug tunnels and caves to take shelter. When the enemy aircraft left, everyone would do their own job. On roads without camouflaged trees, we switched to working at night to ensure that the orders of the Central Military Commission were carried out correctly,” said Mr. Son.

During those days of opening the road, hunger and thirst were the haunting memories of the Truong Son soldiers. At first, when they first started their mission, the food rations of the units were full, some even had more than they could eat. But then, when the road was opened deeper, it was impossible to transport food, so every day the units had to send people back to the stations to receive food. Each time they went to get food, it took a whole day. When the American invaders discovered and bombed, getting food became even more difficult. Mr. Dong sadly said: “There was a time when we couldn’t get rice to eat for more than a month. The brothers in the unit divided into groups to go into the forest to pick figs, figs, and find small pieces of the plane tree, bamboo shoots, and horseshoe tree to eat. But the wild vegetables and wild fruits were gone after eating for a long time, sometimes we went all day and still couldn’t pick much. Everyone was emaciated.”

Along with hunger, the Truong Son soldiers at that time also had to suffer from leeches, mosquito bites, scabies, and jungle malaria. Mr. Nghiem recalled: “At that time, we did not have enough clothes to wear because we could not provide support. Most of us only had one set of long clothes, two pairs of shorts, and an undershirt. Every day when we bathed, we had to wash our clothes immediately and dry them on the rocks by the stream, while we ourselves either soaked in the stream or dried ourselves on the grass waiting for our clothes to dry before wearing them. Not used to the climate, almost everyone of us got malaria. There was a time when the whole unit got it, those with a mild fever struggled to serve those who were more seriously ill. Then there was scabies, everyone got it.”

Difficulties and hardships seemed to have worn down the endurance of the Truong Son soldiers, but they overcame them with extraordinary willpower and determination. “The construction site maintained a pace of opening 15-20 km of road each month. I understand that this is an unprecedented speed in the history of stone road construction and opening,” said Mr. Son.

After 77 days of urgent construction, on April 14, 1966, the two construction fronts, East and West, converged on the Truong Son peak at km 65 of the Vietnam - Laos border. On May 5, 1966, a convoy of 14 trucks loaded with rice officially opened the road. After the road was opened, the army withdrew, leaving only the youth volunteer force to complete the roadbed, pave the road surface and ensure traffic.