PANO - Air defence units, including Battalion 681 of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army, in the national resistance war against the French colonists, were established under the guidelines of President Ho Chi Minh.

They were equipped weapons with more power and higher range than normal machine guns, so that they could shoot down the enemy’s planes.

In 1952, Lieutenant General Nguyen Xuan Mau, former Deputy Political Commissar of the Air Defence and Air Force Service, was accredited to the Commissar of Battalion 681, which was in charge of protecting major points along the route between Lang Son and Tuyen Quang provinces, including Ta Khoa ferry station and areas around Pha Din, Co Noi and Tuan Giao hills.

To fulfil the secret task, the unit’s troops had to operate round the clock to control the battlefield. The antiaircraft guns and artillery pieces were disassembled to parts and carried by troops to regrouping places, and then re-assembled.

Because the battalion's position was on a high mountain, troops had to dig long fortifications and build more than 200 footsteps for moving weapons, ammunition and wounded soldiers. Meanwhile, the enemy frenziedly bombarded these places to push back our operations and weapons transport for the Dien Bien Phu campaign. Some days, our troops had to work on empty stomachs because the enemy’s bombs had hit the logistics team.

Thanks to the troops’ brave fighting spirit, we broke off the French airborne supplies and the US intervention to their base in Dien Bien Phu.

During this campaign, Vietnam’s air defence units shot down 62 enemy aircraft. Battalion 681 alone downed three enemy aircraft, contributing to the final victory of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign.

Translated by Pham Huy