The great contribution of the civilian force, ensuring logistics for the campaign, was one of the main reasons for the victory of Dien Bien Phu. Photo: Documents
In September 1953, the Politburo of the Party Central Committee met and advocated opening a strategic winter-spring offensive of 1953-1954 to destroy the enemy’s vital forces and defeat their will to invade. After analyzing the situation and comparing the enemy and our forces, the Politburo determined the battle plan on each battlefield and decided to use a main force to launch an attack to the Northwest, destroying the enemy. Enemy troops still occupied Lai Chau, completely liberating the Northwest. Entering the campaign, our army and people faced countless difficulties, among which the most prominent were logistical difficulties. What must be done to provide adequate food, ammunition, guns, and medicine for a large force, hundreds of kilometers away from the rear for a long time, with travel conditions both difficult and difficult? Lack of facilities, frequent enemy aircraft attacks, not to mention difficult weather. Meanwhile, the Dien Bien Phu stronghold group was a strong group, General Henri Navarre landed on this battlefield 12 battalions of infantry and paratroopers, two battalions of 105 mm howitzers, two battalions of mortars. 120 mm, a 155 mm heavy artillery company, an 18 ton tank company, an air force squadron of 17 aircraft… H. Navarre considered “Dien Bien Phu an impregnable fortress”…
Faced with the urgent needs of the battlefield, as early as January 1953, the Tuyen Quang Provincial Party Committee instructed to mobilize forces to serve the campaign. The province has decided to establish a Provincial Forward Supply Council chaired by a member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee to help the Provincial Party Committee direct localities to mobilize people, mobilize human and material resources to meet service requirements. resistance case. The Citizen Committee and youth volunteer teams were also established.
Located in a location with strategic routes, the lifeblood that nourishes major campaigns running through, is a bridge between the Northeast and Northwest provinces and is the center of the revolutionary base, the province’s mission is: Ensuring traffic and serving logistics for soldiers from the provinces of the Viet Bac Inter-Region to the Northwest. Therefore, protecting and repairing bridges and roads is a regular and urgent task in rear work. Performing their duties, under bombs and bullets, ferry workers still promote initiatives and technical improvements to ensure road and ferry clearance in the shortest time, even during peak times, ensuring timely requests of customers. front line. In July 1953, Tuyen Quang opened a road and bridge campaign to mobilize 1,021,136 man-days to participate in excavating tens of thousands of cubic meters of soil and rock, repairing the entire 168 km long road system, ferry duty time was reduced from 60 minutes to 30 minutes, via ferry from 30 minutes to 8 minutes, many times citizens have to work up to 14 hours continuously, the previous transport level was 20 vehicles to 64 vehicles per day. From November 29, 1953 to May 7, 1954, there were 4,734 cars from Thai Nguyen via Binh Ca ferry to promptly serve the troops in their favorable attack and destroy the enemy, contributing to the overall results of the entire operation. campaign. To protect transportation, the province established two road repair teams (216 and 217), the province established an air defense company, each district established a security committee, and communes had security teams from 10 to 15. people to patrol and protect roads, places where cars are hidden, and detect time-exploding bombs. Along the roads, road and bridge protection work was put into production teams, ready to repair the road immediately after enemy bombardment, and to make “airplane presence” signs and road markers for vehicles traveling at night.
While on the battlefield both our army and people were stepping up the winter-spring offensive of 1953-1954, the Party Central Committee and the General Military Commission focused on building combat plans and preparing all work to ensure the decisive battle. Dien Bien Phu strategy.
To promote front work, the Party Central Committee and the Government instructed to mobilize the entire Party, the entire army, and the entire people to concentrate all their efforts on supporting the front line, ensuring the complete victory of the Dien Bien Phu campaign. Thoroughly understanding the directive, on March 20, 1953, the Provincial Party Conference met and issued a resolution to mobilize forces to serve the campaign. With the spirit of “all for the front line, all for victory”, under the direction of the Provincial Citizen Committee, the movement “to be a citizen is to be patriotic” took place enthusiastically. Pillowing on the ground, lying in the dew, wading through passes, groups of civil servants staffed by military organizations followed each other on their way to the front. By the end of 1953, Tuyen Quang had mobilized 1,021,738 working days. Entering the decisive time of the Dien Bien Phu campaign (from March to May 1954), Tuyen Quang mobilized 1,854,360 working days with a total of 56,196 people working as civilians (accounting for 43% of the population). That number represents the extraordinary efforts and great sacrifices of the people of our province for the resistance and revolution. The province’s civil force transported 6,486,955 kg of rice, 52,770 kg of buffalo meat, 914 kg of beef, 41,657 kg of pigs, 10,890 kg of peanuts, 11,282 kg of green beans… from the province to the battlefield to serve the campaign.
Not only directly providing aid to the front line, under the leadership of the Provincial Party Committee, the province’s civil force also participates in carrying out military rear work through the strict implementation of Party and State policies. countries such as: Participating in welcoming wounded soldiers back to their villages, sponsoring soldiers, helping families of war invalids and martyrs… Implementing this policy, the civil force of Tuyen Quang province has participated in building 6 treatment camps. Nursing 500 wounded and sick soldiers. The noble beauty of the relationship between people in the new social regime has been created and multiplied every day, contributing to creating more strength for the resistance. .
On May 7, 1954, the Dien Bien Phu campaign was completely victorious, completely crushing the best and last efforts of the French colonialists and the American interventionists in continuing the war of invasion of Indochina. On July 21, 1954, the French colonialists were forced to sign the Geneva Agreement to end the war and restore peace in Indochina. Our nation’s resistance war against French colonialism, under the leadership of the Vietnam Labor Party, won a glorious victory. Together with the Party Committee, government and people of all ethnic groups in the province, the civil force of Tuyen Quang province, in the common joy of the country, glowed with excitement and pride for fulfilling its mission with the country, with the people, for successfully carrying out the tasks of a rear province, a Safety Zone, the center of the resistance base of the whole country, making a worthy contribution to the victory of the anti-colonial resistance war. France.
Nguyen Van Duc
REFERENCES
1. History of Tuyen Quang Provincial Party Committee (1940-1975), Publishing House. National Politics, 2000.
2. Tuyen Quang history of the resistance war against French colonialism 1945-1954 (Draft) compiled by the Military Command of Tuyen Quang province and published in 1994.
