Vietnam — Hồ Hữu Tiệp (B-52 Lake), ngõ 55 Hoàng Hoa Thám, Quận Ba Đình, Thành Phố Hà Nội, Hanoi, Vietnam
A visit to a childhood TV memory
September 2015
I felt a bit uncertain about visiting Hồ Hữu Tiệp, ngõ 55 Hoàng Hoa Thám, Quận Ba Đình, Thành Phố Hà Nội — the B-52 Lake. I didn’t know if it was acceptable to visit, what I’d find, or how the locals would react to me visiting the site. Would it still even be there? What would I find?
I searched for the B-52 Lake because it’s an image I remember from childhood. I remember seeing it on the television news — the remains of a B-52 in a lake in Hanoi, Vietnam.
The report of what happened on the night of 18th December 1972 is available at aviation-safety.net.
The Boeing B-52D-75-BO Stratofortress was taking part in Operation "Linebacker II” when a SA-2 SAM shot it down. Of the six crew onboard, four were taken as prisoners of war (Pilot/Commander: Capt. Hal K Wilson USAF; Co-pilot: Capt. Charles Arthur Brown USAF; Rad/Nav: Maj. Fernando Alexander USAF; and Capt. Henry Charles Barrows USAF), to be released in March 1973, and two were killed (Capt. Richard Waller Cooper USAF; and TSgt. Charlie Sherman Poole, USAF).
From where I got off the bus, it seemed to be a short walk to the lake. The walk turned out to be rather interesting, as it took me through a significant residential area of Hanoi, down a series of narrow lanes.
Three things struck me about the lanes, one, there weren’t many people; two, the lanes were surprisingly neat and tidy; and three, you must stay alert for motorcycles coming down the narrow lanes at high speed.
I saw very few other people in these narrow alleyways, and apart from the tourists below, I seemed to be the only visitor.
The walk through the lanes felt safe, and it was quite an enjoyable way to see Hanoi.
As I approached the B-52 Lake, I was a little unsure about my route, but a local pointed me in the right direction. Maybe they do get tourists coming out to look at the lake?
I rounded a corner, and there was the lake. It was much smaller than I expected. Was it bigger back in 1972? Was the area now heavily built-up?
But there in the lake were the remains of the B-52. The tyres could still be seen sticking out of the water, and a tree was growing out of the wreckage.
It was quite an odd and eerie sight. The plane’s remains were still in a lake in a residential area.
Nearby, on a wall, was a plaque explaining what happened.
"At 23.05 on December 27, 1972, the Battalion No72 – Air Defence Missile Regiment No285 shot down on the spot a B52G of the US imperialist violating Ha Noi airspace. A part of the wreckage fell into Huu Tiep Lake - Ngoc Precinct, Ba Dinh District, Ha Noi. The outstanding feat of arm contributed to achieving the victory “Dien Bien Phu in the Air”: defeating the US imperialist’s strategic air raid with B52 bomber against Ha Noi at the end of December 1972 and creating an important change that led the Vietnamese people’s anti-US resistance for more national salvation to the complete victory.”
Interestingly, the date on the plaque disagrees with the one on the aviation-safety.net website, which states that the plane was shot down on the night of 18 December 1972.
In the lake itself, there is another memorial.
It seemed unreal that the wreckage was still there. If you turn around with your back to the wreckage, it looks like any other Vietnamese scene.
During my visit to the B-52 Lake, I was the only person around. I didn’t see anybody else in the area, and apart from two tourists that passed me, I didn’t see any other tourists.
On my walk back from the lake to the Botanical Gardens (my next planned stop), I walked through another square with a lake, but this time, the lake contained not the remains of a plane but a temple.
Visiting the lake was odd. I don’t know what I was expecting, but seeing the wreckage of the B-52 still in the water in what is now a residential area seemed very strange.
FourSquare: Hồ Hữu Tiệp (B-52 Lake)
