Dien Bien Phu was the culminating battle of the First Indochina War. Dien Bien Phu covered 5 kilometers and contained eight separate camps; all named after French General Christian de Castries 8 mistresses. The camps are as follows: Huguette, Dominique, Claudine, Eliane , Gabrielle, Anne- Marie, Beatrice, and Isabelle. On March 13, 1954 @ approximately 5:00 PM, the Viet Minh general Giap fully opened battle on one of the nine camps, Beatrice. With their armed forces highly trained, Beatrice fell quickly in a barrage of artillery. The French counter attack failed and their airstrip, which is the only means to receive supplies since Dien Bien Phu was isolated, was disabled forcing supplies to come in by parachute. Camp Gabrielle was the next to go, in a long overnight battle. With help of the T’ai (minority group loyal to the French), Castries’ thought Anne-Marie would thrive in a battle. However, to much disappointment, the Viet Minh convinced the T’ai to leave/surrender. This left Anne-Marie open for the taking. After Anne- Marie was taken by the Viet Minh, de Castries gave up giving his Colonel Pierre Langlais no choice but to take command. Langlais never stood a chance with Giap tightening forces around Isabelle, cutting it off from the rest of the camps on March 30th. With Isabelle taken, the path to go directly to Dominique and Eliane was open. However, upon arrival of Giap’s troops, they were met with concentrated artillery fire from the French. This started a raging fight through April 5th, with huge losses on both sides. Giap attempted to isolate each French position and called in reinforcements from Laos. While all French forces focused on the raging fight in Dominique and Eliane, Giap’s forces penetrated Huguette and conquered 90% of the French’s airstrip. With the airstrip now “owned” by the Viet Minh, resupply was next to impossible. This allowed Giap to renew his forces and defeat the French resistance by night of May 7th. AFTERMATH: French lost 2,293 lives, 5,196 wounded, and 10,998 captured. The Viet Minh casualties were estimated at 23,000. The defeat of the French marked the end of the first Indochina War.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:16:04 +0000
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