(VNF) - A requiem was held at Ba Da Pagoda in Hanoi on December 22^nd to pray for victims and Vietnamese and foreign soldiers who died while protecting the country during a U.S. airstrike in December 1972.

The event was organised by the Vietnam Peace Committee (VPC), Hanoi Peace Committee and the city’s chapter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha on the occasion of the 73^rd anniversary of the Vietnam People's Army (December 22^nd, 1944-2017) and the the 45^th anniversary of the victory of the Dien Bien Phu in the Air Battle (December 18^th, 1972).

At the requiem at Ba Da Pagoda.

Attending the ceremony included National Assembly Vice Chairman, VPC Chairman Uong Chu Luu; and Head of the Hanoi Peace Committee Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thanh, among others.

Speaking at the event, National Assembly Vice Chairman and VPC Chairman Uong Chu Luu said the historical victory of the “Hanoi – Dien Bien Phu battle in the air” stands out as an immortal heroic epic in Vietnam’s construction and defense. The widespread influence of the victory has led to the liberation of the entire southern Vietnam and on the national building; and tempered the heroic firmness of Vietnamese revolution.

“Through this event, we want to honor the glorious feats of arms of our army and people, particularly soldiers and people in Hanoi and some northern provinces who heroically fought the U.S. blitz.”

During the ceremony, participants attended prayers for spiritual uplifting and offered incense to solders and ordinary people killed by B52 bombing in 1972 in Hanoi.

Before that, VPC delegates also visited the Kham Thien Memorial Site in Hanoi’s inner Dong Da district.

Participants attend prayers for solders and ordinary people killed during a U.S. airstrike in December 1972.

The U.S. waged a bombing campaign in the north of Vietnam in late 1972, and the peak of this campaign was the bombing blitz by B52 aircraft in Hanoi.

In the night of December 26^th, 1972, Hanoi’s densely-populated residential areas, including Kham Thien street, the workers’ living quarter in An Duong street and even Bach Mai hospital, were relentlessly attacked by a large number of the U.S.’s B52 aircraft, known in Vietnam as "Dien Bien Phu in the Air” and in the West as the 1972 Christmas bombing.

It was the last US military campaign during the war and lasted for 12 days from December 18^th to 29^th. As many as 278 people, including 91 women, 40 elderly and 55 children were killed and 178 children became orphans during that air raid.

In remembrance of the victims, a memorial was erected on the used-to-be House 51 on Kham Thien street. In the December 26 bombing, House 51 was destroyed and none of the seven people living in it survived./.

Phuong Nguyen