The Battle of Dien Bien Phu
The battle that ended the French presence in Indochina started in November 1953. It started when the Viet Minh forces moved to attack Lai Chau, which was the capital of the T’ai Federation. This place was also loyal to the French. General Henri Navarre was the French commander in chief in Indochina. He came out to help his allies because he thought that the T’ai “maquis” was a threat in the Viet Minh and he wanted to stop a Viet Minh sweep into Laos. On November 20th, General Navarre launched operation Castor by dropping parachute troops on the valley of Dien Bien Phu. This was made into a defensive perimeter with a total of eight strong points that were placed around an airstrip. The T’ais tried to march out of Lai chau for Dien Bien Phu in December 1953. They were badly attacked by the Viet Minh forces.
Vo Nguyen Giap was the commander of the Viet Minh. With some Chinese aid Commander Giap massed his troops and placed artillery in mountain that were overseeing the French camp. General Giap launched an enormous attack on a strong point named Beatrice on March 13th, 1954. Strong point Beatrice fell in a couple of hours and strong points Gabrielle and Anne-Marie were taken over in the next couple of days, which stopped the French from having access to their own airfield. This act reduced the number of airdrops, reinforcements and supplies to the French. The French were also unable to evacuate their wounded soldiers and were also under constant bombardment. The French camps morale began to run low. The monsoons started turning the camps into a bog (swamp). Around four thousand French soldiers deserted by the siege in May. They retreated to caves near the Nam Yum River, which traversed the camp. They only came out to steal supplies dropped for the defenders. The French became POWs when the garrison surrendered on 7th of May.
Despite the early victories, Commander Giap’s offensives sputtered out