The Trail was a vital logistical network involving comms and pipeline networks. Keep exploring one of the largest collections of HCM Trail pictures ever.
Nguyen Dong Si, commander of the 559 Engineering Corps, which managed the Trail, meets with an anti aircraft gun crew.
A similar helmet was found in Ban Phanop Village.
A NVA AA gun crew in action.
Old helmets used to grow onions.
Vital Interdiction Chokepoints
The Mu Gia Pass was one of three major entry points where Vietnamese trucks crossed over into Laos. Nicknamed the ‘Dog House', it was notorious with US pilots because almost 50 US planes were shot down there.
An F4 Phantom jet, code-named Boxer 22, was shot down just south of the Mu Gia Pass, setting off one of the largest, most intense rescue operations of the entire war.
Ban Karai Pass was the other main route into Laos. Trucks which plied it also had to negotiate the deadly Ban Laboy river ford and the Phu La Nik Pass.
The original Trail cobblestones on the Laotian side of Ban Karai Pass remain to this day.
The Mu Gia Pass.
Original Trail cobblestones south of Ta Oi.
The Ban Laboy river ford was one of the most heavily bombed sections of the Trail.
Two US pilots return with Explore Indochina to the same crossing in a vintage US army jeep.
The area around the 'Dog's Head', which included Ban Laboy Ford and Ban Karai Pass, is reckoned to be one of the most heavily bombed places on earth.
This photo is from the perspective of the yellow arrow in the image to the left. The rocks still bear heavy scars from the bombing.
Ban Laboy Ford, a set of two crossing visible in this photo, was a natural 'choke point' that US pilots targeted because the difficult river crossing was followed by the steep, exposed Pha La Nik Pass.
This drone photo was taken from the perspective of the yellow arrow in the image to the left, looking down at the same set of shattered rocks. The small village is Ban Laboy.
The intersection at Lum Bum, where Route 20, the road that crossed Ban Laboy Ford, met Route 128, the road that crossed over the Mu Gia Pass.
The same intersection today.
UXO (Unexploded Ordnance)
Cluster bombs are the most deadly type of UXO found in Laos.
Each canister contained up to 600 individual tennis-ball-sized cluster bombs.
Over 270 million cluster bombs were dropped on Laos.
Local people often use the cluster bomb casings to grow vegetables in.
Experts estimate that up to 80 million cluster bombs failed to explode and remain potentially lethal to this day.
Cluster bomb canisters support a house in Ban Sen Phan Village.
Less than 1% of the remaining cluster bomb UXO in Laos has been destroyed. More than half of all the world's confirmed cluster UXO casualties have occurred in Laos.
Cluster bomb canisters prop up a rice storage shed.
Between 1995 and 2013, the USA donated, on average, $3.2M per year towards UXO clearance in Laos. Compare that to the $13.3M (in 2013 dollars) spent every day for nine years while bombing Laos.
The USA spent as much money in three days bombing Laos ($51M, in 2010 dollars) that it spent cleaning up Laos over 16 years ($51M).
Tragically, unexploded cluster munitions are still a common sight in Laos.
Cluster bombs often end up in rivers and streams. The arrow points to a cluster bomb that is distorted by the camera's fisheye lens.
When the price of scrap metal gets high enough, local people use metal detectors to search for shrapnel and UXO.
Local education campaigns inform children about the dangers of playing with UXO.
A common site in Laos are painted sticks warning people which areas are safe.
Many UXO clearance teams operate all over Laos.
Flares
Phosphorescence flares lit up the Trail every night to assist bombing missions.
Local people cut the aluminum tubes in half and craft them into many useful objects.
AC-130 transport planes from the Blind Bat Squadron manually dropped the flares over the Trail each night.
This suitcase was made entirely from flare tubes. The rivets came from an old type of cluster bomb nicked named "the pineapple".
The Blind Bat missions were terminated in 1970 when the NVA started using radar-assisted AA guns.
A bucket made from a flare tube.
A food tray made from flare tubes.
Eating bowls made from flare tubes.
Entertainment on the Ho Chi Minh Trail
A Vietnamese soldier wrote this graffiti in a cave south of the Mu Gia Pass in 1970.
Entertainment troupes traveled up and down the the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
This graffiti in a cave south of Mu Gia Pass quotes a stanza from a popular song enjoyed by Vietnamese soldiers and Trail workers. It says, 'night and day I think of my loved ones from home'.
Entertainment troupes performing for Trail workers and soldiers.
Big Guns
The Trail was protected by a formidable AA gun network including the 100 mm KS-19 Russian anti-aircraft gun.
Spent 100 mm rounds in an old bunker west of La Hap.
Groups of five AA guns would typically aim at a specific target box in the sky and only fire rounds when a plane approached it.
Spent 100 mm rounds on the side of the road near Ban Laboy Ford.
AA guns were transported by armored tractors.
Like this one seen in Muong Nong.
Commander Nguyen Dong Sy inspects a 57 mm AA gun team.
The remains of an S-60 57 mm AA gun in Dak Cheung.
The Russian DShK 12.8 mm machine gun proved an effective weapon against low flying planes.
An old 12.8 mm gun at the entrance of a motel in Muong Nong.
The DShK 12.8 mm gun could be used as a stand-alone unit or attached to armour.
Spent 12.8 mm shells found in an old gun bunker to the west of Ban Bak.
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.
