Dien Bien Phu Campaign: On April 22, 1954, we destroyed stronghold 206 using encroachment tactics, the enemy's last stronghold located close to the airport in the West. Our troops completely controlled the airport.
On our side: At 10 p.m. on April 22, 1954, the 36th Regiment ordered small units to attack the stronghold and capture some bunkers at the bridgehead. The number of howitzer shells used for support was the same as every night, 20. But when the howitzer had just fired its 13th round, the assault force requested an immediate stop. Three attack prongs simultaneously emerged from the ground, placing explosives to destroy three bunkers at the bridgehead.
The enemy soldiers here were terrified when they saw soldiers wearing conical hats and holding guns with bayonets appear in the middle of the fort, they could only raise their hands and surrender. Not missing the precious opportunity, all three forces attacked the enemy command post. 15 minutes later, Regiment 36 sent two more platoons into the fort. In less than an hour, our troops completely controlled the 206 stronghold. Most of the 177 legionnaires defending the position were captured alive.
On April 22, 1954, stronghold 206, part of the outer defense line protecting the central area of the stronghold and Muong Thanh airport, was destroyed by our army. The surviving enemy soldiers raised their hands and surrendered. Photo: VNA
Our troops destroyed an important position defended by a formidable legionnaire unit, with negligible losses. Hearing the prisoners report that the base commander was killed in action and that the radio had been damaged by the first artillery barrage, the 36th Regiment Commander ordered the troops to use the heavy machine guns in the enemy base, occasionally firing salvos outside as they did every night. The enemy troops at Muong Thanh were reassured, thinking that nothing had happened to base 206, while our troops collected the spoils of war.
The battle to capture base 206 was completed and truly confirmed the success of the tactic called "encroachment", which began when we destroyed bases 106 and 105 in the Huguette resistance center protecting the airport.
Once again, we see more clearly the great effect of the traditional small-scale fighting, demonstrating the intelligence, creativity, and initiative of the soldiers born from the fields, sticking to the land and villages to fight throughout the war. The death of the 206 stronghold before it could even cry out shocked the enemy in Dien Bien Phu. From that moment on, every time our trenches approached, the enemy in the stronghold no longer saw this as a threat, but as death itself, an unannounced death, appearing from underground.
One of the 62 French planes shot down by our air defense force, burning in the sky of Dien Bien Phu. Photo: VNA
On the enemy side: In the book "We were in Dien Bien Phu", Jean Pouget, Navarre's personal secretary, in the final stage of volunteering to parachute into Dien Bien Phu, recounted:
...On April 22, the 4th Company of the 13th Foreign Legion Half-Brigade arrived at the 206 stronghold for 4 days and nights, replacing the company of the 2nd Foreign Legion Regiment. Since the previous day, many supplies and reinforcements from the command post were only about 100m away from the 206 stronghold, but they could not overcome the blockade of the Viet Minh. At 2:30 a.m. on April 23, the radio communication from the command post to the 206 stronghold suddenly stopped. It was not until dawn, when a surviving legionnaire from the 206 stronghold ran back to the command post to report, that everyone knew that the 206 stronghold had been captured.
De Castries personally questioned this legionnaire. He reported that the stronghold had fallen not in the usual way of a raid, but because the Viet Minh had dug tunnels under the fences and defensive structures, right into the center of the stronghold. At exactly midnight, the ground in the stronghold suddenly collapsed everywhere. The soldiers in the stronghold were paralyzed in place. Captain Sovalie quickly jumped onto the roof of the tunnel, commanding about 10 legionnaires to fight back. But then, the Captain himself gradually sank as if standing on sinking sand, amidst a crowd of small-sized soldiers rushing in from all directions.
THANH VINH/qdnd.vn
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