Two women joined a line of people to take their toddlers away from Hanoi in December, 1972.
The largest evacuation in the resistance history of the capital was basically completed before the United States launched the Operation Linebacker campaign, which lasted 12 days and nights from December 18 to 29 in 1972.
About 85% of the population of four Hanoi urban districts, or around 500,000 people, were evacuated to Hanoi’s surrounding areas, including the former Ha Tay Province, which became a part of Hanoi in 2008.
Air defense positions and bomb shelters were built and set up right in the middle of the streets.
The city had around 400,000 single-person bomb shelters and hundreds of thousands of tunnels for groups of people to escape from the bombings during this time.
Men are seen using individual pits on the sidewalk of a Hanoi street.
Every time people heard air raid warnings being blasted on loudspeakers, they would rush to their shelters.
Members of the Trieu Khuc Cooperative repair trenches in a field.
Together with the main force and the local army, the Hanoi militia and self-defense force established 192 defensive positions across the city.
More than 40,000 people were equipped with rifles, machine guns and mortars.
A teacher of Tu Liem Secondary School, which is now Dich Vong Secondary School, taught students to weave straw hats.
Childhood memories of Hanoi half a century ago are of days of going to school with straw hats, ambulance stretchers, hoes and shovels to help adults dig tunnels.
Women of the militia and self-defense force in Uy No Commune, Dong Anh District, on the battlefield.
The commune was one of the first locations to be hit by B-52 bombs on the opening night of the U.S. campaign on December 18, 1972. The attack was the heaviest bombardment launched by the U.S. Air Force since the end of World War II.
A local woman stood in front of houses on Kham Thien Street that were destroyed by the bombing on the night of December 26, 1972, when the United States attacked more than 100 locations around Hanoi.
A day earlier, many people received the information that the United States would stop bombing on Christmas Eve so they returned home and could not escape the bombings in time. As a result, 287 people died that night and more than 2,000 houses were destroyed.
Houses along Kham Thien Street on the morning of December 27, 1972.
Data at the B52 Victory Museum shows that Hanoi was hit by 10,000 tons of bombs in the 12 days and nights of Operation Linebacker II.
People read information about the war in front of a shop, which said Hanoi shot down 10 U.S. aircraft including eight B-52 between December 18 and 21, 1972.
People gather in an area where a B-52 was shot down on Hoang Hoa Tham Street, Ba Dinh District, on the night of December 27, 1972.
Hanoians take shelter from bombings in 1972. Video courtesy of the Institut national de l'audiovisuel
