Historical relic of Ba Kien bridge watchtower, where many historical meanings marked

Update: 04-04-2021 | 10:42:19

Visiting Tan Uyen, we have heard about the victory of the Ba Kien bridge watchtower (also known as the March 19) in the historical stories of this land full of revolutionary traditions. The victory over Ba Kien bridge watchtower is the eternal pride of people in Tan Uyen hometown with a creative way to attack the enemy.

Historical place

In 1947, on the southern battlefield, the French colonialists implemented the "Do La Tua" (De Latour) plan to strengthen the army, build a system of posts around towns and townships on the main roads. Their intentions when building a system of garrisons to encircle, divide, and stop our armed forces towards completing the "Binh Dinh" plan that they set out.

The memorial monument to the March 19 victory at the Ba Kien bridge watchtower relic

By 1948, the French completed construction of thousands of bases, posts, and watchtowers on the national battlefield. Therefore, our armed units also faced many difficulties in moving. Implementing the Directive of the Command of the Military Zone 7 on studying how to attack the enemy’s guard watchtower - an "initiative" of Do La Tua, in Tan Uyen district (old Thu Bien province), comrade Tran Cong An, was assigned the task of organizing the battle of the Ba Kien bridge watchtower.

After carefully researching the structure of the watchtower and the working rules of the guards there, Tan Uyen district’s guerrilla team, led by comrade Tran Cong An (also known as Hai Ca) found a creative way to attack the enemy at the watchtower by using a small force that secretly broke into the base of the watchtower, used a ladder to climb up and drop grenades into the watchtower. Thus, the decisive factor of the fighting style was that the process of approaching and climbing the wall must ensure absolute secrecy and safety. To accomplish this, Tan Uyen’s guerrilla team secretly exercised the fighting way. Soldiers only wore shorts, were covered with mud to blend with the color of the earth. The time to approach the watchtower was when guards changed their working shift or slashed lighters for smoking. The top of the ladder was covered with cloth to avoid making noise when it came in contact with the brick wall.

On the night of March 18, 1948, Tan Uyen’s guerrilla team were divided into 3 groups, two of which were responsible for blocking the reinforcements of the enemy. The group that was assigned a task of attacking the watchtower included 3 comrades, namely Tran Cong An, Ho Van Lung and Nguyen Van Nguyen. The battle was commanded by comrade Tran Cong An with 10 grenades (including 9 homemade ones), 1 rifle and 1 ladder equipped. To disguise, 3 soldiers worked without shirts, were covered by mud Overcoming the obstacles, the three-member group secretly approached the watchtower, but the enemy was still unaware. Taking advantage of the time when the enemy changed their working shift, 3 soldiers of the group quickly climbed up to the firing hole, threw 8 grenades in and killed 10 guards and obtained 8 guns, 20 grenades and then secretly left the battlefield.

The victory over the watchtower of Ba Kien bridge caused a great resound. This was the first time the guerrillas beat the watchtower with little force, paving the way for the organization of a specialized force to destroy the enemy stationed in the watchtowers in the Southern battlefield. The victory was a demonstration for the clever, brave and creative fighting style built on the basis of patriotism and indomitable spirit of the people of the country in general and Tan Uyen in particular in the cause of national liberation.

Enternal pride

From the center of Tan Uyen town, along DT747 street about 1km, we will arrive in Ba Kien bridge and next to the bridge is the memorial monument to the March 19 Victory.

The Ba Kien bridge watchtower relic is located in Thanh Phuoc ward’s Du Khanh hamlet in Tan Uyen town. According to the local history, the relic belonged to Tan Uyen district’s Phuoc Thanh commune in Bien Hoa province before 1945. Nguyen Tan Phat, Head of Tan Uyen town’s Culture and Information Department said that the victory over the watchtower of Ba Kien bridge is also known as the March 19 victory because the battle of the watchtower next to Ba Kien bridge happened on the night of March 18 and the morning of March 19. The relic was also recognized as a provincial-level historical - cultural relic on March 10, 2008.

In 2002, Tan Uyen district (now being Tan Uyen town) built a memorial monument to the March 18 victory 3 in a campus of 1,800m2. The memorial monument is 3-meter high, 2-meter wide, on which there are reliefs of 3 guerrillas attacking the station in order to commemorate the victory on March 19 while protecting the relic of Ba Kien bridge watchtower. Its left corner is engraved with gilded words presented by Uncle Ho: "Special Astuteness. Great herorism. Daring ingenuity. Perilous fighting way for big win”.

From its historical meanings, the victory relic of Ba Kien bridge watchtower together with the memorial monument to the March 19 vicitory has become one of red addresses in the return-to-the root” journeys of the local cadres and people in recent years.

From the victory of the Ba Kien bridge watchtowe, a new way of fighting was formed in the Southern battlefield, which was seen as the premise for the commando-style fighting way later. At that time, the war zone D was a successful pilot site, opening the movement of defeating watchtowers across the battlefields across the country, becoming a cradle of forming up our new army-the heroic commando force

Reported by Cam Ly-Translated by K.T

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Historical relic of Ba Kien bridge watchtower, where many historical meanings marked

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