Dien Bien Phu: On April 11, only sporadic fighting took place. Both the enemy and our troops had to put all their efforts into consolidating their foothold on the hill, bombs and bullets had destroyed all the fighting positions as well as hiding places.
On the enemy side: To destroy our anti-aircraft artillery positions and communication trenches that were gradually approaching the bases, the enemy used many groups of planes to take turns bombing and shelling day and night.
On our side: General Vo Nguyen Giap - Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People's Army sent a letter to officers and soldiers of Regiment 9.
In his memoir “Dien Bien Phu - Historical Rendezvous”, General and Commander-in-Chief Vo Nguyen Giap wrote: On April 11, only sporadic fighting took place. Both the enemy and our troops had to concentrate all their efforts on consolidating their foothold on the hill where bombs and bullets had destroyed all the fighting positions and hiding places. The enemy had to send the third company of the 2nd Airborne Foreign Legion Battalion, which had just arrived in Muong Thanh, to replace the exhausted fighting force that had fought all night.
Our soldiers dig trenches on the Dien Bien Phu battlefield. Photo: Archive
The 98th Regiment, which was tasked with defending C1, was reinforced by the 888th Battalion of the 176th Regiment. This battalion had previously specialized in small bandit duties and had repeatedly caused difficulties for the airborne battalions on Pu San peak at the beginning of the campaign.
On the afternoon of April 11, Company 811, Battalion 888, commanded by Captain Le Van Dy, was sent to defend C1 in place of the units that had been fighting for two days and had retreated to the rear. The newcomers were horrified by the stench of decomposing bodies and the dense black swarms of flies. These corpses were either blackened or rotten, but they had very durable clothes and bulletproof vests, and they had no choice but to move elsewhere. The tight masks could not prevent the smell of pollution from seeping into the ground, clinging to their clothes and bodies. They had to build trenches, gun emplacements, and bunkers, and then use barbed wire and enemy mines to mark the boundary between us and the enemy.
A moment of rest for soldiers between two battles. Despite the hardships and fierceness, our officers and soldiers are always optimistic and love life. The letters read to their comrades in the trenches are a source of strong morale encouragement, giving soldiers the strength to overcome difficulties and fight. Photo: Document/VNA
The battle of April 10 and 11 was Bigeard's last major counterattack on the eastern hills. The enemy was forced to take turns sending each company to defend the inner part of the hill. We and the enemy knew each other too well, and accepted the temporary status quo. Occasionally there were grenades, machine gun fire back and forth, flamethrowers, and lightning raids.
The commander of the Vu Lang regiment visited the battlefield and was surprised to see that on the hill that had been deformed by bombs and shells, 20 meters away from the enemy, our soldiers were still living a decent life in tents lined with canvas, reading books, but the smell of pollution could not be overcome. The 811th Company organized a defense at C1 for twenty consecutive days, until we completely destroyed this stronghold at the end of April.
THANH VINH/qdnd.vn
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