Workshop highlights Phan Rang victory

(Bqp.vn) - The Ninh Thuan provincial People’s Committee and Vietnam Military History Institute held a seminar themed “Breaking the Phan Rang ‘steel shield’ - Significance and Historical lessons” in Phan Rang-Thap Cham city, Ninh Thuan province, on April 8th.

At the workshop.

40 years ago, after their debacles from the Central Highlands and South-central region battlefields, Saigon troops hastily established distant defence lines, including the Phan Rang line considered a ‘steel shield’, to stop the Vietnamese liberation soldiers from advancing toward Saigon.

There, the enemy deployed more than 10,000 troops, backed by artillery and airborn fire support, in Phan Rang.

Under the instruction of the Party Central Committee and Politburo, the Vietnamese liberation army launched an offensive against the enemy’s Phan Rang defensive line on April 14th 1975.

By the midday of April 16th 1975, the Vietnamese liberation soldiers had neutralized more than 2,600 enemy troops, captured nearly 1,700 others, including some high-ranking officers of the enemy and lots of their weapons, aircraft and equipment, completely liberating Ninh Thuan province.

About 60 reports delivered at the seminar honoured the Phan Rang victory, contributing to the final victory of the Ho Chi Minh Campaign, discouraging the enemy's fighting will, as well as highlighted the sound leadership of the Party Central Committee and Central Military Commission and the whole people’s and soldiers’ willpower in the fight for national independence and freedom.

Van Hieu (Source: PANO)