The night of March 30, after heavy artillery preparation and the explosion of a mine under Eliane, the 312th and 316th Div. attacked the five hills which constituted the positions of “Dominique” and “Eliane”. The fight that followed lasted four days, during which there followed, in an uninterrupted
The loss after just six hours of a position held by the Legion galvanized the French general staff in Hanoi. On the 14th, the 5th Bn. Para Vietnamese was dropped to reinforce the garrison. On the evening of the same day, at 6:00 p.m., the bombardment of the Gabrielle strongpoint, occupied by Algeria
Operation Castor began on November 20, 1953 with the dropping of the 1st, 2nd and 6th Bns. colonials on the old airfield. Reinforced by two Bns. Equipped with 75 mm recoilless guns and a platoon of 81 mm mortars, they attacked the two Companies. Viet-minh who were there during training. In addition
Once again, the surprise paid off. It was very hot, and the enemy units werent guarding. The Companies. local and provincial fled, and only the depot guard detachment put up any resistance until air support was brought in. During the battle for the depots, the Viet Minh lost 5 prisoners and 21 confi
Paratroopers were only to carry their personal weapons; accordingly air support had been carefully prepared. From H — 15 minutes to H, fighters were to attack all enemy posts that could be located by aerial photography of the drop zones. From H to H + one hour, the dropping and regrouping operations
The airborne group, commanded by Colonel Ducourneau (the same as at Phu Doan) consisted of a staff, 6th and 8th Bns. colonials and the 2nd Bn. of the Foreign Legion. In addition there was a Sn. of Gn. which had 14 inflatable assault boats. The ground forces included three Bns. and two commandos, a f
During the subsequent cleanup, the French discovered and destroyed deposits arms and food. On November 16, after a week of marches and fighting, the paratroopers were evacuated by truck to Hanoi. However, the Viet Minh was quick to react, and an ambush set up by two Régts. intercepted elements of th
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 Doa
In the early days of the conflict, the main troop transport aircraft and liaison used by the French were German surpluses from World War II. Junkers Ju 52s and Fieseler Storchs fought in the fogs of North Vietnam or landed on hard-packed mud tracks in the delta, but they were later replaced by Ameri
The French presence was maintained in Indochina during the war, but in 1945 the Japanese got rid of the last Europeans, both civilians and soldiers, who were executed or imprisoned. At the end of the hostilities, the Chinese Nationalists and the British took possession of the country, the Chinese oc
The large number of initial successes achieved by airborne forces in Indochina had persuaded the French in 1953 that the Viet Minh could be forced to fight following the placement by air of a bait in an area it needed, and that it could then be destroyed by a battle of attrition. On the contrary, th
Hải Phòng has been an important port city for several centuries:it was one of the trading centers of Tonkin. The French nicknamed it the “Venice of Tonkin”. After the French conquest, it became the main French naval base in Indochina. The grand hotel of the time, the Hôtel du Commerce, rue Paul-Ber
The appeasement, which seemed to have followed the Haiphong affair, was only a facade; attacks followed attacks, every night barricades arose, part of the Indochinese population, out of fear or by order, fled Hanoi, which seemed half-deserted. Everything indicated that a general uprising was prepari
The failure was already more than foreseeable when the news reached Paris that a federal conference had precisely been convened, on August 1, in Dalat, by Admiral Thierry dArgenlieu for the purpose of determining the position which would occupy in the Indochinese Federation, not only Cambodia and La
Ho Chi Minh, for his part, arrived on June 12 in France , where he was invited and where he was welcomed as Head of State. We could hope for everything from this trip. Alas! when the president of the provisional government of the R.D.V.N. set foot in France, our country had not yet decided on its In
After ten months of secret discussions, under the constant threat of a general massacre of the French, discussions which had the most diverse fortunes and all the alternatives of hope and discouragement, were signed by him and me, on March 6, 1946, the Franco-Vietnamese agreements whose essential li
It is this state of mind that will soon allow me to start the Franco-Vietnamese talks which were to lead, on March 6, 1946, to the agreement which sanctioned an agreement in principle between the French and the Vietnamese, henceforth rendering the presence of Chinese units on Tonkinese soil pointles
If, at the solemn surrender of Japan, on September 2, in Tokyo Bay, Leclercre represented France aboard the Missouri. the same day, in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independence of Vietnam. North of the 16th parallel, France remained ignored, and the place at the local surrender ceremony for the
As soon as we landed in Hanoi my four collaborators and I -even have been taken prisoner by the Japanese, without our American companions making a move to oppose the capture, by a common enemy who has been capitulating for a week, of Allied officers with whom they have been collaborating for several
On August 6, Hiroshima, and on August 9, Nagasaki were destroyed by the first American atomic bombs, without France having really had it. time to define its Indochinese policy and prepare for it. It was only on August 17, under the pressure of events, three days after the Japanese capitulation, that
Other French temples such as Reims Cathedral (centuries XIII-XIV), burned down as a result of the German bombardment on September 19, 1914, receiving 288 hits until the end of the war, it was rebuilt between 1919 and 1938; the cathedral of Amiens (13th-14th centuries) was also hit, albeit slightly,
The Battle of Foksani is one of the most important of the Austrian and Russian war against the Turks. The war began as a Russo-Turkish war in 1787, but the following year the Habsburg Empire joined Russia on the side. In the mid-summer of 1789 a small Austrian army under the worthy general Princ
“Love conquers all; let us give in to love.” This beautiful phrase belongs to one of the most popular literary works of the fifteenth century, a true best seller of that time of change that was the transition from the Late Middle Ages to the Renaissance. I mean Story of duobus amantibus or A story o
The heavy cruiser Blücher was the second of a planned 5 Hipper class ships, of which 3 were built. It was named after the great Prussian marshal of the Napoleonic Wars of the same name. The vessel began construction in 1936 and was launched in 1937. She was ready in September 1939 and entered servic