April 17, 1954: Our army prepared carefully before attacking strongholds 105 and 206 (Huguette 6.1)

After studying the enemy situation and the training and preparation of our forces, the General Military Commission used Regiment 88 to replace Regiment 165 to destroy position 105, creating conditions to control enemy airspace and further tighten the siege of Muong Thanh airport.

When using the 88th Regiment to destroy position 105 instead of the 165th Regiment, the General Military Commission sent a letter to the comrades in the Command of the 308th and 312th Divisions . The letter analyzed the importance of destroying the 105th stronghold, and requested the commanders of the two divisions to thoroughly inform the officers and soldiers that the task of destroying the 105th stronghold was extremely important and that this change was intended to thoroughly complete the task of destroying the 105th stronghold.

When using the 88th Regiment to replace the 165th Regiment, the General Military Commission emphasized: This position is so important that the General Military Commission decided to ensure a sure victory, the more concise the better. In terms of strength, the 165th Regiment could also destroy the 105th, but because the 165th Regiment had not been reorganized, there were some new recruits who had not been trained, the conditions to ensure a sure victory and concise battle were not really adequate. Therefore, the General Military Commission decided to assign the 88th Regiment the task of defeating the 105th instead of the 165th.

The General Military Commission requested that both Units 88 and 165 must clearly understand the importance of the battle and their tasks in order to carry out the decision of the General Military Commission. Along with that, the General Military Commission requested that the two groups use the art of attacking points and destroying reinforcements to destroy the enemy. Both tasks of attacking points and destroying reinforcements are important; intercepting reinforcements and destroying points will create favorable conditions for the campaign to develop smoothly.

Enemy side:

The enemy used C119 No. 564 to test slow-opening parachutes, American aid products, however the automatic parachute opening system malfunctioned, so some parachutes fell slowly, some fell quickly, causing the aid packages to scatter when they hit the ground.

There were no aircraft to track the drop path of the packages because the drop path of the packages depended on many factors such as the drop height, wind speed, and time of drop. The enemy dropped the parachutes at night and in deserted areas, however, the dry season fog prevented the effectiveness of the parachutes, as the enemy planes were escorted by B.52s.

The enemy had to mobilize two battalions, fighting with us for many hours to open a supply route to bring six boxes of ammunition and several barrels of water to Huguette 6. Faced with that situation, General Langlais went to see Commander De Castries to report the dire situation at Huguette 6.

After listening to the report, De Castries expressed his fatigue from the continuous fighting, his soldiers were being worn out, and his energy was increasingly exhausted. He ordered Bigeard to mobilize all the reserve forces of the stronghold group, the legionnaires, Tourret's shock troops, and at the same time withdraw some legionnaire infantry platoons from other strongholds to open a safe corridor for the soldiers at Huguette 6 to retreat to the Central area.

The soldiers at Huguette 6 were ordered to destroy all bulky, heavy equipment such as radios and large guns within ten minutes. Taking advantage of the fog, the surviving soldiers at Huguette 6 crouched and crawled under the trenches only about 30 meters away from our troops, gradually withdrawing to the southern gate of the fort.

In Saigon, the enemy press and information agencies reported that De Castries had complained about resigning if he was not promoted to general, but De Castries denied this information and affirmed that he had no personal contact with the press before being promoted to general. De Castries' promotion to general at Dien Bien Phu became a matter of world gossip when they learned that De Castries' general rank was dropped by parachute into the hands of our troops.