Saluting the girls of Dong Loc Junction

The photograph was taken o­n a sunny July afternoon in 1968, at Dong Loc, the most important junction o­n the North-South supply line during the American War. His subjects were a squad of young volunteers who were helping hundreds of others in Company C552 keep the junction open to traffic. About 10 days after taking the shot, Sac was told that 10 girls at the Dong Loc junction had been buried alive by bomb.

Startled, Sac opened his notebook to check the company he photographed. The group, A4-C552, was the same that had been bombed.

"They were very lively. Some even cheekily sat o­n the table when I and their company chief were talking. Despite the hardships, they had beautiful faces. I asked them: ‘Do you fear death?’ They said ‘yes’ but were happy to die for the country’s independence and unification."

Like thousands of young volunteers across the country who died during the American War, the women, aged 17 to 20 and led by Vo Thi Tan, were assigned a crucial task.

The junction was an important place o­n the Viet Minh’s North to South supply line – each supply truck carrying army men, food, arms and munitions passed this junction – and US aircraft heavily bombarded the 50-ha area.

Despite repeated bombings, the young volunteers, including A4-C552, stayed at their posts, using o­nly shovels and hoes to level bomb craters.

Volunteers were usually barred from the junction in daytime because of the thread of enemy reconnaissance planes.

Hero worship: Everyday, people from across the country come to burn incense and worship the 10 girls who died at the junction.

Legend has it that o­n July 24, A4-C552 received an order to level the road in preparation for a special convoy which was coming that night.

It was half past three and the girls went out to the junction, which was riddled with debris. Not long after, a US aircraft flew by. The girls dropped to the ground and when the aircraft went away, they returned to work.

However, the aircraft suddenly came back and started bombing. The girls had nowhere to run so they crept into a bomb shelter in the side of a hill. About 60 high-explosive bombs crashed down o­n the intersection and o­ne exploded right in front of the shelter where the girls were hiding. The door to the shelter was covered under tonnes of earth and rock. It was 4pm.

Nine bodies were eventually unearthed, o­ne by o­ne.

But a girl named Ho Thi Cuc was nowhere to be found. Her comrades dug deep into the ground – at o­ne point getting a bulldozer – but to no avail.

On the third day, Cuc was finally found. She was 20m away from her sisters, sitting with a conical hat o­n her head, a hoe nearby. Her fingertips were covered in scratches from a mad attempt to escape her tomb of soil.

The girls were buried near the place where they died. Everyday, people from across the country still come to burn incense and worship them. A monument engraved with the names of the heroines was erected o­n a hill at Dong Loc Junction.

According to locals, because the girls died young, their souls are sacred and have they supernatural powers, including the ability to bless worshippers.

Amid the carnage, two members of the company managed to survive. o­ne was Nguyen Thi Huong.

" After an order from my superiors, I left A4-C552 for the Vinh Linh frontline in Quang Tri Province just o­ne week before the tragedy. To see me off, my comrades held me in their arms and cried a lot because we knew we might never see each other again. Everybody, including me, thought that going meant death because the Vinh Linh frontline was much fiercer than here.

"Our chief Vo Thi Tan, the oldest, held my hand and advised me to be careful. Everybody worried because I was just 17 years old and the youngest.

"When I heard my comrades had been killed, I burst out crying. My new comrades consoled me and said the best thing I could do for my sisters was to brush away my tears, get stronger and avenge them by fighting the enemy. For years, I did that." Huong said crying.

"We came from different backgrounds. Some were from full families like me, Nguyen Thi Xuan and Vo Thi Tan but some others including Ho Thi Cuc, Nguyen Thi Nho and Tran Thi Huong were orphans. However, all of us offered ourselves to the fatherland with our patriotism, love for Vietnamese people and the ideals of national liberation and unification.

Now, Huong is happily married to an army man and has three grown children. Her family earn a living by growing fruit trees and breeding pigs and poultry. Her life is peaceful.

Van Sac recently went to a memorial service at Dong Loc junction hoping to see the survivors of company A4-C552, but left disappointed. That night, Huong was o­nly a few metres away visiting the tombs of her fallen comrades while he taking part in an official ceremony.

Huong remembers someone took her picture 30 years ago, but she has never seen it. Sac, though, got her phone number setting the stage for a possible reunion.