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GOING BACK TO PLACES THAT I HAVE NEVER BEEN
Being a Field Guide to Hanoi and Dien Bien Phu for Historians, Wargamers and the More Discerning Type of Tourist
by Peter Hunt
Part Three: West of the River and Beyond
The
Bailey bridge across the
The Bailey Bridge and Quad.50
On
the western side of the bridge are two things to note.
On the southern side is a marker commemorating the first Viet Minh
unit to get across. Translated
it says:- “At
The
jubilation that those men must have felt after the months of siege can only
be imagined. On the north side
is one of the reasons that the Viet Minh took so long to get there: the
remnants of a quad .50 calibre machine gun. There were four of these weapons
at Dien Bien Phu, two placed further north of the bridge on
“Sparrowhawk” and two placed further south on “Juno”, so how this
one got to the end of the bridge is anyone’s guess.
It was probably moved after the battle but it might have been moved
in the last few days of combat. The
quad 50s kept firing up to the last day.
There was no shortage of ammunition, even for their prodigious
appetites, and, unlike the tube artillery they had no recoil hydraulics
vulnerable to near misses from Viet Minh shellfire.
If
you want to scratch-build a quad 50 Raventhorpe make the upper body as a
conversion for half-tracks. The
lower body is easy to knock up with a couple of aircraft wheels.
Cut up electrical wire provides you with the heaps of brass cartridge
cases strewn around that were the hallmarks of these weapons in action. Claudine
At
the western end of bridge there is now a row of soup and coffee shacks.
At the crossroads beyond them is where the hospital was.
By the end of the battle this had been extended all the way to De
Castries bunker. To understand
the horrors and heroism that went on beneath your feet, (for the hospital
was mostly underground,) Major Grauwin’s “Doctor at At
the road junction a “Bison” Chaffee tank and pile of aircraft wreckage
stand mute testimony to the French defeat.
Turn left and you come to that defeats most memorable visible symbol
~ De Castries’ Command bunker, immortalised forever by the image of that
Viet Minh soldier waving the gold star and red flag of the new A
small entrance fee gets you into the bunker, which has been preserved with
concrete sand bags, but the layout, the corrugated steel roof and the
pierced steel plates inside, that were originally used on the French
airstrip, are authentic. The
place is cool even on the hottest days but the gloom and the knowledge of
what went on down there leaves you in little mood to tarry.
There has been no attempt to turn it into a museum of the battle and
the fact that the rooms are mostly empty just adds to the sense of history ~
with nothing there it is easier to imagine the hubbub of the radio traffic,
the desperate messages going in and out; and the anguished decisions being
made. It really is an eerie
place.
Walk
back to the road and continue south. Another
“Bison” looks out over the flood plain of the Nam Yum towards Elaine on
the other side. The original
wooden bridge would have been about here but the river and cultivation have
changed things since 1954. This
is a good lookout as it is difficult to get to the river at other points on
this side. You can take in the
length of the central position from the Bailey Bridge to the north, to where
“Juno” would have been to the south.
Keep
walking south and you come to the French Memorial.
This is an odd little place as it is a “free enterprise” effort
created by an “Ancien” of the Foreign Legion, not an official memorial
by the French or Vietnamese governments.
Still it’s a touching place and all the more so as a “grass
roots” memorial from and to the guys who fought at Dien Bien Phu.
When I visited it was a little bit scruffy and needed some paintwork.
I hope that it is spruced up for the 50th Anniversary.
It deserves it. Back
at De Castries' bunker you are in the centre of the Claudine positions and
the gun lines are marked by rusting artillery pieces.
Across the road to the north of the bunker there is a 105 mm howitzer
and to the west of the bunker are a 155 mm howitzer and two more 105s.
Further west the Claudine and Francois defensive positions have
disappeared under housing and agriculture so there is not much to see here.
From the layout of the housing you can work out the original path of
the “Piste Pavie” track which was the main north-south route at the time
of the battle but which has now been replaced by the main highway on the
eastern side of the river and the smaller road on the western side.
If you follow this north you will come to the valley’s main
east-west road and yet another Bison, sitting on its own in a little bog. The Huguettes
Using
this tank as a landmark take the sidetrack to the north and you will be
entering the area of the Huguettes positions which were intended to defend
the airstrip. The first landmark
is the steep sided creek that flows roughly east to west into the Nam Yum.
At the time of the battle this was bridged at several locations
including a special bridge between the airstrip and the dispersal area for
the Bearcat fighter bombers and Morane “Criquets” based at Since
the airstrip itself has been moved, extended and concreted I wasn’t
expecting to find much to justify sinking up to my calves in the paddy
fields but I was pleasantly surprised. Huguette
2 is marked by a marker and the last of the Bisons.
The path of the “Piste Pavie” is quite clear leading off to the
site of “Ann Marie”, later renamed Huguette 6 and 7.
Likewise the path of the drainage ditch that used to run on the east
side of the airstrip is still clear, although today it is on the west of the
new strip.
The
Bison at Huguette 2 seems the most disconsolate of all the tanks at I
wasn’t able to walk up the Piste Pavie to the Anne Marie positions because
I was shooed away from the runway by guards as the afternoon plane was
arriving. My advice then is to
visit the Huguettes and Anne Marie in the morning.
Unless you are visiting in dry season a good pair of boots is
essential for these positions which consist mostly of paddy.
The berms between the fields are narrow and the mud is glutinous.
I went in to my ankles of my jungle boots several times, shoes or
trainers would have probably been sucked off.
The walk to Anne Marie would be the longest bit of exploration that
you can conveniently do on foot. To
visit the other positions, Giap’s HQ, Beatrice, Gabrielle and Isabelle,
you need some kind of transport, either a car or motorbike, both of which
you can hire for a day and take in the lot. Giap’s HQ
Although
it is only 14 km from the centre of The
walk through the woods and over little brooks brings you to a fork in the
path and a signboard telling you that you have arrived.
Take the left fork and you will come to Giap’s hut and the entrance
to the underground bunker system. Take
the right fork and you will come to the hut of Giap’s chief of staff,
Hoang Van Thai and another entrance to the tunnel system.
Just before you get to Hoang’s hut the large briefing hut has been
recreated. This is the building
that usually features in the photographs of Giap planning his battle.
Beyond it is an open space where the Headquarters guard post used to
stand. Giap
gives a nice description of how his CP was located and operated in
“Reminiscing about “Situated
on the side of very beautiful hill … covered
with tall, slender, chestnut trees … The
huts roofed with tiger grass were scattered along a small stream.”
Reading
between the lines of his reminisces also tells you a
thing or two. For instance the
construction of the tunnel complex was not begun until late March.
Presumably after the losses taken in capturing Beatrice and Gabrielle
had convinced the Viet Minh that the battle would take much longer than they
had previously thought. Likewise
if April was bad for the French it was desperate for the Viet Minh too.
Their morale was cracking because of the heavy losses and their
supply was a nightmare. Giap
admits to feeling the strain and some considerate staff officer whistled up
an Army Folk Dance Ensemble to cheer him up.
After banging off the usual patriotic, morale raising tub thumpers
the band started singing traditional country folk songs that seem to have
got to Giap: “Never
before had I felt the beauty of music as I did then during those tense
moments fraught with a great sense of urgency, close to the battlefield.” Most
of all Giap stresses how I
really enjoyed visiting Giap’s HQ, the journey, the location and the
context were all thought inspiring and very different to the rest of Beatrice
You
can drive to Beatrice, or Him Lam as the Vietnamese call it, on the way to
or from Giap’s HQ or even walk there from the Muong Tranh Hotel.
Head east along Route 279 and stay on the same side of the road as
the hotel. About 300 meters from
the hotel you come to a garage “SUA CHO AUTO”, take a left here down an
unpaved lane. About 800 m down
the track you come to a walled enclosure marked “NHA MAY CACN DBP’.
There are ponds on your left and the track makes a 90 degree right
hand turn around the enclosure, follow the road and after about 100 m it
makes another 90 degree left hand turn.
On this bend is a white house. Don’t
follow the road but from the bend you will see a path leading off to your
right: follow this, it leads up a wooded hill and when you get to the top
you are at the Beatrice monument. I
did this at the gallop because I was overtaken by a section of PAVN
NCO/officer candidates doing a map reading exercise and I didn’t want them
to think that steely eyed oriental crime fighters were fat and flabby.
Keeping up their pace almost killed me but I was not the last
casualty of
Beatrice Monument
Beatrice
consisted of three hill positions and I had to admit that I had no idea
which one I was on. It must have
been an important one for the Viets to erect their monument there.
Given the general lie of the ground, and the distance we were from
the road, I suspect I was on B4/B2. With
the state of the bush when I was there it would be difficult to go down and
then up again to B1 or B3, I could not see a path but the PAVN boys had got
through. Again this will
probably be easier in the dry season. The
hills themselves are steep and the Viet Minh assault paid the cost.
It was here that Giot died leading the attack and blocking the
loophole of a French machine gun nest with his own body.
In the end though Beatrice fell because of its isolation.
Although closer to the main position than Gabrielle, Beatrice was
more cut off as the hills and jungle closed in around it whereas the routes
to Gabrielle and Isabelle were over flat open ground.
Beatrice was not essential to the defence of Gabrielle
Gabrielle
or Doc Lap is easier to get to. You
follow the Piste Pavie, (now the paved Route 12) north out of town.
Gabrielle rises like the Torpedo-boat it was first called.
You have to remember that the French were not comparing it to the
sharp lines of a destroyer but to the turtleback shape of a torpedo-boat.
There are large cemeteries to the NW and SE of Gabrielle and the road
between them crosses Route 12 at the foot of Gabrielle.
There are some small shops and the ubiquitous soup cafes here.
Keep on Route 12 which skirts the western flank of Gabrielle and
about 100 meters north of the shops you will see a path leading off up the
slope. It’s a hands on climb
to begin with but the steepest part is by the road. The
path leads straight up to the monument and you get a great view of the whole
valley. When I was there they
appeared to be planting mulberry trees on Gabrielle, possibly to stop
erosion rather than for commercial reasons.
From
the top of Gabrielle two things are clear: first what a tough position it
was, secondly how important it was to the defence of Thus
if the Viet-Minh had not had their “lucky break” on Gabrielle Giap would
have been faced with some hard decisions to make.
Since the losses suffered on Beatrice and Gabrielle anyway obliged
the Viet-Minh to reconsider their tactics and resort to digging and
strangulation over direct assault, if Giap would have had to pay an even
higher price for Gabrielle it is possible that he might have reconsidered
the whole operation, as he did at Na San the year before.
Or, as mentioned in the discussion of Dominique 2, if Gabrielle had
cost another regiment to take the cumulative effect of the meat grinder may
have led to Viet Minh morale decisively cracking after the Having
lost Gabrielle the French were in big trouble.
From the top of the hill the valley is laid out before you,
especially the runway and the primary French parachute drop zones used for
reinforcements and supplies. The
flak batteries that the Viet-Minh were able to establish on and around
Gabrielle put a stranglehold on the French Garrison. Two Roads to the End:
Isabelle
South
from West
of the river follow the single track road south from the French Memorial.
Once you are clear of the main position this road presumably follows
the route of the old Piste Pavie. It
is very picturesque. You pass
through Thai villages with their thatched long houses and skirt a wide green
sea of rice paddies. Looking out
to the west you can see where Bigeard launched his “flak raid” to
neutralize the Viet Minh AAA on 28th March 1954 and it was from
Isabelle to the south that Lieutenant Preaud’s three “bisons” came
barrelling up across the flat plain to hit the Viet Minh flank and complete
the victory. The raid was a
great fillip to French morale and was the epitome of how they had intended
to fight the whole battle, combining good quality infantry, armour,
artillery and air in a well orchestrated operation.
Sadly for the French Giap gave them little opportunity to repeat such
successes. East
of the river the main highway provides the quickest route to Isabelle.
Before you get there though you come to the Today
the site of this tragedy is marked by a simple but striking monument of a
classically dressed woman holding up her dead child in an almost sacrificial
gesture. The monument has not
been well looked after but the slight decay justs adds to the pathos.
It’s a very sad place.
South
of Noong Nhai lay one of the main reason for Isabelle’s existence ~ the
alternative landing strip for The
large marker beside the highway says Isabelle but actually, since you are
still east of the river you are standing at the tip of strongpoint Wieme.
The terrain is perfectly flat and nothing remains of the old
positions which are now covered by a farm and a brick works.
It is a pleasant walk to the river but there is no trace of the
bridge that once connected Wieme with Isabelle proper.
If conditions in the main position of Isabelle
was the last part of I
stood beside the
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