Dien Bien Phu Campaign: On April 16, 1954, north of the airport, the battlefield of Regiment 165 of Division 312 had reached the 105th stronghold on all four sides, in some places only about 15m from the outermost fence.
On the enemy side: From the night of April 15, when our trenches were close to the fourth fence, De Castries quickly sent infantry and tanks to counterattack. The fierce fighting lasted all day on April 16. In the following four days, the enemy organized eight more counterattacks but were repelled by the 141st Regiment.
At 4:00 a.m. on April 16, two legionary companies took advantage of the darkness, our troops were about to return to rest, divided into two groups to break into the trenches of Company 54. A group of enemy troops approached the company command position. The company promptly ordered the platoons to quickly disperse to both sides, using 60mm mortars and machine guns to fire at the enemy troops, our troops divided into two groups to attack back. A platoon in the rear heard the gunshots and immediately rushed out to reinforce. A sniper team also ran to coordinate the attack on the enemy. The enemy troops who were busy defending in the front were suddenly attacked from the flank. Afraid of getting stuck in the mud, they panicked and retreated to their base, leaving dozens of corpses on the battlefield. Company 54, from being suddenly attacked, but thanks to calm handling, flexible forces and proactive coordination to support each other, turned from passive to active, launched a counterattack, attacked from three sides and won a resounding victory.
Our troops divided into many groups, penetrating deep to destroy enemy bases in Dien Bien Phu. Photo: Document
On our side: On April 16, General Vo Nguyen Giap - Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People's Army issued a secret order to the 308th Division Command and comrades Vu, Quoc, and Khanh.
On the same day, many delegations of officers from the Front Command went to the divisions and regiments to inspect, urge and help the units to strengthen the digging of traffic tunnels to approach the remaining bases, promote the sniper movement, and seize the enemy's parachute supplies.
The enemy's southern sector was relatively small, our trenches were close, the area was even narrower and located at the end of the field, the enemy planes flew at slow speed and only had a few seconds to drop parachutes, so the goods often fell outside the target. The 57th Regiment captured quite a lot of parachute supplies, some days they captured over three tons of various goods. The trenches on our battlefield were full of food, canned goods, and ammunition.
Meanwhile, north of the airport, the 165th Regiment of the 312th Division's positions had reached the 105th stronghold on all four sides, in some places only about 15m from the outermost fence. Our troops brought recoilless rifles to the edge of the trench, successively shooting down 15 outer gun emplacements. The enemy soldiers in the 105th stronghold were tightly surrounded and completely cut off from communication with the surrounding strongholds. The soldiers in the stronghold were completely trapped, without supplies, without drinking water, any soldier who poked his head out of the trench was eliminated by our sniper teams.
In coordination with the Dien Bien Phu front, in the Northern Delta, our troops intercepted and destroyed 300 enemy soldiers who were conducting a sweep in the Duyen Ha area (Thai Binh).
THANH VINH/qdnd.vn
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