Scene at the prayer (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – A requiem was held at the B52victory monument in Hanoi’s Kham Thien street on December 22 to pray forvictims and soldiers who lost their lives during the US airstrike in December1972.
The annual event was organised by the Hanoi Peace Committee(VPC) and the city’s chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha.
Speaking at the ceremony, VPC Chairman Uong Chu Luu said thevictory of the “Hanoi – Dien Bien Phu battle in the air” stands out as an historicevent in Vietnam’s national building and defence course in the 20th century.
He stated Vietnam will never forget wartime victims andpeople who died protecting national independence.
The US waged a bombing campaign in the north of Vietnam inlate 1972, and the peak of this campaign was the bombing blitz by B52 aircraftin Hanoi from December 18-29.
In the night of December 26, 1972, Hanoi’s densely-populatedresidential areas, including Kham Thien street, the workers’ living quarter inAn Duong street and even Bach Mai hospital, were relentlessly attacked by alarge number of the US’s B52 aircraft.
As many as 278 people, including 91 women, 40 elderly and 55children, were killed and 178 children became orphans during that air raid.
In remembrance of the victims, a memorial was erected on theused-to-be House 51 on Kham Thien street. In the December 26 bombing, House 51was destroyed and none of the seven people living in it survived.-VNA
VNA
