Colonel Vu Huy Le, former captain of HQ-505, decided to send his ship running aground on Co Lin island to turn it an unsinkable fortification for his suicidal mission of defending Co Lin
Photo: Tuoi Tre

During the high-profile, one-sided sea battle around the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago between Vietnamese soldiers and well-equipped Chinese troops on March 14, 1988, 64 Vietnamese soldiers perished, and many were injured while their comrades valiantly fought on to safeguard Vietnamese control of Truong Sa.

Immediately after finishing off HQ-604, one of the three Vietnamese ships sent to fortify Truong Sa, off Gac Ma, the Chinese battleships turned to bombard HQ-605, one of the two remaining ships, which was guarding Len Dao island, with heavy weaponry.

The ship burst into intense flames, and Captain Le Lenh Son ordered everyone on board to promptly evacuate.

“If we had stayed on board, we would all have been killed, while the nation’s ownership remained at stake. I allowed everyone to jump into the sea, with the conviction that each soldier would later become a living witness and an unwavering flesh-and-blood flag in the quest to maintain Vietnam’s ownership of Truong Sa,” explained Captain Son, 25 years after the fight.

However, the soldiers stayed put in Len Dao waters, defying the incessant shower of heavy fire, until the Chinese warships returned to Gac Ma, Hoang Van Nam, a survivor, tearfully recalled.

After the enemy vessels left Len Dao, the soldiers from HQ-605 headed for Sinh Ton (Survival) island.

Nam then found Doan, HQ-605’s mate (a deck officer of a rank below the master of the ship). Though he was suffering from critical burns on his whole body, Doan remained strangely conscious and kept staring at the Vietnamese national flag pitched on Co Lin island, muttering indistinctly as if to remind his comrades to carry out their duty at any cost.

By midday, 17 soldiers, both deceased and injured, had been found. Some bodies couldn’t be recovered, Nam added.

Captain Son ordered the few unharmed soldiers to row a rescue boat with their hands to Sinh Ton island. As they approached the island around 3 pm, mate Doan breathed his last breath.

The situation on Gac Ma island was also highly tense. After HQ-604 was sunk, the Chinese ships stopped firing but lingered in the Vietnam-owned waters.

Bodies of soldiers from the ship were drifting in the bloodstained sea water.

Earlier, HQ-505, the other Vietnamese ship, had beached on Co Lin atoll, with the ship’s stern seriously burned. The ship’s intrepid soldiers turned into an unsinkable fortification, with the Vietnamese national flag flapping vigorously on the atoll.

Twenty-five years later, Captain Vu Huy Le recalled in tears that after HQ-505 arrive on Co Lin, he split his soldiers into two groups, one that remained on board, ready to fight back, and one that was sent to rescue sailors from the sunk HQ-604 off Gac Ma.

This was an extremely daunting, dangerous task, as the enemy threatened to shoot even unarmed soldiers providing rescue and medical relief. Yet they were resolved to come to their injured comrades’ aid, Le further recalled.

Lieutenant-colonel Pham Van Hung, of HQ-505, who was in the rescue team, remembered that they had to hold back tears at the horrifying sight on Gac Ma.


An aerial photograph shows the HQ-505 running aground to beach on Co Lin atoll, with the ship’s stern seriously burned. White smoke rises up from behind. Soldiers used the ship as an unsinkable fortification and successfully defended the island (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Loyal to the cause

The surviving soldiers were determined to safeguard the national ownership of Truong Sa.

After taking the deceased and injured to Sinh Ton island, Captain Le of HQ-505 reported to the commanding headquarters that they had managed to defend the national flag, ship and force. They insisted on staying in order to fulfill the task and were willing to fight to the death on this nearly suicidal mission.

The commanding headquarters agreed to the request.

An urgent meeting was summoned that night, during which Captain Le selected nine among many volunteers to stay with him.

The team was well aware of the dangers awaiting them, as their ship was nothing more than an immobile, metal hunk on Co Lin.

“I’ve dreamt of this moving sight again and again. The young soldiers cried at not being selected to stay,” said captain and political commissar Vo Ta Du, who also remembered promising to recount the entire battle with tales of the soldiers’ great heroism.

The team, led by Captain Le, was then split into five smaller groups, ready to sacrifice their own lives to defend Truong Sa.

Source: tuoitrenews.vn