David Lehmann
06-01-2004, 05:43 PM
Hello,
When you talk about French Indochina, you don't just talk about south Vietnam but : Annam, Cochinchina, Tonkin, Cambodia, Laos and a part of the Chinese territorry that is called Kouang-Tchéou-Wan. The French Expeditionnary Corps was rather weak (using also old Japanese equipments and German weapons) and at the beginning in 1945/1946 when Leclerc was in charge everything went well, he negociated with Ho Chi Minh about Hanoï etc. but the politicians didn't saw things like him. The US OSS provided weapons to the Viet-Minh at the beginning because the US was not in favor of a French empire but that's not the issue. In Dien Bien Phu we desperately waited for the support of B29 bombers to help the surrounded camp. The only support was totally secret and made to support Dien Bien Phu during its 170 days of existence : US pilots for mixed crews from the CAT flying C119 "flying boxcar" - make for example a research about James Bernard Mac Govern "Mac Goon", KIA the 6th May 1954 over Dien Bien Phu or Wallace Abbot Buford - (US and French worked well together and made tests, for the first time a 5t bulldozer has been parachuted), providing of some napalm and "lazy dog" bombs that were never used in Korea, selling of a group of old partially wrecked Corsair and B26 because the French CEFEO lacked planes (also several losses during the CAS and supply missions because the AA defenses were comparable to the one of the Ruhr during WWII). Several US military died and 5 of them were captured by the Vietnamese. This support remained for long secret and only in May 1987 a memorial has been built in Dallas (Texas) for CAT/Air America - you probably can check this - with the mention : China, Korea, Dien Bien Phu, Laos, Saigon.
In Dien Bien Phu 15000 French were outnumbered by 100000 regular vietnamese organised in soviet type divisisions (3 infantry regiments and 1 artillery regiment) and 30000 chinese soldiers. The Russian and Chinese support was huge with more than 1000 2.5t molotova trucks, weapons, munitions, equipment and supply, and all the AA and artillery pieces were provided by the Chinese (36x 57mm guns, 48x 75mm guns, 48x 105mm guns (US guns captured in Korea), 48x 120mm mortars and numerous 37mm and .50 AA guns). The 30000 chinese engineers/sappers constructed fortifications, underground artillery emplacements, roads, trenches and supported the vietnamese. The Chinese also provided many signals and signal warfare equipments. Chinese officers assumed the direction and logistic in all the vietnamese divisions and general Giap was seconded by the chinese general Ly Chen Hon. In Dien Bien Phu there were about 5000 French KIA and among the survivors 60-70% died in the communist's "education" (retaliation) camps. The communists sustained about 20000 KIA + 20000 WIA.
Regards,
David
When you talk about French Indochina, you don't just talk about south Vietnam but : Annam, Cochinchina, Tonkin, Cambodia, Laos and a part of the Chinese territorry that is called Kouang-Tchéou-Wan. The French Expeditionnary Corps was rather weak (using also old Japanese equipments and German weapons) and at the beginning in 1945/1946 when Leclerc was in charge everything went well, he negociated with Ho Chi Minh about Hanoï etc. but the politicians didn't saw things like him. The US OSS provided weapons to the Viet-Minh at the beginning because the US was not in favor of a French empire but that's not the issue. In Dien Bien Phu we desperately waited for the support of B29 bombers to help the surrounded camp. The only support was totally secret and made to support Dien Bien Phu during its 170 days of existence : US pilots for mixed crews from the CAT flying C119 "flying boxcar" - make for example a research about James Bernard Mac Govern "Mac Goon", KIA the 6th May 1954 over Dien Bien Phu or Wallace Abbot Buford - (US and French worked well together and made tests, for the first time a 5t bulldozer has been parachuted), providing of some napalm and "lazy dog" bombs that were never used in Korea, selling of a group of old partially wrecked Corsair and B26 because the French CEFEO lacked planes (also several losses during the CAS and supply missions because the AA defenses were comparable to the one of the Ruhr during WWII). Several US military died and 5 of them were captured by the Vietnamese. This support remained for long secret and only in May 1987 a memorial has been built in Dallas (Texas) for CAT/Air America - you probably can check this - with the mention : China, Korea, Dien Bien Phu, Laos, Saigon.
In Dien Bien Phu 15000 French were outnumbered by 100000 regular vietnamese organised in soviet type divisisions (3 infantry regiments and 1 artillery regiment) and 30000 chinese soldiers. The Russian and Chinese support was huge with more than 1000 2.5t molotova trucks, weapons, munitions, equipment and supply, and all the AA and artillery pieces were provided by the Chinese (36x 57mm guns, 48x 75mm guns, 48x 105mm guns (US guns captured in Korea), 48x 120mm mortars and numerous 37mm and .50 AA guns). The 30000 chinese engineers/sappers constructed fortifications, underground artillery emplacements, roads, trenches and supported the vietnamese. The Chinese also provided many signals and signal warfare equipments. Chinese officers assumed the direction and logistic in all the vietnamese divisions and general Giap was seconded by the chinese general Ly Chen Hon. In Dien Bien Phu there were about 5000 French KIA and among the survivors 60-70% died in the communist's "education" (retaliation) camps. The communists sustained about 20000 KIA + 20000 WIA.
Regards,
David