page_title: Rail transport in Vietnam
section_title: Wartime
hierarchical_section_title: Rail transport in Vietnam / History / Wartime
caption_attribution_description: A U.S. Navy LTV A-7E Corsair II (BuNo 157526, pilot Mike A. "Baby" Ruth) of Attack Squadron VA-195 Dambusters bombs the Hai Duong railway and highway bridge in North Vietnam. VA-195 was assigned to Attack Carrier Air Wing 11 (CVW-11) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) for a deployment to Vietnam from 17 February to 28 November 1972. On 10 May 1972, "Operation Linebacker I" commenced, the U.S. Navy's contribution to the air offensive against North Vietnam consisted of 176 attack sorties, 60% of them flown by A-7 aircraft.
context_page_description: The railway system in Vietnam is owned and operated by the state-owned Vietnam Railways. The principal route, the single track North-South Railway running between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, accounts for 1,726 kilometres of the network's total length of 2,600 kilometres. The national railway network uses mainly metre gauge, although there are several standard gauge and mixed gauge lines in the north of the country.
  The first railways in Vietnam were established in the 1880s, with construction beginning in 1888; these included a tram running between the ports of Saigon and Cholon, and a regional rail line connecting Saigon with Mỹ Tho. Railway construction flourished soon afterwards, during the administration of Paul Doumer as Governor-General of French Indochina from 1897 to 1902. It was during this time that construction of the Yunnan–Vietnam and North–South railways began. Construction of the North-South line took over thirty years, finally ending in 1936, during which time other branch lines were also completed.
context_section_description: From the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the railway into Yunnan served as a channel for arms shipments to the Chinese Kuomintang. French refusal to halt shipments of arms and other war-related goods to China through Tonkin eventually provoked the Invasion of French Indochina by Japanese forces in 1940. The Japanese used the railway system extensively during their occupation, inviting sabotage by the Viet Minh as well as airborne Allied bombing raids. The railways sustained considerable damage, including the destruction of bridges.
  Shortly after World War II ended, the First Indochina War began, and the Viet Minh's sabotage of the rail system continued, this time against the armies of the French Union. The French returned several sections of the railway to full operation, allowing trains to circulate freely from Saigon to Ninh Hoa, Saigon to Loc Ninh, Saigon to Mỹ Tho and Huế to Tourane (Da Nang) by the end of 1947. The sections lying between Nha Trang and Tourane and north of Huế were judged to be too insecure to be returned to service at the time.
  Early in the conflict, the Viet Minh's sabotage attempts failed to seriously damage the French railways, and most trains circulated without much protection. Beginning in 1947, however, the Viet Minh began to use mines, with circulation slowing to a crawl as they became more and more powerful. In response, the French began using the armed armoured train La Rafale as both a cargo-carrier and a mobile surveillance unit. In February 1951 the first Rafale was in service on the Saigon-Nha Trang section of the North–South line, manned by the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (French Foreign Legion). Use of the Rafale failed to deter the Viet Minh, however, who continued sabotaging the line, making off with its rails under cover of night and using them to create a 300-kilometre (190 mi)-long clandestine rail network between Ninh Hoa and Da Nang, in a Viet Minh-controlled area. In 1954, following the signature of the Geneva Accords and the end of the First Indochina War, Vietnam—along with its railway system—was divided along the Bến Hải River in Quảng Trị Province.
  Throughout the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese railway network—especially the North–South Railway—was a target of bombardments and sabotage by both North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese forces. In the South, American aid allowed the South Vietnamese government to reconstruct the main line between Saigon and Huế, and several branch lines were also completed. As reconstruction efforts advanced, however, bombardments and sabotage of the railways by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese intensified, reducing the transportation capacity and effectiveness of the railway, and eventually forcing the abandonment of many large sections of the track. In 1964, Typhoons Joan and Iris, the worst to strike Vietnam in sixty-five years, damaged the railway system even further, restricting operations to five separated segments. A second reconstruction effort, assisted again by the U.S. government, began in December 1966, and progressed in those areas where security was re-established. The system reopened 340 kilometers of main line in areas where security was restored.
  In North Vietnam, American bombing of railways was concentrated on key targets such as bridges, both along the North–South Railway and along the lines north of Hanoi, such as the Hanoi–Lào Cai and Hanoi–Dong Dang lines. At several points during the war, American bombing severely hindered transport along both lines, on which the North Vietnamese depended for shipments from their Chinese allies. Operation Rolling Thunder was the first large-scale bombing campaign carried out by the U.S. Air Force, taking place from March 2, 1965 until November 1, 1968, when US President Lyndon B. Johnson temporarily called off air raids. Large-scale air raids resumed from May 9 to October 23, 1972, for Operation Linebacker, and again from December 18–29, 1972, for Operation Linebacker II, with fewer target restrictions than Rolling Thunder.
  Railway engineering troops from the People
caption: An American attack squadron bombs the Hải Dương bridge during Operation Linebacker I.
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