Saigon Commandos and Memories of Victory Day

His name is Phung Ba Dien (born in 1951) - originally from Nghi Huong ward, Cua Lo town. For decades now, since being discharged from the army and changing jobs, he has become a citizen of Vinh city, but the clear voice of a coastal son has not changed.

He told about the days of fire and bullets with the mindset of a person who had crossed many boundaries between life and death - calmly and serenely. Only occasionally, the fire seemed to flash in the depths of his eyes when he remembered his comrades - those who were still alive, those who were dead...

War veteran Phung Ba Dien recounts the glorious battles of the past. Photo: Phuoc Anh

Enlisted in 1970, Phung Ba Dien was 19 years old at the time, and was assigned to the 126th Naval Special Forces Group for training. When entering the battlefield, the young man from the coastal village became a special forces soldier of the 10th Truong Sa Group, and in 1974, he was transferred to the 316th Special Forces Brigade.

Established on March 20, 1974, under the General Staff of the region (B2), the 316th Special Forces Brigade was a special unit of our army in the historic Ho Chi Minh campaign, in preparation for the final battles to liberate the South and unify the country. The Brigade was established on the basis of reorganizing the special forces and special forces in Saigon - Gia Dinh. After its establishment, the Brigade consisted of 4 special forces battalions and 12 special forces units (codenamed Z).

Phung Ba Dien was a soldier of K19, Z24 - the unit that organized many "deep thrusts, dangerous attacks, and tenacious holdouts" battles, creating a nightmare for the Saigon puppet government.

Starting out as a special forces soldier, Phung Ba Dien's qualities and skills were fully utilized in battles. With the nature of secret operations, receiving direct orders, and a "smart, creative and suicidal" fighting style, it can be said that Phung Ba Dien and his Saigon special forces comrades that year always entered the battle with a mindset of being ready to sacrifice, determined to complete the mission.

“At that time, the squads operated independently, one squad did not know about the existence of the other. Although it was called a squad, the number of soldiers was only 3. After receiving orders from superiors, we made our own battle plans for each battle,” Mr. Phung Ba Dien recalled.

At that time, he was the squad leader of K19, stationed on Long Son Island (Vung Tau). One day in mid-1974, K19 received a secret order to blow up and destroy the Nha Be fuel depot. This was the second time the Regional General Staff issued a directive to attack the Nha Be fuel depot. The first time, carried out by Sac Forest commandos on December 3, 1973, was a great success, burning tens of millions of liters of gasoline and oil equivalent to about 20 million USD, causing a stir in international public opinion.

After that humiliating defeat, the US and puppet forces implemented tighter defense measures, making the reconnaissance and attack work of the commandos much more difficult. The enemy tightened the road network, so the soldiers had to secretly approach by river.

“They could not believe that we could swim across the river, which was estimated to be about 6-7 km wide. Without any support equipment, we just swam on foot, the scouts went back and forth at night,” Mr. Dien recalled.

Image of Nha Be gas depot. Photo taken by US side, source: Internet

Nha Be port and oil depot, 8km from Saigon as the crow flies, was built by the US into a large military port to receive war equipment, especially oil. Next to the port is a complete warehouse system of three companies: Caltex, Shell and Esso; the largest Shell warehouse, covering 14 hectares, has 72 tanks, supplying 60% of military and civilian oil for the South.

After the heavy damage in 1973, the enemy changed and strengthened many measures to protect the fuel depot. At that time, after dozens of reconnaissance missions, Phung Ba Dien and his teammates counted 27 layers of fences surrounding the center of the Nha Be fuel depot: iron bars, 3.5m high trellis fences, watchtower systems, 2.5m high concrete walls, corrugated iron fences, sniffer dogs, geese released to warn, mines, patrols on land, underwater, in the air... The entire Nha Be fuel depot had no shade of trees to hide in.

Finally, with their sharp reconnaissance skills, the commandos of Brigade 316 found a small entrance just wide enough for one person to crawl through - a passage secretly opened by the puppet soldiers to escape from the guard. That night, 8 commandos, including Phung Ba Dien, each carried 8 timed mines and entered the fuel depot.

An hour later, a loud explosion rang out, the Nha Be fuel depot caught fire for the second time, millions of liters of gasoline and oil were burned, causing heavy damage to the US - puppet while the battlefield in the South was entering its most fierce stage.

During his years in the Saigon special forces, Mr. Phung Ba Dien could not remember how many battles he participated in. The dangers were countless, the bullet and bomb wounds on his body still hurt every time the weather changed, but he always emphasized that being alive and returning home was a blessing, a boundless happiness!

In the last days of April, the former Saigon commando tearfully recalled how many of his comrades had been forever buried somewhere in the soil and riverbeds of the far South - hundreds of kilometers away from their homeland.

Saigon people welcome the army to take over the city. Photo source: vov.vn

He recalled the memories of the day of total victory with an emotion that was difficult to contain: “At noon on April 30, 1975, we stood and sat around a small radio, listening to the surrender of the President of the Republic of Vietnam, Duong Van Minh. In the evening, around 8:00 p.m., the Saigon Liberation Radio announced that the long resistance war had ended, the South was completely liberated”!

The emotions of Phung Ba Dien and his comrades at that sacred historical moment are indescribable. They hugged each other, some laughing, some crying… The losses and sacrifices were worthily compensated by the joyful day of national reunification.

In May 1975, Phung Ba Dien was assigned to Saigon by his unit to perform military management duties. In June 1976, he requested a transfer to the Nghe An Province Agricultural Committee. This was his first return home after many long years on the battlefields of the South. On the day of his return, he stopped by his sister's unit, but she could not recognize him because of the changes over the years.

Returning to his hometown, in early 2001, he discovered he had stomach cancer, but with optimism, will and determination, for the past 17 years, he has steadfastly lived happily and usefully with the mindset of a commando soldier!