In the early morning of July 12, 1984, the former commander of the Second Military Region of the Vietnamese Army commanded four infantry regiments (the 141st Regiment of the 312th Division, the 174th Regiment of the 316th Division, the 876th Regiment and the 149th Regiment of the 356th Division), as well as one battalion each of the 821st Regiment and the 198th Regiment, launched a campaign offensive to strengthen the scale of the division in the Laoshan area of Malipo County, Yunnan Province, in an attempt to "regain lost territory." Under the fierce coverage of our army's powerful artillery fire and the stubborn resistance of the infantry, the Vietnamese army returned at the cost of more than 3,000 people, setting a record for the highest single-day losses in its war history.
In this offensive campaign codenamed "MB84" (commonly known as the Battle of Songmaoling), the counterattack was 662The 6th Regiment of the 356th Division of the Vietnamese Army in the direction of the 876th Heights was the largest, and 593 people were killed in the whole regiment, and all 3 battalion commanders were ***, as well as 2 military deputy battalion commanders and 2 political deputy battalion commanders. Now, based on the information of the Vietnamese side, I will talk about the tragedy of the commander of the 3rd battalion, Nguyen Huu Thanh, and his family.
At 1 a.m. on July 12, 1984, the commander of the 3rd Battalion, Senior Captain Nguyen Huu Thanh, led a sharp knife detachment composed of ** troops and began to advance. At 4 o'clock, the artillery roared, the earth trembled, and the Vietnamese artillery shells roared over the sky above the Vietnamese attacking troops, hitting the position of the squadron, and after 2 hours, the Vietnamese army stopped shelling, and the infantry immediately launched an attack.
Before the infantry attacked, the battalion commander Nguyen Huu Thanh led the ** troops and directly attacked the command of the ** squadron, and they tried to get as close as possible to the 772 heights (6626 heights, the same below) D3 mountain package (No. 103 heights, the same below), and the other way around the 772 heights, the purpose is to destroy the artillery positions and ammunition depots of the squadron **, and create conditions for the 2nd and 1st battalions to capture the high ground. In the direction of the 3rd battalion's attack, after the ** unit started, the battle went smoothly, the troops had rushed to the breakthrough, and the battalion commander Nguyen Huu Thanh led the team to attack along the trenches.
The ensuing battle did not go well, the infantry of the squadron shrank their defenses and waited for reinforcements, and their artillery bombardment became more and more fierce. At 6:05, at Hill No. D3 on Heights 772, the shouts of the charge were mixed with the sound of gunfire. The detachment led by battalion commander Nguyen Huu Thanh went straight to the command post of the squadron, but was fiercely resisted by the squadron, and Nguyen Huu Thanh was seriously wounded, but he continued to command the operation of the whole battalion until he died.
Deng Viet Chau, the surviving deputy political commander of the 3rd Battalion, later recalled that at the difficult moment of the battle, the battalion commander Nguyen Huu Thanh led a bold detachment to attack the command post of the squadron. "He was wounded in both legs, and then in the head, but he still calmly ordered his brothers to fight fiercely. He collapsed on Hill No. D3 on Heights 772, just over 10 meters from the position of the Chinese command post. “
When Nguyen Huu Thanh died in battle, his son Ah Long was only 7 months old. "The last time I saw him was at the end of 1983, when he came home to visit his family, when I had just given birth. He stayed at home with me and my children for 21 days before returning to the army. It wasn't until 1985 that we received a death notice saying that he had died on Heights 772, but due to the fierce fighting and complicated battlefield conditions, there was no way to find and bring his body back. Ruan Huu Thanh's wife, Lu Thi Lan, said.
Lu Shilan began to ask around for specific news about her husband. "Some of Qing's comrades-in-arms advised me not to have too high hopes for the search for the body, because his location used to be a fierce battlefield with a lot of mines," she said. Still, I didn't give up hope. I think my husband died in action at 772 Heights and his remains should still be there. “
It wasn't until 2006, 22 years after Nguyen Huu Thanh's death, that Loh Thi Lan and her son had the opportunity to go to Ha Giang for the first time to find their husband and father. In the huge Weichuan National Cemetery, which has 1,700 graves, Lu Thi Lan's mother and son searched carefully and did not find Nguyen Huu Thanh's tombstone. In 2008, the mother and son came to Weichuan again, and the number of bodies buried here increased, but there was still no whereabouts of Nguyen Huu Thanh.
After a series of unsuccessful efforts, Lu Shilan decided that the only way was to take a picture of her husband's death notice and post it online, hoping that his comrades-in-arms would see it and help. Sure enough, not long after, she received a ** from Deng Yuezhou, the former deputy political commander of the 3rd Battalion, who lived in Nghe An Province. I am very sad that there are still hundreds of our comrades-in-arms lying on the 772 heights. For nearly 30 years, his wife, children, relatives and comrades-in-arms have been deeply disturbed by this. I advised her not to go to the cemetery to look for her husband again, because the remains of the battalion commander were still on the 772 heights. Deng Yuezhou said.
On June 20, 2012, Lu Thi Lan and Nguyen Van Kim, a veteran of the 3rd Battalion and a correspondent of Nguyen Huu Thanh, returned to the former battlefield 772 Heights to search for Nguyen Huu Thanh's body. Led by deminers, the search team reached the top of the D3 hill.
Deng Viet Chau said: "At 8 o'clock, I received a ** from Nguyen Van Kim, and they had already passed through the village of Nam Strict. Lu Shilan later said that he had seen the 772 heights, but it was hazy in the fog. At 9 o'clock, the fog cleared, and the D3 mountain bag appeared in front of me. At 10 o'clock, Nguyen Van Kim's team said that they had found trench No. 1. That was 28 years ago, where the battalion commander fell. ”
At around 12 noon, the search team found Nguyen Huu Thanh's remains and relics in trench No. 1 after repeated searches. I was silent, the bridge of my nose was hot, and my heart was full of emotion. Nguyen Van Kim told me that the battalion commander was left with only a skull, 3 teeth, 2 shoulder bones and jawbone. Next to his remains there was a star on a military cap, a scarf, an officer's shirt and 4 grenades. Deng Yuezhou said.
After nearly 30 years of separation, the moment she saw her husband's remains and relics, Lu Shilan first choked up and couldn't speak, and then tears flowed down again that she didn't know how many times. In the afternoon, Nguyen Huu Thanh's body and remains were properly collected and brought back for burial at the Ba Kok Cemetery in his hometown of Quang Binh province.
There were no people to bury them on the battlefield, and the corpses were exposed in the wilderness for decades, and there were thousands of Vietnamese officers and soldiers who had the same tragic situation as Nguyen Huu Thanh on the battlefield of Weichuan. We can't help but ask, who is to blame for such a tragedy?Isn't it the Li Duan clique that disregards the people's livelihood and is bent on dominating the Indochina Peninsula?