Muong Thanh Bridge - the "historic bridge of troop movements"

(Baonghean.vn) -The Muong Thanh Bridge, which the French called the "Prenley" Bridge, spanned the Nam Rom River, located approximately 300 meters from the current intersection of Highway 279. The bridge was a military structure situated within the central sector of the Dien Bien Phu fortified complex.

Implementing the Nava plan, on November 20, 1953, Nava ordered 150 flights carrying 4,000 paratroopers to drop into Dien Bien Phu. The French press boasted about the "parachute rain on Dien Bien Phu," and General Nava declared: "I will take the initiative, I will maintain the initiative." Nava even wrote a witty letter to the French soldiers: "Victory! We must be determined to win! But victory is a woman who only loves you when you know how to conquer her."

Our troops crossed the Muong Thanh bridge and advanced into the center of Dien Bien Phu. Archival photo

Then Nava built Dien Bien Phu into the strongest fortified complex in Indochina, consisting of three sectors, eight clusters, and 49 strongholds. Each cluster was named after a beautiful French woman, and each stronghold had trenches connecting to command bunkers, sleeping quarters, ammunition depots, and fire support, including 50 heavy artillery pieces of 155mm and 105mm caliber. On average, each stronghold was equipped with 4 heavy machine guns, 45 submachine guns, 9 medium machine guns, 9 grenade launchers, 2 60mm mortars, 1 57mm recoilless cannon, and at important strongholds, flamethrowers and infrared guns for night firing.

At Dien Bien Phu, the French had two airfields with 14 permanent aircraft, 7 fighter planes, 6 reconnaissance planes, 1 helicopter, and also 10 18-ton tanks and 120 transport vehicles. The number of French troops at Dien Bien Phu reached 16,200. They boasted about having the strongest defense system, claiming that even during World War II, the French had never erected "a large and powerful field defense system like the one at Dien Bien Phu." Dien Bien Phu was considered an impregnable fortress, and General De Castries distributed leaflets everywhere challenging our troops to attack.

Due to the terrain of Dien Bien Phu being a wide basin surrounded by high mountains, and the Nam Rom River flowing through the central battlefield, dividing the central sector into left and right banks, communication from the central command post with the strongholds on the eastern and northeastern hills was very difficult. To overcome these difficulties, the French built the Muong Thanh Bridge across the Nam Rom River. The Muong Thanh iron bridge was a makeshift bridge prefabricated and shipped from the French for assembly in Dien Bien. The entire bridge was 40 meters long and 5 meters wide. The sides of the bridge were supported by simple iron bars, without a central axis; the bridge deck was made of wood, and underneath were iron beams connected very securely to ensure a load capacity of 8-15 tons.

To protect this vital bridge, the French deployed strongholds 509, 508, and 507 at the eastern end, while at the western end they positioned a four-barreled machine gun emplacement to prevent enemy attacks across the bridge and assault on the central command post. With this troop deployment, General De Castries hoped to hold the bridge, thus securing the supply route to the eastern and northeastern high points of the Dien Bien Phu fortified complex. Before the fighting began, the Muong Thanh bridge served as a transport route for materials, ammunition, and barbed wire used in the construction of defensive positions in the east and northern sectors. When our troops destroyed the Him Lam resistance center, the French also used this bridge for ambulances to pick up prisoners from the Him Lam resistance center. From here, French tanks also set out to reinforce the A1 stronghold on the night of March 31, 1954. Of those two tanks, one was destroyed by our troops, while the other escaped back to the center in the early morning of April 1, 1954.

French tourists crossing the Muong Thanh bridge.

During the general offensive to destroy all the eastern high points at 4:00 AM on May 7, 1954, our troops completely destroyed the A1 stronghold. At 2:00 PM, the 209th Regiment of the 312th Division launched an attack on stronghold 597 at the Muong Thanh bridgehead. The enemy at stronghold 507 raised a white flag and surrendered. Taking advantage of the victory, the 312th Division attacked and destroyed two more strongholds, 508 and 509, on the left bank of the Nam Rom River. At these two strongholds, the enemy offered weak resistance and was quickly annihilated. From the east, the 209th Regiment advanced directly into the center of Muong Thanh, along with the 98th and 174th Regiments, closing in on the center. In the west, the 36th Regiment advanced into the last remaining strongholds, shielding the enemy's command post. The 88th Regiment opened a path through the airfield, advancing directly into GONO's last remaining stronghold. Wherever our troops advanced, white flags appeared on the enemy's territory, and numerous enemy units emerged from their strongholds and trenches to surrender their weapons.

At 5:15 PM, a unit of the 312th Division advanced close to the enemy's command post. Platoon leader Chu Ba The spotted a white flag on General De Castries' bunker. Company commander Ta Quoc Luat led the assault team straight into the center, but during the attack, they were blocked by heavy machine gun fire from the four-barreled machine gun protecting the Muong Thanh bridge. The soldiers, undeterred by the risk to their lives, bravely and tenaciously fought to neutralize the machine gun fire and quickly advanced through the heavy shelling. Company commander Ta Quoc Luat and the soldiers in the assault team crossed the Muong Thanh bridge and advanced straight into the enemy command post, capturing General De Castries and the entire staff of the Dien Bien Phu fortified complex. At exactly 5:30 PM on May 7, 1954, the "Determined to Fight - Determined to Win" flag of our army fluttered proudly atop General De Castries' bunker, marking the victorious conclusion of the historic Dien Bien Phu campaign. This was the greatest victory in the protracted resistance war against French colonialism and American intervention, and also the most glorious victory in the history of the Vietnamese nation's struggle against foreign invaders.

The Muong Thanh Bridge is a historical bridge used for troop movements, a preserved and protected monument serving tourists. After 60 years, the Muong Thanh Bridge remains in its original state as when it was first built and will forever be known as the "historical bridge for troop movements".

Tran Duy Ngoan