Ben Tre ship hunting team contributed significantly to the victory of April 30, 1975.

The provincial ship hunting team was determined to break the US-puppet “Small River Fleet” tactic. Photo: Archive

Many resounding victories

When the enemy launched the special war, they began to use the “small fleet on the river” tactic in some localities in the Mekong Delta and increased their activities day and night. In the provincial battlefield, the enemy used this tactic in coordination with the marines, security forces and main units of the 10th Regiment, 7th Division… to sweep, raid, and encircle in order to destroy our revolutionary forces and resistance bases.

To promptly prevent the enemy's plot, on October 18, 1967, the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Military Command decided to establish a Ship Hunting Team, based on the Combat Support Company of Battalion 516, consisting of 7 officers and soldiers, equipped with 2 DKZ 57 guns, with comrade Truong Van Lon (Truong Vu Son) as Team Leader.

Immediately after its establishment, the Ship Hunting Team quickly trained and went to war, determined to win the first battle, creating an exciting atmosphere for the troops. On the night of October 24, 1967, in coordination with Battalion 516, they attacked My Long quarter (My Thanh commune, Giong Trom district), with the mission of intercepting enemy ships in Nhon An hamlet, Nhon Thanh commune. After setting up the battle position, 2 enemy patrol ships crossed the front line, the officers and soldiers were very worried, encouraging each other to patiently stick to the battle position and wait for them to return. As expected, the 2 American ships returned, waiting for them to enter the battle position, we opened fire and attacked. Right at the first round of bullets, the ship in front was hit by a bullet and caught fire, throwing an American soldier into the river, the second ship jumped up and stopped so that 2 American soldiers could pull the American soldier who had fallen into the river up, we continued to fire the second round of bullets and destroy him. As a result of this battle, we burned 2 warships, killing more than 10 American soldiers. Because they were attacked during the ebb tide, the two enemy ships drifted to Ben Lo ( Ben Tre market), making the people extremely excited, but the enemy extremely confused. Comrade Le Minh Dao - the provincial team leader at that time praised: "The ship hunting team held an exhibition of defeating the American ships at Ben Tre market".

The unit moved to An Hoa island to receive a new mission, coordinating with local troops to completely destroy Phu Long 3, Phu Thuan, and Binh Dai posts. Next, they received the mission to intercept and attack the ship carrying the Binh Dai district security company to rescue Phu Long 3 post. The unit hid along the My Tho river, suddenly saw a motorboat named Tan Hue Nam from Tan Thach running towards Cua Dai, about 700m from shore, we could not distinguish whether the boat was carrying soldiers or civilians, then suddenly the boat broke down, drifted about 400 - 500m from the battlefield, the boat repaired the engine, ran a short distance then the engine broke down, then it was repaired and continued running. We used binoculars to observe and discovered that the boat was full of soldiers. The captain of the ship hunting team reported to the front command to request permission to attack the enemy, but did not receive approval because we were afraid that there were civilians on the boat. The third time, the boat broke down again and drifted about 350m from shore. Because the river had strong winds creating many undulating waves, the boat was like a moving target, so it was difficult to hit the target. When the boat was about 300m from shore, we hit the engine room, the boat caught fire along with a newly graduated commando company, with 2 American advisors accompanying them to defend Thua Duc commune.

Having completed the mission, the mobile unit returned to Vang Quoi, Chau Hung, Long Thanh, Chau Binh, replenished its forces, and increased the unit's number to 9 comrades. Promoting the results achieved after 2 resounding victories, the Ship Hunting Team coordinated with local armed forces to achieve resounding victories, terrifying the enemy.

Defeating the “small river fleet” tactic

During the 1968 Mau Than Spring General Offensive on Ben Tre town, the Ship Hunting Team was assigned by the Provincial Military Command to destroy enemy river boats, creating conditions to open the way for Battalion 516 to cross the Ben Tre River to attack the Kien Hoa Provincial Governor's Palace (Ben Tre). At night, the artillery was ready, the water commandos captured the Dinh Tien Hoang military base, the Ship Hunting Team attacked the river boats to support the infantry to cross the Ben Tre River, but the enemy discovered and counterattacked fiercely, our forces could not cross the river and capture the Provincial Governor's Palace. Also during this general offensive, comrade Phan Binh Trung (Hoang Lam) - a Water Commando unit of the province bravely volunteered to open the way for the infantry to attack Ben Tre town and he heroically sacrificed himself. He was awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces in 1994.

After 3 days of attacking Ben Tre town, the Ship Hunters withdrew to Huu Dinh commune, coordinated with Battalion 516 and the province's DKZ 75 artillery unit to fight the Song Phuoc battle, sinking 2 ships and burning 2 others on the Ba Lai river, killing dozens of American soldiers. After the Mau Than battle, the unit was supplemented with 1 more squad and transferred to Giong Trom to train and prepare for new battles. This was the most difficult and fierce period, but the units still steadfastly held their ground, fought and won. Typically, they broke the large sweep of Regiment 10, Division 7, in combination with the US army with B52 aircraft support, searching and destroying the armed units of the province stationed in the communes of Nam Giong Trom.

On the morning of July 23, 1968, after 9 rounds of B52 aircraft carpet bombing the communes of Phuoc Long, Thuan Dien, Long My, and Tan Hao. Dozens of helicopters carrying Regiment 10 landed in Go Tranh field but were destroyed by Battalion 516, 12.8mm anti-aircraft company of the province, 8 helicopters crashed on the spot, causing more than 1 battalion to be damaged.

The enemy fired artillery shells at the communes along the Ben Tre and Giong Trom rivers, using 20 warships to advance along the Ben Tre river to Luong Hoa, determined to occupy the especially important area of ​​"Giong Trom district". The American ships entered the battle area and landed troops. The provincial support company promptly opened fire on the enemy. The ship hunting team from Hoa Loi hamlet quickly moved to the mouth of the Giong Trom river, fiercely blocking and attacking, sinking and burning 12 enemy ships. The next day, enemy ships continued to land troops and send rescue ships to salvage sunken ships. We continued to block and attack the enemy ships at the mouth of Cai Son Lon (My Thanh commune) and Hoa Binh hamlet (Luong Hoa commune), destroying 16 more ships. Thus, in just 2 days, on the Ben Tre and Giong Trom rivers, we sank and burned 28 warships, hundreds of American soldiers and vassals paid for their crimes. This was an outstanding battle of the ship hunting unit, demonstrating the remarkable maturity in qualifications and determination to fight to liberate the homeland and unify the country of the officers and soldiers, contributing with the whole province to destroy the large-scale search and destroy operation of the US-puppet coalition on the key battlefield of Ben Tre.

In addition to holding out on the Ben Tre River and the Giong Trom River, the Ship-Hunting Team also crossed the Ham Luong River to attack ships and combined with the land commandos to capture many enemy outposts, together with the Water Commando Company and the Provincial Combat Support Company to sink many American and puppet warships, defeating the newly-born "small fleet on the river" tactic of the American empire used on the Ben Tre battlefield and the Mekong Delta battlefield. The Water Commando, the Ship-Hunting Team and the Provincial Combat Support Company turned the Ben Tre River into a "Bach Dang River" of the Ho Chi Minh era of the 20th century right in the heroic homeland of Dong Khoi.

In September 1973, the Provincial Military Command decided to merge the two units of the ĐKZ75 Company and the Ship Hunting Team into one unit, named the Ship Hunting Company, under the Provincial Military Command, with a strength of about 30 comrades, equipped with 2 ĐKZ82 guns and 5 B41 guns. During the 1975 Spring Offensive and Uprising, the Ship Hunting Company was assigned by the superiors to the Giong Trom front. On April 29, 1975, the unit participated in the attack on Luong Quoi post, attracting the enemy to create conditions for the provincial infantry units to attack the relief troops at the Dong Go front. After that, the Ship Hunting Company, together with the provincial units, advanced to take over Ben Tre town at noon on May 1, 1975, contributing to the complete liberation of the province, contributing to the victory of the historic Ho Chi Minh Campaign, liberating the South, and unifying the country.

After 3 years of formation and development, the officers and soldiers of the Ship Hunter Team fought bravely, sinking and burning 254 enemy ships (including 1 small gunboat), destroying thousands of enemy soldiers, destroying 5 105 and 155 cannons, shooting down 7 helicopters, and burning 8 military vehicles. From these outstanding achievements, the Ship Hunter Team was awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces by the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam on February 10, 1970, with the traditional eight golden words "Bravely steadfast, destroying many American ships".

Kim Loan

Source: https://baodongkhoi.vn/doi-san-tau-ben-tre-gop-phan-quan-trong-vao-chien-thang-30-4-1975-25042025-a145708.html