LOC AN AND LONG PHUOC – TWO HIDDEN WORLDS OF THE HCM TRAIL BY SEA
There is a story that is rarely told as one story.
On one side was Loc An, where small wooden boats came in from the sea, and later, the famous “ships without numbers” secretly carried weapons from North Vietnam into the South.
On the other side was Long Phuoc, not far from Ba Ria, where local people dug an entire underground world in which they could live, hide, fight and maintain their base.
The two places were not the same kind of battlefield.
But both became important parts of the wartime landscape of Ba Ria.
And their story began long before the first “ship without numbers” reached Loc An.
1948–1949: Long Phuoc goes underground
During the war against the French, as military sweeps became more frequent, people in Long Phuoc began digging underground shelters to protect themselves and their supplies.
By early 1949, after months of digging at night, about 300 metres of tunnels had been built, beginning in the eastern part of the village.
But this was only the beginning.
The tunnels were gradually connected by main passages, with hidden rooms, food stores and fighting positions.
In October 1949, when French forces launched a major operation in the area, local forces and villagers used the tunnels to survive and resist.
A village was becoming an underground base.
Meanwhile, along the coast…
Loc An was not a place that suddenly became important with the arrival of the “ships without numbers”.
The coastal area had already been used for transporting supplies during the earlier war.
By the early 1950s, the Loc An area was again being used as part of a supply network serving the eastern battlefields.
Its geography was important.
The coastline, the Ray River, forests and isolated landing areas offered opportunities for moving supplies from the sea into the countryside without attracting attention.
Loc An was becoming a gateway.
But in the early 1960s, that gateway was prepared for something much bigger.
1961: opening a route from the sea
After the fighting in southern Vietnam intensified, the demand for weapons increased.
In early 1961, reconnaissance teams began studying the coastline around Xuyen Moc and Ba Ria.
From the coastal areas around Ho Coc to Loc An, possible landing sites were examined.
Loc An was eventually selected as one of the locations for receiving weapons transported by sea from the North.
Local forces were ordered to prepare the landing area and, at the same time, organise men and boats to travel north and request weapons for the southern battlefield.
But before the larger supply ships appeared, there were only small wooden boats.
1961–1962: the men who sailed in the opposite direction
In December 1961, a Ba Ria boat attempted to sail north but had to turn back after encountering problems.
Then, on 27 February 1962, another small boat left the Ba Ria coast.
There were six men aboard:
Nguyen Son, Le Ha, Thoi Van Nam, Vo An Ninh, Nguyen Van Thanh and Tran Van Phu.
This time they departed from the Ho Coc area.
The boat was tiny compared with the vessels that would later use the sea route.
They were eventually detained near Cam Ranh after encountering difficulties.
But they were later released and continued their journey.
On 15 May 1962, the six men finally reached North Vietnam.
They had not sailed north to become famous sailors.
They had gone north to find a way to bring weapons back to their own battlefield.
Later, some of these men became part of the organised maritime transport force.
1963: two hidden worlds develop at the same time
Back in Long Phuoc, the tunnel system was being expanded.
New sections were dug.
Different village areas were connected.
Underground there were weapon stores, food supplies, medical facilities, water storage, concealed entrances and fighting positions.
The tunnels were no longer simply shelters.
They had become a fighting system.
From March into early April 1963, local forces and villagers used the tunnels, trenches and defensive positions during a prolonged military operation against Long Phuoc.
At the same time, something very different was happening at sea.
3 October 1963 – Ship 41 reaches Loc An
Before dawn on 3 October 1963, wooden transport ship 41 entered the Loc An area.
It had sailed from North Vietnam carrying almost 20 tonnes of weapons.
But as the tide fell, the vessel ran aground.
There was another danger.
The nearby Phuoc Hai post was controlled by opposing forces.
Daylight was approaching.
A strange ship sitting on the beach could expose an entire secret supply route.
The crew quickly disguised the vessel as a fishing boat and worked to protect the secrecy of the mission.
The weapons were eventually unloaded safely.
Loc An had become a real gateway of the maritime supply route.
And there was an extraordinary detail.
Among the crew of Ship 41 were Nguyen Son and Thoi Van Nam – two men who had left the Ba Ria coast for North Vietnam in the small boat the previous year.
In 1962, they had travelled from South to North.
In 1963, they returned from North to South, this time aboard a vessel carrying weapons.
1964–1965: Loc An becomes a strategic link
After Ship 41, other vessels continued to use Loc An.
On 29 November 1964, Ship 56 reached the area.
Another Ship 56 followed in early 1965.
Together, these voyages brought large quantities of weapons and explosives into Loc An for forces operating across southeastern Vietnam.
Some of the supplies were destined for important battlefields such as Binh Gia and Dong Xoai.
Loc An was no longer simply a coastal village.
It had become part of a much larger wartime supply network.
And Long Phuoc remained underground
While the secret boats were moving in and out of Loc An, Long Phuoc continued its own war beneath the ground.
No ships.
No harbour.
No port.
Only narrow tunnels, concealed entrances, food and weapons stores, medical facilities and people who had learned how to disappear underground when troops and armoured vehicles approached.
On 25 March 1966, a major operation involving US, Australian and South Vietnamese forces was launched around Long Phuoc with the aim of destroying the tunnel system and the forces using it.
The tunnels that had begun during the war against the French had become a battlefield again.
One was the sea. The other was underground.
We do not yet have enough evidence to say that every shipment arriving at Loc An was transported directly to the Long Phuoc tunnels.
But the history of these two places reveals something larger.
Loc An was a gateway from the sea.
Long Phuoc was a fortified base inland.
Both belonged to the same strategic landscape of Ba Ria, and both grew out of local networks that had existed for years.
One moved people and supplies in from the sea.
The other provided a place where people and forces could live, hide, fight and survive underground.
And perhaps that is the most interesting thing to remember when visiting Loc An or walking into the Long Phuoc tunnels today:
What we see above the ground is only a small part of the story.
Below the forests and villages were tunnels.
Beyond the coast were ships.
And between those two hidden worlds was a network of people who kept the supply lines moving.
Loc An – Long Phuoc.
Two places. Two hidden worlds. One wartime landscape of Ba Ria.
