(VOVworld) - A1 Hill is the most famous battle of Dien Bien Phu site. The hill is 32 meters high, 82 thousand square meters large and 500 meters west of the headquarters of the French during the Dien Bien Phu campaign. It was the scene of the fiercest fighting between Vietnamese and French armies in 1954.

Overview of A1 hill and the crater

With other eastern hills, A1 created a solid shield protecting the central sector of the entrenched camp of Dien Bien Phu, the bunker of General de Castries. From A1, one has a panoramic view of Dien Bien city, other hills like D1, C2, C3, E 1 and E2, the bunker of General de Castries, Muong Thanh airport, A1 field and A1 cemetery. This base was considered an iron shield to defend the De Castries’ Command Headquarter. For the army of General Vo Nguyen Giap, it was indeed the most difficult to position to attack. Over 56 days and nights of the Dien Bien Phu campaign, the Vietnamese army had to spend 39 days and nights on this hill, sacrificing over 2,000 soldiers, to eventually seize this position.

Today, there is a stone walkway leading to the top of the hill, from which one can still see the supply trench of the French army next to a barbed fence covered with dead leaves. 84-year old veteran, Pham Ba Mieu remembers freshly about the battle 60 years ago: “My platoon was involved in the fight on A1 hill from beginning to end. We fought day and night. Sometimes we had nothing to eat but we were determined to fight against the enemy. It was not easy for us to dynamite the explosive charge. It was hard to win every meter of land on A1 hill. We had to build a system of fortifications from Ta Leng to the hill. We had to fight to win the battlefield everyday. It was only after having destroyed two tanks that we could pave a way to destroy bunkers that were placed every 10 meters”.

The top of the hill is now a museum in the open air retaining traces of the battle. Lo Thi Sinh is a tour guide of Dien Bien Phu museum: “Here you can see one of the two tanks that the French army had used to make their cons -offensive. It was shot by Mr. Luu Viet Huu’s bazookas company 600 in the early morning on April 1, 1954. Located next to the tank is the tomb of 4 soldiers who participated in the attack that year”.

To seize the hill A1, the army of General Vo Nguyen Giap deployed an intelligent and audacious initiative. They dug tunnel in which they placed a ton of explosives to blow up the command bunker. Ms Lo Thi Sinh says: “25 soldiers were given the task of digging the tunnel. The more they advanced, the more they became choked due to oxygen fault. The following fanned the one before him. The excavated soil was placed in a bag and then shipped out to fortify the trenches. After 15 days, the soldiers dug 47 meters of the tunnel. On 6 May 1954, at 20:30, they were ordered to blow up the tunnel. The explosion shook the hill, killing an enemy company and shocking all those who were still holed up in bunkers. Seizing the opportunity, our troops took the hill. In all, they destroyed 850 enemy soldiers, completely excluding 4 well-drilled combat battalions of the French colonialists”

The tunnel that exploded once was restored in 2004 on 18m wide and 13m deep as an evidence of the glorious history of Vietnam. A relief has been installed to mark the boundary of the two armies at the battle 60 years ago. The command bunker of the French army on A1 hill is still there, blackened by time. The 4,000 meters of outdoor trenching, barbed fences, 10 of 37 bunkers of the French army and other remnants on the hill always tell the story about the Dien Bien Phu campaign which poet To Huu immortalized in this verse " 56 days and nights digging the mountain, sleeping in shelters, eating rice balls in the incessant rain nights " to create a golden page of history.