Sayeret
10-02-2004, 07:31 PM
It is clear that the French were defeated by the Viet Minh, and it is usual to attribute this to several factors - poor support for the war from France, an overstretched CEFEO, supplies of equipment from Communist China (and, at points, the USA!) to the insurgents, the impossibility of fighting an elusive opponent in difficult terrain...But what were the actual tactics and stratagems used by the VM in their fight against the French? This is an attempt to answer that question.
Every Communist must grasp the truth, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
Mao Zedong, "Problems of War and Strategy" (November 6, 1938)
Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 224.
As in later years, the Vietnamese guerrillas made use of dud shells and captured munitions to make ad-hoc explosive charges, "Bangalore Torpedoes" (tubes of bamboo filled with gunpowder and inserted into barbed wire or other barricades - when ignited these would clear a path through which troops could pass), mines, bombs, etc. These could be rigged to trip-wires across paths, or attached to roadblocks. If these were discovered prior to explosion then engineers would be called in to clear the mines or charges (sometimes only to find that they were dummies), but the convoy/unit was held up whilst this was being carried out.
For More (http://members.lycos.co.uk/Indochine/vm/vietminh.html)
Every Communist must grasp the truth, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
Mao Zedong, "Problems of War and Strategy" (November 6, 1938)
Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 224.
As in later years, the Vietnamese guerrillas made use of dud shells and captured munitions to make ad-hoc explosive charges, "Bangalore Torpedoes" (tubes of bamboo filled with gunpowder and inserted into barbed wire or other barricades - when ignited these would clear a path through which troops could pass), mines, bombs, etc. These could be rigged to trip-wires across paths, or attached to roadblocks. If these were discovered prior to explosion then engineers would be called in to clear the mines or charges (sometimes only to find that they were dummies), but the convoy/unit was held up whilst this was being carried out.
For More (http://members.lycos.co.uk/Indochine/vm/vietminh.html)