Ideally, the French would have liked to capture Yen Bai, but once again there were not enough troops or aircraft available. The objective became Phu Doan and the code name for the operation "Lorraine".
In October, an attack carried out by infantry and armor brought the French to within 30 km of Phu Doan , and the airborne operation would have allowed the destruction of the deposits on both banks of the Sông Chay (sông is the Annamese word for "river").
The paratroopers were to jump on the morning of November 9, seize the bridge over the river and then destroy the depots. A relief column of armor and infantry was to set out during the night of the 8th and after these two forces had made contact they were to, with all available means, clear the area for several days before retreating towards Viet Tri.
In the region, the Viet Minh had the basic elements of its 308th and 312th Div. (about 400 men) with two Bns. of the 316th Div. and a number of 120mm mortars and 105mm howitzers.
The Gpt. airborne, under the command of Colonel Ducourneau, consisted of a general staff and three Bns., the 1st and 2nd of the Foreign Legion and the 3rd Bn. colonial paratroopers, two Sns. each of three 75 mm recoilless guns, from a section of the Gn. with assault boats and a destruction team. They were to be transported by 53 C-47s, which were to make two trips in one day from two airfields near Hanoi.
Two Bns. were to jump at 09:30, one of them with the staff, on a drop zone located north of the river. The choice of this area had not been very happy:1,400 m long and 220 m wide, it was covered with bushes and very large reeds which concealed a hard and very uneven ground. The southern drop zone was 1,000 m by 400 m and was formed by rice fields. Fighters were tasked with neutralizing surrounding villages and B-26 Martin bombers flying over the area throughout the operation. At 2:30 p.m. a Bn. had to jump from an altitude of 200 m on the northern drop zone. It was planned to mark the two drop zones with smoke bombs dropped by a light aircraft about three minutes before the arrival of the C-47s.
The operation was successful. The bridgehead was taken by 2-354 paratroopers whose only losses were 7 killed and 16 wounded who were evacuated by helicopter on the 10th. Some groups of Viet-minh were attacked by fighters on the southern drop zone. Around 5:00 p.m. contact was established with the ground forces, which then took the direction of the whole area for the purpose of cleaning and destruction operations.
The French seized 34 mortars, 30 anti-tank rockets, 40 machine guns, 40 submachine guns, 250 rifles and two 57 mm recoilless guns. An interesting take was that of a truck which, instead of being of French origin like other Viet Minh vehicles, turned out to be a Soviet Molotova.