Xuân Canh Fortress

Xuân Canh Fortress currently belongs to Xuân Canh village, Xuân Canh commune. In the past, this place was Vân Hoạch village, Vân Hoạch commune, Đông Ngàn district, Từ Sơn prefecture, Kinh Bắc region. The relic lies close to the Đuống River dike (the confluence of the Đuống and Red rivers), within the Vân Hoạch pagoda area. This is one of the particularly important revolutionary relics, part of the system of relics from the early period of the nationwide resistance (from December 1946 to early 1947) against French colonial invasion.

In mid-1946, the situation at home and in the world was very complex, with enemies inside and outside threatening to overthrow our newly established young government. The French colonialists openly and brazenly attacked our troops everywhere. In this urgent situation, by order of the Central Committee, on June 29, 1946, at the yard of the National Defense Corps, comrade Hoàng Văn Thái, Chief of the General Staff of the Army, read the decision to establish the Capital Artillery Unit consisting of three platoons: Láng Fortress, Xuân Tảo Fortress, and Xuân Canh Fortress. These were the first artillery units of our army and the main firepower in the fighting to defend Hanoi citadel in the first days of the nationwide resistance and in blocking the enemy on the Lô River, protecting the Việt Bắc base area during the Autumn-Winter campaign of 1947. Implementing the Central Committee's directive, comrade Lê Đình Thiệp, Chairman of the Đông Anh district Administrative Committee, went directly to assign the task to Đạt Tam commune (later Xuân Canh) to coordinate with troops in building a fortress in Vân Hoạch village to protect Hanoi capital. A week later, the gun was transported there. The means of transport was a bồng boat. Mr. Lê Văn Dậu, the boat owner, together with his son Lê Văn Điểm, his son-in-law Nguyễn Văn Phú, and some military cadres and commune guerrillas carried out the task of transporting the gun. They crossed the Red River at night to the An Dương sandbank to receive the gun. It was an old French 75 mm DCA gun, weighing 5,800 kg including its mount, which had been disassembled and loaded onto the boat to cross the river to Xuân Canh. The people of Xuân Canh were waiting ready to move the gun to the prescribed location. After that, the boat returned to the river to carry 14 more crates of infantry ammunition and artillery shells that we had captured after seizing power from the Japanese, to be dispersed and hidden in people's houses. The gun position was studied and chosen on a high earth mound near the dike, about several dozen meters from the rear hall of Vân Hoạch pagoda. With this terrain, the gun could control the entire large river confluence area, fire into Hanoi citadel, and even reach the enemy's Gia Lâm airport.

The force organized for the fortress consisted of a platoon of about 30 people, many of whom were French artillerymen or non-commissioned officers, including comrades: Phạm Văn Đôn, company commander; Doãn Tuế, Hoàng Đình Minh, Nông Văn Cờ, Hoàng Bá Biểu, Nguyễn Văn Nhi, Nguyễn Văn Thông, and platoon medic Nguyễn Công Tâm; the platoon political officer was comrade Trương Thành Phao. The fortress guard force had a squad with a 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, later reinforced by an infantry squad equipped with rifles stationed at the Vân Hoạch pagoda gate (the current path up the dike). The artillery platoon was arranged to eat, stay, and train at Xuân Đình communal house. By mid-October 1946, the fortress was allowed to recruit more people from Xuân Canh's combat self-defense platoon. Many Xuân Canh youths eagerly participated and were selected into the artillery platoon. In addition to transporting, hiding, and preserving the gun and ammunition, the people of Xuân Canh contributed spiritually and materially to the fortress soldiers. Many families donated bamboo and wood to build fortifications and shelters for the gun. Venerable Đàm Vân, abbot of Vân Hoạch pagoda, gave up most of the pagoda grounds as a station for the troops and let them dig fortifications in the pagoda garden. The people and national salvation mass organizations regularly helped the fortress soldiers throughout their stationing and fighting. During this time, comrade Phạm Văn Đôn was company commander commanding the forts inside and outside Hanoi and concurrently commanded Xuân Canh Fortress. Comrade Doãn Tuế was deputy platoon leader, directly managing the platoon and serving as artillery trainer.

In late November 1946, the efforts of the Party Central Committee and the Government headed by President Ho Chi Minh to negotiate with France in order to avoid war did not become reality. Due to their bellicose nature and sinister ambition to seize our country once again, they provoked hostilities and brought hundreds of thousands of troops into our country. In the North, they landed at Đồ Sơn, attacked and occupied Hải Phòng and Lạng Sơn, and prepared to attack and occupy Hanoi capital in order to destroy our leading organs. Faced with that situation, on December 18-19, 1946, an extraordinary expanded meeting of the Party Central Committee was held in Vạn Phúc village (Hà Đông), deciding on nationwide resistance and setting out basic issues of the resistance policy and line: to launch an all-people, comprehensive, long-term resistance relying mainly on our own strength. On the evening of December 19, our troops and people in the inner city took the initiative to attack the enemy, opening the sacred resistance against French colonialism. On the morning of December 20, 1946, President Ho Chi Minh read “Appeal for Nationwide Resistance”. Implementing the decision of the Central Committee and the order of the General Command of the Vietnam People's Army, at exactly 20:00 on December 19, 1946, the lights across Hanoi suddenly went out, and Xuân Canh Fortress, together with Láng and Xuân Tảo fortresses, closely coordinated and simultaneously poured fire on targets: Cửa Bắc Citadel, Long Biên Bridge, Gia Lâm airport, and Bưởi School (where French troops were stationed), opening the nationwide resistance and causing confusion and heavy losses to the enemy. From December 20, 1946 onward, Xuân Canh Fortress fired many more times to threaten the enemy and support the inner city's fighting. Later the enemy discovered our fortress position at Xuân Canh and used aircraft to spot for artillery to bombard the position, but they could not destroy the fortress. In late December 1946, they used naval forces in motorboats from Hanoi across the Red River to attack Xuân Canh. When they reached the Xóm Soi sandbank area, they were ambushed and fought back by our troops and were forced to retreat. On the night of the 30th day of the 12th lunar month of the Bính Tuất year, Xuân Canh Fortress roared and fired its last shell at the enemy troops in Hanoi citadel. After more than 10 days of fighting, in early January 1947, the artillery platoon of Xuân Canh Fortress was ordered to move to the Việt Bắc base area to prepare for a long struggle.

After fighting alongside the Xuân Canh Fortress troops and contributing to pinning down the enemy in the inner city, the commune's army and people again contributed to transporting the Capital Regiment, which after successfully completing its mission of blocking the enemy in the inner city had safely crossed the Red River to withdraw to the Việt Bắc base area. Many commune residents (especially Lực Canh village) brought boats and sampans on the night of February 18 to transport officers and soldiers of the Capital Regiment safely across the river, docking at Dâu Canh to continue marching toward Ngọc Chi, Vĩnh Ngọc…

With great achievements and contributions in the resistance against French colonialism, cadres and people were honored to receive many noble awards from the Party and State: 71 Resistance Medals and Orders of various types, 53 Resistance Medals, and 57 Certificates of Merit from the Government. In particular, on August 15, 2003, the President signed a Decision conferring on the people and armed forces of Xuân Canh commune the title Hero of the People's Armed Forces in the resistance against French colonialism. On August 10, 2004, the Ministry of Culture and Information issued Decision No. 69/2004/QĐ-BVHTT classifying the fortress

Xuân Canh is a national-level historical relic. The Hanoi City People's Committee signed Decision No. 4950/QĐ-UBND (August 10, 2004) to affix a commemorative plaque for the historical-revolutionary resistance event at Xuân Canh Fortress.