PANO – Hero of the People’s Armed Forces Nguyen Van Thuong (alias Hai Thuong) – a famous dogged courier in the Vietnam War – has donated his K54 pistol that he used in a fight on February 10th 1969 to the Vietnam Defence Intelligence Force Museum.
The war veteran confided that in early February 1969, he received two telegrams from his seniors at the same time. One was about his coming training course at the Nguyen Ai Quoc Political School (now the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Public Administration) in the North, while the another assigned him to return to the inner city of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) to get a top-secret document from some spies operating inside the enemy line.
The pistal at the museum.
Thinking for a while, he chose the latter though it was very dangerous because the enemy troops were stepping up raids after their failure in the 1968 General Offensive and Uprising.
On February 10th, 1969, Thuong obtained the document in Saigon and then came back to the base. However, on the way to the base, he was besieged by US troops and helicopters in a rice field. At that time, the only weapon he had was a pistol K54.
While the helicopter flew very low over his shelter, Thuong recognized Tu Hien, a traitor to the country.
Without hesitation, he quickly hid the document and opened fire and shot down the helicopter while it was searching the ground. He also got wounded in a leg.
After nursing the wound, Thuong was ready to face enemy troops with only 21 bullets.
He fired 20 shots, killing 20 enemies and intended to save the last bullet for himself. However, he thought of the oath of the Party members not to commit suicide.
Thus, Thuong waited the enemy til they were so close and shot at one of them, snatched his gun, and used it to fire many shots at other enemy troops. However, Thuong was finally arrested by the enemy as there were a large number of enemies.
The enemy used many tricks but failed to force Thuong to hand in the secret document that he had hidden.
War veteran Hai Thuong and his wife.
Failing to persuade the Vietnamese soldier, the enemy resorted to extremely barbarous tortures. They sawed away parts of Thuong’s legs six times, one by one, but he still said “no” and headshook.
His undaunted will became an example to revolutionary soldiers who were being imprisoned by the enemy.
As for the document and the pistol, our intelligence men arrived in the scene and latter found all items.
Veteran Thuong was conferred with the title “Hero of the People’s Armed Forces” in November 1978.
His pistol has become a precious exhibit, contributing to educating the national patriotic and combat traditions to young generations.
Translated by Pham Huy
Đăng ký: VietNam News