Laos was the most direct route from the north to the south of Vietnam. There were no US ground soldiers stationed there, and the area was flatter and more densely covered in forest and jungle.
Each of the small red dots symbolizes a single US plane sortie or strike. The Trail in southern Laos was attacked approximately 600,000 times.
This map gives an impression of the Trail's complexity. It represents only a small section of the Trail network, about halfway down, in the vicinity of Sepon. Vietnamese generals were perplexed that the USA focused its resources on bombing North Vietnam and battling Viet Cong guerilla fighters in South Vietnam rather than blocking the Trail from the very start of the war.
Historical Photos
This is an iconic photo of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) troops passing through the Tha Me area, south west of Sepon.
You can ride your motorbike bike to the same location. The rock ledge is scared by bomb impacts.
General Giap visits troops stationed at the infamous Phu La Nic Pass, near the border with Vietnam.
This photo is taken just up the hill from where the photo to the left was taken.
Jets, Trucks and Tanks
The OV-1 Mohawk, whose star on the fuselage is very similar in size to the panel used as a window in the photo to the right.
I came across this aircraft part in a village west of Attepeu. Perhaps it came from a documented OV-1 Mowhawk that was shot down in that area.
The PT-76 light amphibious tank during fighting in 1971 during the unsuccessful Operation Lam Son 719.
A similar tank that was used to overrun the Lang Vey Special Forces Base, just to the west of Khe Sanh, in 1968.
A Phantom F4 in action. All told 671 were lost during the war.
A wing tip from a downed Phantom F4 jet in the Mu Gia pass area, one of the 40-odd planes shot down in this area.
At any given time there were three to six thousand trucks operating on the Trail.
They were the prime target of USA interdiction efforts.
Trucks were heavily camouflaged, and typically traveled only at night, back and forth between supply way stations.
Notice the bullet holes in the roof.
Each driver would ply a specific route, night by night.
Truck wreckage found in the jungle north of Kaelum.
A NVA tank storms the Presidential Palace in Saigon on the last day of the war.
This ruined tank, north of Attepeu, was presumably abandoned at the end of the war, and was only revealed when the Trail was widened in 2005.
North Vietnamese tanks driving through Saigon at the end of the war.
Some 38 cluster bombs were discovered in the area around this tank when it was swept for UXO (unexploded ordinance) in 2016.
A captured US tank formally used by South Vietnamese forces during Operation Lam Son 719, an unsuccessful attempt to block the Trail west of Khe Sanh in 1971.
A similar tank, abandoned in Ban Dong Village. South Vietnamse forces suffered 50% casualties during Lam Son 719, and some 150 tanks and armoured vehicles were lost.
Thud F105 jets in formation in a bombing run over Laos.
A local farmer cuts the shape of a jet into the wall of his house east of Saravane.
Jet Fuel Canisters
US aircraft commonly jettisoned their fuel canisters over Laos.
Many canisters crashed with relatively minor damage.
Local people use fuel canisters to build riverboats, especially at Tha Bak and Ban Dong.
These iconic remnants of the war can be seen on many rivers along the Trail.
HQ of the 559 Engineering Corps
The HQ of the 559 Engineering Corps was a multi layered tunnel complex, some 200 metres long, hidden in the hills to the west of Sepon.
It paritally collapsed in 1968 and had to be abandoned.
The tunnel complex housed over eight offices and some 100 staff, including a telecommunications switchboard.
The HQ's western entrance is all but lost in the jungle now.
Nguyen Dong Sy, the commander of the Trail, instructs staff officers after the 559's HQ was relocated back to Vietnam.
Explore Indochina found the HQ's exact location by talking to a former NVA colonel who commanded the Trail's anti-aircraft forces.
Bombs, Mortars and other Explosives
Russian-made RPGs were a cheap, simple and formidable weapon.
They litter the jungle on certain parts of the Trail, like here in Ban Bak.
Porters carried mortars down the Trail.
A mortar casing being used as a truck's indicator light
Setting up a mortar.
Local farmers often convert mortar casings into cow bells.
Some two million tons of ordinance was dropped on Laos, making it the highest per capita country bombed on the planet.
A spent 250 pound bomb casing south of Muong Nong.
Many of the bombs dropped on SE Asia remain unexploded to this day.
Riding past a bomb on the way to the Ban Laboy Ford.
A formation of Thud F-105 bomber jets releasing their payload.
A number of large 750 pound bomb casings in Sepon.
A B-52 could release up to 100 bombs in one attack.
Two live 500 pound bombs in Ban Phanop Village.
An F-100F Super Sabre escorts a B-52.
A unexploded 500 pound bomb in the hills above La Hap.
A B-52 releases its payload.
2,000 pound bombs in Muong Nong.
Phantom F4 jets releasing their payload.
750 pound bombs at the Mu Gia Pass.
A-6 Intruders drop their payload.
750 pound bombs waiting for pickup at a river crossing near Bualapaha.
By Digby Greenhalgh
Digby Greenhalgh is the founder of Explore Indochina, and a recognized expert on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. All motorcycle tours are designed and guided by Digby.
