Ban raving pass
| Ban raving pass | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Compass direction | North | south | |
| Pass height | 1250 m | ||
| District | Lệ Thủy , Quang Binh , Vietnam | Hướng Hóa, Quảng Trị , Vietnam Sepone, Savannakhet , Laos |
|
| Watershed | Houay Kapay | ||
| expansion | Pass road (no longer maintained) |
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| Map (Savannakhet) | |||
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| Coordinates | 16 ° 59 '33 " N , 106 ° 33' 34" E | ||
The Ban Raving Pass is a mountain pass in the Truong Son Mountains , which connects Vietnam with Laos . The pass played an important role during the Vietnam War , but is no longer used today.
Location and course
The Ban Raving Pass is located approximately 50 km south of Đồng Hới , capital of the Quảng Bình province in central Vietnam, and 50 km northeast of Tchepone , the former village at the confluence of the Sepon and Banghiang rivers , which was a junction of the Ho Chi Minh path it was.
In Vietnam, the single-lane unpaved road 1036 branches off the Ho Chi Minh Highway (DHCM) to the south. About six kilometers before the top of the pass, the road becomes narrower and is paved with cobblestones . The pass is at 1250 m and about 950 m west of the border between Vietnam and Laos. It forms the border between the two Vietnamese provinces Quảng Bình and Quảng Trị . A 4 km long stretch of the pass road runs through the province of Quảng Trị before the border with Laos is crossed for the first time. The road follows Houay Kapay on the right flank of the valley. Because in this area the border between Laos and Vietnam runs in a straight line to the south and does not follow the terrain, the road crosses the border between the two states several times before reaching the valley floor where the Houay Kapay flows into the Nam Xe.
history
During the Vietnam War, the Ho Chi Minh Trail was used by the North Vietnamese People's Army (NVA) as a supply line for the fighters in South Vietnam . It was a network of roads and paths that led from North Vietnam via Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam.
Initially, the Nape Pass and the Mu Gia Pass served as an entry point to the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Ban Raving Pass was not used at the beginning of the Vietnam War because the southern part of North Vietnam was heavily bombed by the US Air Force and the coastal plain offered little camouflage for long truck convoys. After US President Lyndon Johnson stopped the bombing of North Vietnam in November 1968, the situation changed for both sides:
Because no more bombs fell in North Vietnam, the supplies could be brought to the south by lorry and by rail from Hanoi and Hòi Phong on the much better transport infrastructure of North Vietnam and the detour via the poor roads of Laos could be avoided. In addition, the route was much shorter and less fuel was needed as the trucks did not have to drive over the mountain passes.
On the other hand, stopping the bombing of North Vietnam meant that the US Air Force had more aircraft available to bomb the roads in Laos. The convoys of the North Vietnamese People's Army crossing the Mu Gia Pass and the Ban Karai Pass were therefore attacked even more violently. The northernmost Nape Pass has therefore no longer been used. The attacks were so massive that the fords through the Bangfai River at the foot of the Ban Karai Pass became the most heavily bombed place in the world.
Due to heavy bombing in Laos, traffic was moved to the Ban Raving Pass, which is still further south. The problem was that the two-lane gravel road , which was passable in all weathers, became a footpath before the top of the pass. Road construction was stopped at the end of the 1950s because the terrain was too steep for the construction machinery used by the North Vietnamese People's Army and could not be worked on. Only with the import of construction machinery from the Soviet Union could the road continue to be built, so that after 1968 it reached the existing Ho Chi Minh Trail at Sepone .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nguồn Rào . Map. In: NGA (Ed.): Vietnam 1: 50000 . 4th edition. No. 6342-IV , 1971.
- ↑ CIA (Ed.): By-pass road construction Route 912, Ban Laboy area, Laos . April 23, 1969 ( cia.gov [PDF]).
- ↑ Ho Chi Minh Trail Before and Now Photos. In: Explore Indochina. Retrieved on November 10, 2018 : "One crossing point, called Ban Laboy, is reckoned to be the most heavily bombed place on the planet."
- ↑ Ray Smith: Entrance to Ban Raving Pass. Retrieved November 14, 2018 .