Truong Bon – a legend of the time of resistance against America to save the country

(Baonghean.vn) -Truong Bon is located on Highway 15A, also known as Highway 30. During the anti-American resistance war, it had a particularly important strategic position, being the only place connecting the traffic arteries: milestone 0, National Highway 1A, Highway 7, Highway 34 to support human resources and material resources from the great rear of the North to the front line of the South.

During the great resistance war against the US to save the country, Truong Bon in My Son commune, Do Luong district, Nghe An province became a "red address", a sacred land, a shining symbol of revolutionary heroism in the fight against foreign invaders.

Truong Bon relics mark the savage crimes of the enemy and the glorious feats of arms of the combined strength of our army and people, of the brave, resourceful and courageous youth volunteers "The heart can stop beating, but the road cannot be blocked" to maintain the traffic blood vessels to support the great front line. Truong Bon has gone down in history as an epic of iron determination "All for the beloved South!", "For the independence, freedom and unification of the Fatherland!", "For the noble international duty".

Truong Bon Youth Volunteers fill bomb craters - 1968

The route through Truong Bon has a very complex terrain, narrow and steep, passing through a series of interconnected mountains and hills interspersed with deep valleys. From Om bridge to the beginning of Truong is U Bo slope, in the middle is Vuc Chong stream and the end of Truong is Ky Lon slope. 1968 was the most fierce year of the resistance war against the US, after the general offensive and uprising of the Mau Than Tet by our army and people. Suffering great defeats on the battlefields, the enemy changed their plan from unrestricted bombing to restricted bombing, concentrating the strength of the air force and navy to fiercely attack 4 provinces in the (old) zone IV.

The enemy discovered that Truong Bon was a transportation chokepoint on the ground, so they spared no effort in destroying it with bombs and shells. There were almost continuous reconnaissance planes circling Do Luong's skies, with 5,000 sorties of American planes taking off from Utapao and Co Rat military bases (Thailand) and Wusam Island (Philippines) to attack. At its peak, the American air force attacked up to 131 times. Day and night, Truong Bon never stopped being bombed.

Sharpening traffic cones to guide vehicles through Truong Bon (1968) 317th Youth Volunteer Force Company

To destroy the route and clear the Truong Bon area to detect targets, the enemy used many different methods of attack. Sometimes they used reconnaissance planes to point out attacks in waves, sometimes they concentrated their forces to attack massively and persistently... During the day, they concentrated on blocking the entrances and exits, and at night they dropped flares and attacked our road rescue forces and transport convoys.

Of the total 18,936 bombs of all kinds, missiles and rockets that the enemy dropped on this area, most of them were dropped on the Truong Bon key point. The quantity and types of bombs and ammunition were also different, using demolition bombs, napalm bombs, phosphorus bombs, and luminescent bombs, they also dropped anti-personnel bombs, cluster bombs mixed with time-delayed bombs, magnetic bombs... killing Youth Volunteer Force, soldiers, militia and causing difficulties and complications for us in the work of protecting and repairing the route.

Enemy bombs and bullets turned the once lush and green Truong Bon area into a desolate wasteland, thousands of hectares of forest were destroyed, 211 villages along Highway 15A were devastated, hundreds of trucks carrying goods and hundreds of artillery pieces of our army were hit by bombs and set on fire, more than 1,240 cadres, soldiers, militia, youth volunteers, and workers in the transport sector were killed, including 372 youth volunteers; My Son commune and Nhan Son commune, Do Luong district had over 100 dead and injured.

Youth Volunteer Company 317 helps people harvest rice

In the face of the enemy's crimes, to protect the important strategic position of Truong Bon, the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Administrative Committee of Nghe An focused on leading and directing the sectors and localities to mobilize forces to concentrate on Truong Bon to maintain the traffic artery. The combat forces included: Station 1 of the transport unit, Battalion 1 of the Engineers, Engineer troops of Military Region 4 D30, Engineer Company 27; Missile Battalion 67 of the Missile Regiment 278, Missile Battalion 72 of the 236th Regiment, Air Defense Regiment 222; 4 battalions of 37mm artillery, 12.7mm artillery of the militia and self-defense force of the 224th and 232nd anti-aircraft artillery regiments, traffic division 10, Do Luong Post Office militia, youth volunteer units: 304, 307, 316, 317, 318, 327, 332, 340 and militia and local people; observation teams, bomb counting teams, marker planting teams, bomb and mine clearance teams, road rescue units, communication networks, traffic control forces, and security and order maintenance forces in the Truong Bon area were formed.

Our army and people shot down 400 American planes, of which 86 crashed on the spot, captured 01 enemy pilot, cleared thousands of time-exploding bombs of all kinds. The army and people contributed 2 million working days, dug and built millions of cubic meters of earth and rock, brought 94,000 motor vehicles safely through Truong, transported and cleared more than 1 million tons of goods; dug and built dozens of kilometers of pontoon bridge, dug hundreds of A-shaped tunnels, thousands of meters of traffic trenches, provided tens of thousands of casuarina trees, bamboo poles and other types of wood to prevent mud, built bridges for vehicles to cross, mobilized 4,500 bicycles, 4,500 three-wheeled vehicles, 4,500 buffalo carts, 900 wheelbarrows to transport goods to the front line.

37mm artillery unit fights to protect the key point of Truong Bon
on strategic route 15A

In this fierce war, all forces fought steadfastly, intelligently, and bravely. Truong Bon became the pinnacle of the people's war, the combined strength of many forces directly participating in combat and serving combat, in which the Youth Volunteers were the main force, with the iron determination of "Living on the bridge and road, dying steadfastly and bravely" portrayed the wonderful image of the Youth Volunteers force, contributing significantly to protecting the vital road to the great front line.

Vehicles cross the ferry to the front (1968)

Truong Bon is also the place that records the mark and memories of comrade Le Duan - First Secretary of the Party Central Committee; comrade Phan Trong Tue - Minister of Transport; Lieutenant General Dong Sy Nguyen and many senior officials of the Party, State and Army who visited, inspected and encouraged the fighting spirit and combat service of soldiers, youth volunteers and people of My Son and Nhan Son communes during the months when American planes fiercely bombed the key Truong Bon area./.

PV