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This month's Forgotten Battle is...
The Battle of Nà San
The battle of Nà San occurred from November 23 to December 2, of 1952. It was fought between soldiers of the French Army and the Viêt Minh in the Son La province of Vietnam. This battle would be one of high-water marks of the French Army during the first War in Vietnam.
Part I
The First Indochina War began on December 19, 1946. Led by Ho Chi Minh, the League for Independence of Vietnam (or Viet Minh) rose up and began fighting the French Army that was stationed in the country. Due to Ho Chi Minh's ties to communism, the United States sent military aid to the French and attempted to help them contain the rebellion.
In spite of receiving millions of dollars of weapons and aid, the war went very badly for the French. Using special hit and run tactics, the Viet Minh successfully picked off multiple French units. The Viet Minh ambushed many of their supply convoys and seized the weapons for themselves. This in turn, caused many French garrisons to become isolated, surrounded, and eventually annihilated.
In November 1951, the French launched an offensive against the Vietnamese city of Hòa Bình. In spite of inflicting heavy casualties on the Viet Minh, they were forced to retreat after four months of failing to take the city. This defeat coupled with the unexpected death of their commander (Marshal Jean de Tassigny) from cancer, caused morale in the French Army to vastly plummet. By 1952, their situation was becoming desperate.
Part II
After his defensive victory at Hòa Bình, General Võ Nguyên Giáp decided to take the offensive. He ordered four Viet Minh infantry divisions to advance into the Son La Province and drive the French out. Initially, they successfully seized multiple towns and villages in the province and pushed the French further into the countryside.
To counter this, the French commander (General Raoul Salan) launched Operation Lorraine. He moved 30,000 French soldiers and Vietnamese allies to up the Red River to attack the Viet Minh's bases north of Hanoi. Although they managed to capture multiple towns and destroy multiple ammunition caches, their offensive failed to capture or destroy any enemy bases. This also left the French supply lines even more overextended and vulnerable to counter-attack.
While this was happening, the Viet Minh 308th Division began converging on a French air-base in the Nà San Valley. The base was located at the bottom of the valley and enclosed by a 3-mile-wide ring of hills with 16 strongpoints. In command was, Colonel Jean Gilles. Colonel Gilles constructed the base using a "hedgehog defense".
He had arrayed a perimeter of barbed wire around a highly sophisticated trench system. In addition, 12 more strongpoints armed with machine-guns, mortars, and artillery pieces were constructed to act as the inner ring. The garrison numbered over 15,000 men, which consisted of French soldiers, Vietnamese provincials, and elements from the French Foreign Legion (mainly North Africans and Thais). The fighting began on the night of November 23.
Part III
The Viet Minh were able to infiltrate the outer perimeter of Na San. Their first target was Strongpoint 8. This outpost was defended by 110 soldiers of the Foreign Legion. At 8 PM, sentries spotted Viet Minh attempting to sneak through the barbed wire and opened fire. The Viet Minh attacked en masse and managed to break through Strongpoint 8's perimeter. From there, the fighting was hand-to-hand. After a 90 minute fight using bayonets, knives, machetes, and entrenching tools, the legionnaires were able to drive the Viet Minh back (while losing a third of their force). And this was only the beginning
For the next week, the Viet Minh continued to launch a series of hit-and run attacks on the French garrison at Nà San. However, Colonel Gilles's hedgehog defense forced them use frontal assaults which enabled the French to kill many of Viet Minh before they even got to the outside perimeter. To add to this, the French were being constantly reinforced and resupplied by planes landing on the airstrip. On November 30, the Viet Minh decided to launch two direct assaults on Strongpoints 22 and 24.
These two outposts were garrisoned by Thai and Moroccan legionnaires. The fighting began just after 2:30 AM. At Strongpoint 22, the legionnaires held on for three hours before being forced to abandon the outpost. However, they recaptured it less just an hour later. At Strongpoint 24, the garrison successfully repulsed two frontal attacks (which once again, involved hand-to-hand fighting).
Undaunted by his rising casualties and unwilling to accept defeat, General Giap ordered another frontal attack on Nà San. This time, the Viet Minh would target Strongpoints 21 and 26 located on the base's outer perimeter. This attack began around 1:30 AM on the morning of December 2. After bombarding the two outposts with mortars and recoilless rifle fire, the Viet Minh launched a mass frontal attack on Strongpoint 21. They were repulsed with heavy casualties. Their attacks on Strongpoint 26 were met with even heavier losses. Finally, General Giap called off further assaults on Nà San and the Viet Minh withdrew from the area.
Epilogue
The casualties for the Battle of Nà San were quite lopsided. The French suffered 300 killed and 640 wounded. The exact casualties for the Viet Minh are not known, but are believed to be as high as 7,000 total (including more than 1,400 killed). For his heroic and skilled defense of Ná San, Colonel Jean Gilles was promoted to Brigadier General. For the French, the battle of Nà San was a clear tactical victory. Sadly, it was short-lived. In August of 1953, their commanders decided to abandon the base at Nà San and move to another valley called, Diên Biên Phu.
In spite of his humiliating defeat at Nà San, General Giap learned from his mistakes and changed some of his tactics. In 1954, his forces surrounded and attacked the French base in Diên Biên Phu. After a 56 day siege, the French surrendered and the First Indochina War was over.
http://foreignlegion.info/1952-battle-of-na-san/
https://www.historynet.com/deluge-of-fire-the-battle-of-na-san-1952/
https://time.com/archive/6885173/battle-of-indo-china-siege-of-nasan/
I remember a lot of people saying when the US went into Viet Nam that the French couldn't win what makes us think we could. I guess thinking we had more equipment that turned out to be not much use in the swamps. What a tragedy that turned out to be just honoring our lost and dead with the Wall. Let's not do this again. War is not good for people and other living things. Thank you for this posting.
ReplyDeleteTerrific article!
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