The Trail north of Villabury. Notice the fresh crater in the middle of the photo.
A crater south of Muong Nong.
Unrelenting bombing created moonscapes in Laos.
A crater at the base of the Mu Gia Pass.
The Falls choke point in far south Laos.
A crater at the base of the Mu Gia Pass.
The result of a series of B-52 strikes along the Foxtrot choke point north of Sepon.
A crater in the Ban Phanop Valley.
Operation Igloo White
Thousand of seismic listening devices were dropped on the Trail by the USA as part of the elaborate 'Igloo White' program.
The idea was to listen into night time activity on the Trail to coordinate attacks in regions where the trucks were heard.
Early in the war the sensors were dropped by hand.
Vietnamese counter measures included moving the sensors and starting up truck engines carried on bamboo poles to random locations each night.
The sensors were dropped by jet later in the war as the Trail became more dangerous.
NVA soldiers became adept at finding and moving the sensors.
The entire program was controlled by Task Force Alpha, located at an ultra secret base in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand.
Technicians used the largest computer in the world at the time to analalys data received from the sesors to try and predict when and where the trucks were heading.
Logistics
An NVA officer, pistol in hand, leads a counter attack during Operation Lam Son 719.
A similar pistol found in a scrap metal shop in Khe Sanh.
A bandaged Vietnamese truck driver.
The same type of truck steering wheel can be seen in a river bed west of Ban Bak.
An iconic photo of a Vietnamese truck driver.
A steering wheel in a scrap yard near Sepon.
Women accounted for a large percentage of Trail workers.
The same kind of munition was found by road workers while widening the Trail north of Villabury.
A Russian BTR troop carrier.
A discarded BTR gun turret in Muong Nong.
Some 30,000 workers, many of them women, kept the Trail open.
Their simple tools, such as spades, picks and hammers, are commonly seen on the Trail.
Many of the workers on the Trail were only 18 or 19 years old.
A pick head found near Ta Oi.
Workers use mallets and hammers to install traffic signs on the Trail.
The small hammer to the right of this photo is made from a clamp taken from a US bomb.
The Ban Phanop Valley was a natural choke point because trucks where forced to drive through a small opening in the karst rock formations.
The karst in the Ban Phanop Valley is visibly shattered by the relentless bombing that targetted it.
At regular intervals along the Trail were way stations which housed hospitals, repair stations and protective bunkers for the trucks.
A truck axle dragged out of the jungle south of Ta Oi.
There were up to 70 such way stations, called Binh Trams, stretched out along the Trail.
Truck parts found north of Ta Oi.
Early on in the war all bridges in southern Laos were destroyed.
This old French bridge at Tad Hai remains destroyed.
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.
