Hidden in the lanes of the old Ngoc Ha flower village, a few minutes from Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, is one of the strangest war relics in the world. In a small pond called Huu Tiep Lake, surrounded by houses, caf\u00e9s and potted plants, a twisted mass of rusted metal rises out of the water: part of an American B-52 Stratofortress bomber that fell here in December 1972. Locals simply call it B52 Lake, and Hanoi has left the wreck exactly where it landed.<\/p>\n
In December 1972, peace talks in Paris had stalled. On 18 December the United States launched Operation Linebacker II, the heaviest bombing campaign of the war, sending waves of B-52 bombers over Hanoi and Hai Phong, mostly at night, for twelve days until 29 December (with a pause at Christmas). Parts of Hanoi were badly hit \u2014 Kham Thien street and Bach Mai Hospital among them \u2014 and many civilians were killed.<\/p>\n
Hanoi\u2019s air defences fought back with surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft guns and fighters. Vietnam counts 34 B-52s shot down in those twelve days; US records list 15 lost. Whatever the figures, it was the heaviest loss of B-52s in the aircraft\u2019s history, and in Vietnam the battle is remembered as \u201cHanoi \u2013 Dien Bien Phu in the air\u201d, after the 1954 victory over the French. A month later, in January 1973, the Paris Peace Accords were signed.<\/p>\n
According to the plaque beside the lake, the bomber was brought down on the night of 27 December 1972; some historians dispute which aircraft the wreckage came from. What you see is a section of undercarriage and fuselage, mossy and broken, sitting in the water a few metres from the bank. The site was recognised as a national historical relic in the 1990s, and the lake and its banks were cleaned and renovated in 2021\u20132022 for the 50th anniversary.<\/p>\n
It is a quick stop, but a powerful one, especially combined with the B-52 Victory Museum nearby. Many of our city tours stop here, from the 2-hour jeep and scooter highlights tours to the Instagram tour, and your guide will tell the story of those twelve days.<\/p>\n
It is a quick stop \u2013 15 to 30 minutes \u2013 but a powerful one. The wreckage of an American B-52 bomber shot down in December 1972 still sits in the small Huu Tiep Lake, surrounded by homes in the old Ngoc Ha flower village. It is free and visible from the lakeside at any time, and it means much more paired with the nearby B-52 Victory Museum, which tells the story of the twelve days Hanoi calls \u201cDien Bien Phu in the air\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Un peque\u00f1o estanque vecinal en el hist\u00f3rico barrio de Ngoc Ha donde desde diciembre de 1972 descansa el fuselaje destrozado de un bombardero estadounidense B-52: un sobrecogedor memorial vivo de la historia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14,"menu_order":16,"template":"","eta_destination":[9],"class_list":["post-180","eta_place","type-eta_place","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_place\/180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_place"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/eta_place"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_place\/180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"eta_destination","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_destination?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}