Saint Barthélémy is the code name that must inform French units
of a sudden Japanese attack. In the cities and the main agglomerations, the surprise will play more or less often according to quite unpredictable factors.
If Saigon is quickly overwhelmed, some garrisons in Cochinchina will defend themselves vigorously (Thudaumot, northeast of Saigon, Lai Vung, on the Bassac).
The reaction in Hanoi is quite remarkable. The citadel constitutes a closed complex and a fairly large proportion of the troops are present in the barracks, given the late hour at which the end of alert signal was broadcast. Under the impetus of Lieutenant-Colonels Cadoux and d'Argence, the resistance was quickly organized. Buildings are defended one by one, floor by floor. At one against ten the fights will last forty-four hours. The Japanese, who suffered severe losses, returned military honors to the survivors, including 300 wounded.
"As if they wanted to see the French expelled from Indochina"
The resistance of the other barracks, or cantonments, is diverse. The Ferrie barracks where the central transmissions are located after having repelled several attacks, will not succumb until the 10th, around 5 am. A detachment of D.C.A., totally isolated, will fight until 11 p.m. before disappearing in the night on the banks of the Red River. His men deemed unfit to walk and versed, for this reason, in the D.C.A. will also join China after two months of displacement on foot through northern Laos.
Hadong (10 kilometers south of Hanoi) will resist more than forty-eight hours to Japanese attacks.
In Hue, the attack only starting around 10 p.m., the surprise does not play, the alert having been given by Hanoi. The attackers will have to bring in their artillery and their air force to reduce, after more than forty-eight hours of fighting, the 2nd battalion of the 10th R.M.I.C. (mixed regiment of colonial infantry), which will manage to make the personnel escape. They will constitute, with the support of civilians, two groups of guerrillas. These groups - about 250 French and natives after having tried in vain to join the mountain battalion of Kontum, will rally the Atouat massif (southwest of Hué). Without safe supplies and without medicine, after days of exhausting walking in the stifling forest of the Annamite range, after ambushes and fights, they will end up succumbing, one in Ban Chavanne - 50 kilometers to the south- east of Saravane, June 3, another dispersed, a few days later, also near Saravane.
In Vinh, the resistance of the garrison (one company) allows the exit of a small group which will be destroyed by the Japanese from March 24.
In Cochinchina, Cambodia, Annam, almost everywhere, small groups are still trying to escape the Japanese embrace by "taking the bush". Ill-armed, ill-equipped, insufficiently trained, with no connection between themselves or with the outside world, often without money, without food, without medicines and unable to be supplied, they are condemned to surrender... or to death. Many of these men, soldiers or civilians, will succumb, overcome by the climate and the disease because the Indochinese bush does not forgive those who face it unarmed. Malaria is rampant everywhere as well as amoebiasis, which kill and immobilize, in a few days, the most robust man. Sylvan leeches and “boumacs” (tiny biting insects) cause purulent sores on the legs that can only heal with meticulous and very long care. Some groups, however, will survive, such as that of the Tortel brothers (in Cochinchina), which will be massacred, after the Japanese defeat, by the Vietminh. (Calcutta) will often be exhausted while waiting for the savior parachute drop. The British are making conscientious efforts, but great is the difficulty of spotting a small group despite the smoke from the beacons. There are also the unforeseen:bad local weather conditions, widespread bush fires, unexpected Japanese hunting patrol. Often working at the limits of their aircraft's capabilities, R.A.F. cannot spend a lot of time looking for the D.Z. (dropping zones) rudimentary, even taking the greatest risks. If the Americans, for their part, carry out some missions (especially ground support), it seems that they are due to the sole initiative of the commander of the 14th U.S.A.F., General Chennault, the former "Flying Tigers ":these missions will cease quickly, on the orders of Washington, and Chennault, in his Memoirs, will be able to write that everything seems to have happened as if "the government of the United States wanted to see the French expelled from Indochina so that their separation from 'with their colony was made easier...' The aircraft loaded with arms, ammunition, food and medicine intended for the Indochinese Resistance will remain on the ground after March 9, pending instructions. from Washington, who will not come.