Battle of Bạch Đằng (1288)
Đại Việt destroys the retreating Yuan fleet at Bạch Đằng
View full image ↗ How was this image made?
The creative brief sent to the image model. These are instructions, not a record of what actually happened.
Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Tidal reconstruction puts the water near 3.2 metres after midnight and only about 0.9 metres around noon.
9 April 1288, in the estuary
Early on 9 April 1288, the Yuan naval column commanded by Ô Mã Nhi and Phàn Tiếp entered the Bạch Đằng estuary while retreating toward the sea from Đại Việt.
Forces under Prince Trần Quốc Tuấn — better known as Trần Hưng Đạo — feigned retreat at high water and drew the Yuan vessels into a prepared system of concealed wooden stakes, iron chains, shoreline ambushes and incendiary craft.
Reconstructed water levels put the tide at about 3.2 metres between midnight and 2 a.m., and about 0.9 metres around midday.
The tide goes out
As the tide ebbed, Đại Việt forces counterattacked from the river and both banks. Deep-draft Yuan ships became trapped or immobilised, their formation broke apart, and fire attacks and close fighting continued through the day.
The reconstructed span of major fighting runs from roughly five in the morning until seven in the evening.
The trap was more than a row of stakes: scholarship describes stake fields, chains, riverbank troops, naval formations, fire craft, and control of the tributaries and escape routes.
By evening
By evening the Yuan fleet had been largely destroyed or captured. Ô Mã Nhi, Phàn Tiếp and other commanders were taken alive, while remnants attempting to escape across Hà Nam Island were pursued and destroyed.
About 400 warships were reported captured out of an estimated 500 in the retreating force — an annalistic figure supported by later studies, not a modern physical count. Archaeology has identified multiple stake fields, but no wrecks from the battle.
The defeat ended the naval withdrawal as an organised force and left Toghon's separate land army to flee north in disorder.
Sources
- Trần Đức Thạnh et al., “The Bạch Đằng Naval Battle in 1288: A Perspective of Military Geoscience”
- Le Thi Lien et al., “Understanding the Bach Dang Battlefield from Recent Research Results”
- Institute of Nautical Archaeology, “Battle of Bạch Đằng Research Project”
- Kathlene Baldanza, “A Brief History of Annan,” in Ming China and Vietnam
Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited
How this was checked
Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →
What the sources leave uncertain
- The date corresponds to the eighth day of the third lunar month in the Vietnamese annalistic tradition, conventionally converted to 9 April 1288.
- The approximately 400 captured ships is an annalistic figure supported by later historical studies, not a modern physical count.
- Archaeology has identified multiple stake fields associated with the battlefield, but researchers have not yet identified wrecks from the battle.
- Exact troop and casualty totals vary drastically among sources and should not be stated as settled.
Checked against
- Trần Đức Thạnh et al., “The Bạch Đằng Naval Battle in 1288: A Perspective of Military Geoscience”
- Le Thi Lien et al., “Understanding the Bach Dang Battlefield from Recent Research Results”
- Institute of Nautical Archaeology, “Battle of Bạch Đằng Research Project”
- Kathlene Baldanza, “A Brief History of Annan,” in Ming China and Vietnam
- Vietnam National Museum of History, “Kỷ niệm 726 năm Chiến thắng quân Nguyên-Mông lần thứ 3”