Our C20 F341, with 110 members, including 60 student soldiers from Vinh Pedagogical University, has been diligently practicing reconnaissance skills for 2 years in the peaceful countryside. They are eagerly waiting for the day to go to the South to join the fight. This careful preparation demonstrates high spirit and determination. Let's learn more about this challenging and meaningful journey.

On the morning of the 30th of Tet that year, the entire company gathered to listen to political commissar Nguyen Le Hoi and company commander Le Tran Quy announce the new mission. That was the marching order from the Division Command. It was not yet known where it would go, but Hoi said the destination of the entire division would be the B2 battlefield - the Southeast region. At that time, sitting in the North and hearing about the East and B2 seemed even more distant than going to the Soviet Union , let alone going to war.

We stayed in the thatched houses of the Ha Tran people, close to each other like family, but Chief Quy ordered: Absolutely secret, do not let the people know that we are going to battle. If the people do not know, the enemy will not know either, an entire main infantry division with tens of thousands of additional troops on the battlefield is really very serious, secrecy is paramount.

ZiL - 130 vehicle made in the Soviet Union carrying troops to battle

PHOTO: TL

That day, the logistics department slaughtered a pig for Tet. Deputy political commissar Ho Van Thoan and deputy company commander Le Hong Mao went to each squad telling everyone to eat well to gain strength for the journey.

This was our last Tet in the North. The day after Tet, we were completely equipped with new weapons, folding stock AK rifles with 2 full magazines, 2 brand new sets of Suzhou clothes, new high-top canvas shoes and rubber sandals.

Each person also packed 10 kg of rice, 2 kg of dry food, canned meat with sugar, milk, vitamins, malaria prevention medicine...

As scouts, we also had maps, binoculars, and radios. We were fully equipped. We threw away all the old gear we were using.

Captain Quy C, a veteran of the battlefield, said that this was just the initial equipment. Along the way through the military stations, we would be provided with other necessary equipment. The luckiest thing was that our division was given priority to march by car to the battlefield.

On the evening of the first day of the Lunar New Year 1975, when it was very late, while the Ha Tran people were sleeping peacefully, the entire company secretly sounded the alarm and gathered at the riverbank to march.

Leaving behind the familiar thatched houses and bamboo groves of the village, we boarded wooden boats rowed by local militia to cross the Kien Giang River. Then we quietly walked 10 km to the mountainous commune of Phu Thuy - where the strategic road 15A runs through - and hung up hammocks to sleep and wait for dawn.

The next morning, we woke up early, it was the second day of Tet. The weather was bitterly cold, but each of us soldiers was extremely excited. The company commander ordered us to eat dry rations and quickly assembled the entire division.

It turned out that last night, friendly units, affiliated infantry regiments such as E266, E270, E273 and the 55th artillery regiment had also secretly gathered in this area.

The march along the Truong Son mountain range to the front

PHOTO: TL

At that time, F341 was a full division, with more than ten thousand soldiers. The place where the entire division gathered was a grassy area larger than a football field.

In front, Colonel - Division Commander Tran Van Tran and the division commanders were welcoming Major General Commander of Military Region 4 Dam Quang Trung who came by helicopter from Nghe An to send the division to the front.

The loudspeaker blared out the marching orders of Commander Dam Quang Trung: "On behalf of the Military Region Command, I order all officers and soldiers of Division 341 to immediately march to the Southern battlefield to join the fight. You comrades will go deep, go long, go until the day of total victory."

We were filled with emotion when we heard the marching orders. We did not know when the day of total victory would be, and the commanding general did not say anything about the return date, but "going deep, going long" was very clear.

It is true that "it takes three years to raise an army and one hour to use it". We have been training hard in the North for two years and now the country needs us to go to war.

Then we got into the vehicles. They were Soviet-made ZiL-130s. To bring the 341st Division to the front, the Truong Son Military Transport Corps had dispatched a whole convoy of brand new Soviet-made ZiL-130s, along with the convoy of the 341st Division's transport company.

Photo taken by the author on May 15, 1975 in Saigon when he was a soldier of C20 F341

PHOTO: HA TUNG SON

So that day, F341 marched to the South with all of them by car, each car carrying 20 to 30 soldiers. The division commanders each rode on a brand new Beijing combat commando.

It was true to the song of that day, "We go in the middle of spring on the way to battle". Sitting in the car, each of us soldiers was both excited because we were going to battle on the morning of the second day of Tet, and sad because we saw our homeland, the North, gradually moving further and further behind.

Our 341st Division marched at night and rested during the day to avoid enemy ambushes and bombs dropped by enemy planes. We marched across the border to Laos and Cambodia, then returned to the South in the Central Highlands.

After 35 days of marching at night and resting on days, we landed in the Southeast region. That was Dong Xoai town with its immense rubber forests of Binh Phuoc province today, where we took our first steps into the battlefield. Our clothes were white with dust from the Truong Son road.

Immediately after arriving at the B2 front, Division 341 received orders to fight the first battle on Highway 13 Chon Thanh - Bau Bang, liberating Chon Thanh district.

Then, coordinate with Division 9 to attack the enemy at Dau Tieng. Then follow Highway 20 to Dinh Quan post, cross La Nga River to Dong Nai to fight the historic battle of Xuan Loc.

With these resounding achievements, F341 was trusted by the commander of the 4th Corps to fight the opening battle of the Ho Chi Minh campaign.

The author of the article spoke at the ceremony to receive the 50-year Party membership badge, at Tan Phu District Party Committee, Ho Chi Minh City, November 7, 2024

PHOTO: TAN PHU DISTRICT PARTY COMMITTEE

That was the battle in Trang Bom Military Sub-region on April 27, 1975. In just one day, the division completed the mission of liberating Trang Bom, then attacked and liberated Ho Nai and Bien Hoa bases and advanced to liberate Saigon along Bien Hoa highway, passing Rach Chiec bridge, Saigon bridge and then arrived at the Independence Palace at the historic noon of April 30, 1975.

After the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, Division 341 was awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces by the Party and the State.

To achieve that glory, thousands of soldiers of Division 341 fell in important battles to end the war to unify the country. They became martyrs. Their blood and bones soaked the soil of the Southeast region so that the country could have the great victory of April 30, unity and peace like today.

Half a century has passed since the Tet At Mao 1975 with the historic march to the front of the 341st Division on the second day of the Lunar New Year. The deep memory of that march to the front still lives on with the veterans of F341 as an immortal song about the patriotism and boundless pride of the soldiers in the great war of national defense.

Thanhnien.vn

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/tran-thanh-se-lam-ra-bo-phim-doanh-thu-1-000-ty-2365719.html