Hero Phan Tu in the Dien Bien Phu campaign
People's Armed Forces Hero Phan Tu was born in 1931, from Tho Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, Nghe An province, and enlisted in June 1951.
From joining the army until July 1954, Phan Tu participated in 4 major campaigns in the North with the main tasks of opening roads, defusing bombs to ensure traffic, destroying waterfalls...
Whatever the task and whatever the position, he always upholds the spirit of courage, overcomes all fierce difficulties, and is determined to complete the task excellently.
During the historic Dien Bien Phu campaign, when enemy planes returned to drop bombs, Phan Tu bravely lay down right on the road to observe the bomb's location and mark it for his comrades to defuse. A timed bomb was lying in the middle of the road that had not yet been defused, preventing the frontline workers from transporting food, provisions, weapons and ammunition to the battlefield. He did not hesitate, but bravely lit a torch and stood next to the bomb, acting as a navigator for the frontline workers to safely pass through.
In February 1954, Phan Tu commanded the Platoon on the mission of breaking waterfalls on the Nam Na River. Although he had no experience in breaking waterfalls and breaking waterfalls on this river encountered many difficulties: fast flowing water, cold winter weather, complex terrain... but with high determination to open the way for the front line, he personally carried out a pilot method of breaking waterfalls to gain experience for the whole unit.
Regardless of the cold, deep abysses, and rushing water, he dived into the river many times to find a place to set the explosive. To effectively destroy the waterfall, he carried a 6 kg block of explosives with a pre-lit fuse and dived down to place it in a crevice in the rocks. After setting it up, he quickly escaped to shore, just at that moment, the explosive also exploded.
After that, he directly destroyed 4 other waterfalls to gain experience for the unit. Thanks to that experience, in a short time, the Platoon under his command destroyed more than 30 waterfalls, ensuring the prescribed time, clearing the way for boats carrying weapons and food to serve the Dien Bien Phu campaign.
With his outstanding contributions, Phan Tu was awarded 2 Second Class Military Exploit Medals by the State, 11 times by the General Department of Politics, the Division and the Regiment. On August 31, 1955, Phan Tu was awarded the Third Class Military Exploit Medal and the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces by the President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. When he was awarded the Hero title, he was the Captain of the 555th Engineer Corps, Engineering Department.
