People's Armed Forces Hero Ho Van Sinh in the battle of Binh Y bomb depot. Photo: TL

On June 3, 1972, at the Ba Hao stream junction in the D War Zone Base, the 9th Battalion, the 174th Artillery Battalion and 2 Bien Hoa Special Forces Battalions were merged into the 113th Special Forces Regiment, with comrade Nguyen Thanh Tung as Regiment Commander. The mission of the 113th Special Forces Regiment was to build a solid base, corridor, and springboard, firmly hold the targets, and regularly attack the enemy's deep and dangerous bases and rear areas.

Secret raid on Binh Y bomb warehouse

Entering March 1975, the 113th Special Forces Regiment was assigned the urgent task of organizing artillery forces to attack Bien Hoa Airport, and at the same time using 2 battalions to attack and destroy the Binh Y bomb depot. In those 2 tasks, destroying the Binh Y bomb depot so that the enemy would no longer have bombs to attack our troops was very difficult. Because the Binh Y bomb depot was located deep in the enemy-occupied area, built close to the Long Binh General Depot, which was also an important enemy weapons depot, it was arranged with 16 layers of barbed wire fences and many different minefields to protect it, not to mention a series of densely surrounded guard posts and towers, defending quite carefully.

On April 22, 1975, the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and the Command of the 113th Special Forces Regiment held a final meeting to approve the resolution and assigned the 53rd Reconnaissance Company to take charge, but the direct attack force consisted of only 3 people, commanded by comrade Ho Van Sinh. Based on the enemy situation and the terrain of the bomb depot, especially the documents provided by the Bien Hoa Provincial Special Forces Battalion, the 3-person reconnaissance team (Sinh, Quynh, Luong) used secret special forces techniques to break into the Binh Y bomb depot, causing nearly 250 thousand tons of bombs and ammunition to explode and the gasoline tanks to burst into flames, lighting up a corner of the sky.

The battle was victorious, consuming a large amount of enemy weapons, limiting bombing missions to disrupt our army's formation and creating conditions for our campaign artillery to safely enter the battlefield construction point.

Resolutely capture Hoc Ba Thuc base

In early April 1975, the 113th Special Forces Regiment received orders to reinforce the 4th Corps to capture important targets inside the enemy's rear base in Bien Hoa. The unit was assigned the task of capturing the enemy's 15th Armored Battalion base in Hoc Ba Thuc, opening the way for the 7th Division to attack Bien Hoa Airport and the puppet 3rd Corps Command; at the same time, capturing Ghenh Bridge and Hoa An Bridge, holding the bridge to open the way for the 7th Division and the 4th Corps to advance to liberate Saigon.

Students visit and learn at Bien Hoa Airport. Illustration photo: Nguyen Van Hoa

Comrade Do Van Ninh, former Commander of the 113th Special Forces Regiment, who commanded the battle, recalled: “The sacredness of the moment and the seriousness of the mission raised our responsibility, urging us to do our best to reach our goals! This is both a responsibility and an honor for the special forces.”

Hoc Ba Thuc was an important base of the puppet 15th Battalion, located between Highway 1A and Highway 24 (now Tan Phong Ward, Bien Hoa City). From this base, they could constantly threaten our liberated areas and was a solid barrier preventing us from penetrating the areas they temporarily controlled. Uprooting this base meant breaking through a very important link in the enemy's North Saigon defense line.

With such importance, the 113th Special Forces Regiment held a meeting to plan the operation, assigning the 9th Battalion and the 53rd Reconnaissance Company to surround and attack to destroy this base. After many days of preparation, on the night of April 28, 1975, comrade Do Van Ninh - Commander of the battle, marched from Tan Uyen base to Bung Binh base (Thien Tan commune) less than 1km from the target, then stopped to deploy the command post and attack units. At exactly 2:00 a.m. on
On April 29, our attack forces entered and opened fire on targets inside Hoc Ba Thuc base and about 30 minutes later captured the base, destroyed 60 enemies, and captured 7, including the colonel of the armored division.

Early in the morning of April 29, the puppet 3rd Corps Command ordered troops to counterattack in many waves in an attempt to retake the base. Despite the shortage of ammunition, medicine, food and water, with a strong will and courage, the commandos repelled enemy counterattacks on the base, holding Hoc Ba Thuc until 4:00 p.m. on April 29, when our main force entered, the enemy troops panicked and fled, and the base was liberated.

After the country's peace and reunification, the Party Committee and the government of Dong Nai province built memorial works such as the Monument of the Martyrs of the Bien Hoa Airport Special Forces, the Long Binh Victory Monument, the Memorial House of the Martyrs of the 113 Special Forces and a shrine to 47 soldiers of the 113 Special Forces established by the people of Buu Hoa ward at the foot of Ghenh bridge, to forever remember the great and heroic sacrifices of the heroic martyrs of the 113 Special Forces Regiment who fell on Dong Nai land for the great victory of the country, the country reunited. At the same time, these are places to educate the tradition of patriotism and revolutionary will for the young generation today and tomorrow.

Xuan Nam

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/chinh-tri/202504/nhung-tran-danh-cuoi-cung-o-bien-hoa-3624738/