Dien Bien Phu (film)
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- For the town in Vietnam, see Dien Bien Phu.
| Diên Biên Phu | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Pierre Schoendoerffer |
| Produced by | Jacques Kirsner |
| Written by | Pierre Schoendoerffer |
| Starring | Donald Pleasence Patrick Catalifo Jean-François Balmer |
| Music by | Georges Delerue |
| Cinematography | Bernard Lutic |
| Editing by | Armand Psenny |
| Distributed by | AMLF |
| Release date(s) | March 4th, 1992 (France) |
| Running time | 146 min. |
| Language | French |
| Budget | $30 million |
Diên Biên Phu (French for Điện Biên Phủ) is a 1992 film written and directed by French veteran Pierre Schoendoerffer (aka Pierre Schöndörffer). With its huge budget, all-star cast, and realistic war scenes produced with the cooperation of the French and Vietnamese armies, Dîen Bîen Phu is regarded by many as one of the more important war movies produced in French filmmaking history. It documents the 57-day siege of Dien Bien Phu (1954), the last battle led by the French Union's colonial army during the final days of French Indochina, which was soon divided into North and South Vietnam. This First Indochina War was a prelude to the Second Indochina War, known in the United States as the Vietnam War.
The film was nominated for "Best Music Written for a Film" ("Meilleure musique") at the 1993 French César Awards. The Điện Biên Phủ original soundtrack was composed and partially performed by pianist Georges Delerue, featuring Japanese vocalist Marie Kobayashi. In 1994, at a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the siege at Dien Bien Phu, director Schoendoerffer published a behind-the-scenes book called "Diên Biên Phu - De la Bataille au Film" (Dien Bien Phu: From the Battle to the Movie). In 2004, during the 50th anniversary commemoration, Schoendoerffer published a full-length version of his movie in DVD format.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The movie describes the chronological events of the battle. Some of them are shown in situ, from the heart of the battle, at Dien Bien Phu, while others are reported by civilians at Hanoi city or by paratroopers at Hanoi's civilian airport.
The Hanoi action is mostly focused on British-born American writer-reporter Howard Simpson (Donald Pleasence). Simpson's sources of confidential information include French Union military men (Patrick Catalifo, Eric Do), an Agence France Presse correspondent (Jean-François Balmer), an influential Vietnamese nationalist (Long Nguyen-Khac), a Chinese contrabander (Thé Anh) and a Eurasian opium dealer (Maïté Nahyr). Simpson sends scoop-worthy news to the San Francisco Chronicle daily newspaper, through a Hong Kong-based agency, in order to elude French military censorship that existed in Hanoi and the rest of Indochina.
War scenes are seen through the eyes of several character archetypes illustrating human nature. At Dien Bien Phu, there were two kinds of men: the cowards and the brave. The first are mainly illustrated by the unnamed "Nam Yum rat" (Fathy Abdi); an example of the second type is the philosopher-friendly artillery Lieutenant (Maxime Leroux), who refuses retreat orders and eventually dies for the sake of honor. Since they are archetypes, these characters have no name. The main characters have fictitious names, but are members of real units, like the 5th Bawouan Vietnamese para Lieutenant Ky (Eric Do) or Captain de Kerveguen (Patrick Catalifo)'s Foreign Legion company.
Schoendoerffer's movie contains autobiographic elements sometimes appearing via dialogues and particularly illustrated by the military cameraman character. Actor Ludovic Schoendoerffer plays the role of a young Army Cinematographic Service cameraman using the same camera type as his father, Corporal Pierre Schoendoerffer, did in 1954.
[edit] Docudrama
Unlike many Hollywood Vietnam War blockbusters, Dîen Bîen Phu is more a docudrama based on real events, in the style of Tora! Tora! Tora!. Corporal Schoendoerffer, the writer/director, is a battle veteran. In 1952, volunteer Pierre Schoendoerffer joined the Service Cinématographique des Armées (French Army Cinematographic Service) as a cameraman.
On 11 March 1954, Schoendoerffer was injured at Dien Bien Phu, in an ordinary skirmish (coast 781 attack) before the great battle, and he was sent to the southern base located in Saigon aboard a DC-3 military version (aka C-47). Since there were no more cameramen remaining on the battlefield, Schoendoerffer insisted on returning to document the event. Finally, on March 18, he was allowed to take off from the northern base Hanoi, located at 1H15 (252 km) from Dien Bien Phu, on a Dakota and to jump with the 5th Bawouan (Vietnamese Parachute Battalion) over Dien Bien Phu.
Schoendoerffer was still injured and wore bandages when he chose to return to the battlefield. Officers told him "it's wasted, don't go!" ("c'est foutu, n'y va pas!"), but he insisted as "[he] had to be there to testify" as he planned to give his film to the pilots, after the battle, as an homage. Nobody saw this footage, since he destroyed his own camera and all his 60-second-films on May 7, except for six of them which were confiscated by the Viet Minh during an aborted jailbreak and ended up in the hands of Soviet cameraman Roman Karmen. As a 25-year-old corporal cameraman, Schoendoerffer was not actually a journalist, but the French Army did not interfere and let him shoot everything he wanted. His films were supposed to be sent to the rear on March 28, using a Dakota belonging to a military nurse named Geneviève de Galard, but the Dakota was damaged beyond repair by Viet Minh artillery that fired on the Red Cross aircraft.
Schoendoerffer used a Bell & Howell 35mm black-and-white camera with three teleobjectives mounted on a turret. This model is known for its highly flammable film but also for "its remarkable black and grey picture quality never seen again since" dixit Pierre Schoendoerffer.
On May 7, 1954, at 6 p.m., a half hour after the French ceasefire (except for the strongpoint Isabelle still fighting until May 8 1:00 a.m.) he was ordered to get out of his Parachute Commandment blockhouse, where he was waiting with the officers Bigeard and Langlais and the military nurse Geneviève de Malard. He became a Viet Minh POW.
Once free, he became a war reporter-photographer for American magazines. In 1967, his Vietnam War black-and-white documentary, The Anderson Platoon (La Section Anderson), won the Oscar award. Later Schoendoerffer was named Vice-President of the French Académie des Beaux Arts (Academy of Fine Arts).
[edit] Free World forces
[edit] French Union colonial army
The Dien Bien Phu garrison was made of volunteers from the French Expeditionary Corps in Far Asia (Corps Expéditionnaire Français en Extrême-Orient). By law, French Metropolitan divisions were not allowed to be sent to Indochina.
Several waves of paratroopers were dropped over Dien Bien Phu as an additional force. The most famous battalions are Commandant Bigeard's 6th Colonial Parachute Battalion (6e BPC), the 8th Shock Parachute Battalion (8e BPC/CHOC) and the 5th Vietnamese Parachute Battalion (Bawouan).
The C.E.F. (Expeditionary French Corps) was made of various nationalities fighting altogether under the French Union's 4th Republic banner. The Dien Bien Phu infantry was made of AEF-Equatorial French Africans, Gabonese (1 detachment), Algerians (2 battalions & 1 march battalion), Moroccans (1 battalion & 1 tabor), Thai (2 bataillons), Laotians (2 battalions), Vietnamese (1 battalion) and various European nationalities serving in the Foreign Legion (2 regiments, 1 company and 1 demi-brigade).
In the final days, inexperienced volunteers from all divisions based in Indochina were converted to paratroopers without training. These young men, from the infantry, the cavalry amd the artillery -- some secretaries joined them, too -- were dropped over the camp by Dakotas to fight with their comrades. This jump was the first and the last for 700 of them.
[edit] National armies
- TBC (Laos, Vietnam, Thai)
- TBC (US training for paratroopers)
[edit] Anti-communist US backup
US Air Force General Chester E. McCarty was in charge of the French Air Force (Armée de l'Air) assistance. He commanded supply operations at Dien Bien Phu. A hundred aircraft, transports (C-119 Flying Box, Dakota DC-3) and fighters (F8F Bearcat), used a few months earlier in the Korean war campaign, were leased to the French and used at Dien Bien Phu. Also, Admiral Arthur Radford gave orders for training national army paratrooper battalions and sent hundreds of airborne maintenance personnel as part of a Cold War Lend-Lease program. In November 1953, USAF General McCarty loaned twelve C-119's to make possible the French aeronaval Operation Beaver and the taking of Dien Bien Phu.
Thirty-seven American pilots flew over Dien Bien Phu with Civil Air Transport company Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar, taking off from Haiphong's civilian airport (Cat Bi Airport) and supplying their French allies with artillery pieces, ammunitions, barbed wire, medics, food, etc. During the siege, 682 airdrops were completed under heavy artillery fire including Soviet-made Katyusha rockets, famed in World War II as Stalin Organs. Ten days before the siege began, a contract was signed with the CAT for twenty pilots operating twelve C-119's loaned and maintained by the USAF but flown under the French tricolor insignia.
On 13 March 1954, as the Dien Bien Phu airstrips were destroyed by the outnumbering and outgunning Viet Minh artillery, the contract terms were ignored and more American pilots joined the French crews, taking part in supply missions. Two of them, Lieutenant James McGovern, and his co-pilot Lieutenant Wallace Buford, were shot down by the Viet Minh artillery and MIA 6 May 1954. They were trying to drop a cannon to the besieged artillery (declassified in 1982 [1]. Retired World War II veteran (Flying Tigers) Major-General Claire Lee Chennault's CAT (Civil Air Transport aka Air America) airline was secretly owned by the American Central Intelligence Agency until it was declassified in the 1990s (source Associated Press).
On 25 February 2005, fifty years after the events, seven remaining American CAT pilots officially received the chivalry order Knights of the Legion of Honor, in the name of the Fifth French Republic President Jacques Chirac, in recognition of services rendered to France (source: Embassy of France in the USA).
In the last days of the siege, the US Navy USS Saipan supplied napalm-equipped Chance Vought AU-1 Corsair fighters, moved from Yokosuka to Tourane (aka Da Nang), to support the 14.F Aéronavale Flotilla. The French Aeronaval Arromanches carrier located in the Tonkin Gulf assisted Dien Bien Phu troops with napalm dropping (Hellcat raids) and heavy bombing (Privateer) over Viet Minh positions. The aeronaval fleet was made of diving bombers Curtiss SB2C-5 Helldiver (3.F Flotilla "Crescent & Star"), fighters Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat (11.F Flotilla "The Seahorse"), heavy bombers Consolidated PB4Y Privateer (28.F Flotilla "The Black Wolf Head") and fighters Chance Vought F4U-7 Corsair (14.F Aeronaval Flotilla "The One-eyed Corsair").
[edit] Communist forces
[edit] "The Patriot"
Vietnamese nationalist independence movement and communist revolutionary army Viet Minh (later named Viet Cong) leader Hồ Chí Minh (Nguyễn Sinh Cung from his real name), aka "Nguyễn The Patriot", was born in a village near Hanoi, northern Vietnam, in 1890. He became Prime Minister of Vietnam from 1946 to 1955, during the First Indochina War. After the French departure from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in 1955, he became President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (aka communist North Vietnam) until his death in 1969.
During his youth, Nguyễn Sinh Cung studied at a French high-school located in Huế (central Vietnam, near Da Nang aka Tourane) capital of the Annam (French Indochina) ruled by Emperor Bảo Đại.
In 1911, he moved to metropolitan France's southern port Marseille; from 1913 to 1917 he lived in England, Westminster, where he worked as an apprentice cook. Becoming a nationalist around this time, he joined the Group of Vietnamese Patriots. Then, once communist, he co-founded the French Communist Party (aka PCF) in 1921. His relation with the Russian Communist Party led him to travel to Moscow, Soviet Union in 1927 to meet, the PCF-friendly and Comintern's Chief, marxist Dimitri Zakharovitch Manouilsky.
Sent to Kowloon, Hong Kong (Commonwealth), by the Comintern, he founded there in 1930 the Vietnamese Communist Party (Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam), which became the Indochinese Communist Party (Đảng Cộng sản Đông Dương) including Laos and Cambodia. In 1938, he met Ho Quang of the Communist Party of China.
Nguyễn Sinh Cung returned to his homeland in 1941, establishing himself in the northern Cao Dang province near the Chinese border. There he founded the Vietnamese Independence League (Viet Minh), which started to struggle against Japanese occupying forces. In 1942, he changed his name to Hồ Chí Minh and was jailed by the Chinese for one year.
[edit] Việt Minh General Giáp
Võ Nguyên Giáp was born in 1911 in the Quang Binh province (central Vietnam). In 1926 he joined the same French-run high school as Ho Chi Minh in Hue and soon became a Tan Viet movement activist, which led to his first arrest in 1930. He attended the Hanoi university in 1933 and later taught history in the city in 1937.
Giáp joined the Indochinese Communist Party in 1939 until the latter became illegal in 1940. He was exiled with Phạm Văn Ðồng to China, where he quickly became Ho Chi Minh's protégé.
By the end of January 1954, eighteen days before the battle, General Giap had ordered the construction of a camouflaged track inside the jungle, that could be used to secretly ferry Chinese- and Soviet-supplied heavy artillery pieces and anti-aircraft cannons. Troops and coolies used the road to transport tons of rice, ammunition and artillery shells using thousands of bicycles and a hundred Soviet trucks. Giap's original plan was not a siege, but instead a two-day and three-night blitzkrieg attack.
The Dien Bien Phu camp's artillery Chief Commander, French Colonel Piroth, had estimated that the Viet Minh could not possibly bring heavy artillery through the jungle to the top of the surrounding hills. On the second night of the siege, he realized how much he had underestimated his enemy's will and tacticians, and learned that his comrade, Lieutenant-Colonel Gaucher, had been killed by an artillery salvo on Béatrice a few hours earlier. Piroth repeated a tactical mistake made fourteen years ago in World War II, when the French Chief-of-Staff certified Hitler could not possibly send his Wehrmacht troops through the Ardennes dense forest, which was precisely what the enemy did (La Percée de Sedan), allowing him a surprising attack and a quick victory. This night, officer Piroth committed suicide by throwing a hand grenade in his own bunker.
[edit] Communist & Soviet backup
- tbc (Chinese supply destroyed by paratroopers)
- tbc (Chinese training)
- tbc (molotova)
- tbc (katyusha)
[edit] Characters
[edit] Dien Bien Phu garrison
[edit] Military men (on screen)
The following characters are seen on screen or heard by the spectator.
- Captain Morvan (Hanoi)
- 3e Bureau de l'État-Major (3rd Chief-Staff Bureau)
- Captain Victorien Jégu de Kérveguen aka Vic (Hanoi, Dien Bien Phu)
- Légion Étrangère (Foreign Legion)
- Lieutenant Ki (Hanoi/Dien Bien Phu)
- 5th BPVN (Bawouan): Bataillon Parachutiste Vietnamien (Vietnamese Parachute Battalion)
- Colonial Artillery Lieutenant (Dien Bien Phu)
- He will explains Isaac Newton's gravitation theory to the Corporal.
- He rebels against his retreat and self-destruction orders and will lead a counterattack with his platoon. He will be deadly wounded during the battle.
- Lieutenant Duroc (Hanoi/Dien Bien Phu)
- Légion Étrangère (Foreign Legion, DC-3 pilot)
- WWII veteran he fought in Russia and won Corporal merit award. His DC-3 was MIA on 6 May 1954.
- Sergeant (Dien Bien Phu)
- Bataillon Thaïlandais (Thai Battalion)
- He joined Captain de Kerveguen on Huguette 6. He died in a skirmishe during the west percée.
- Corporal (Dien Bien Phu)
- Aéronavale / Détachement du Train (Train Detachment, temporary affectation)
- The young man was previously in service in the Black River as part of the French Aeronaval before being sent to Dien Bien Phu by Hanoi. He assists of the Viet Minh artillery test shooting 13 March with his comrade Sergeant from the Thai Battalion. He will temporary joined an African Artillery company until its commanding officer Lieutenant was killed. Then he joins some Morrocans deserters and become a Nam Yum rat. One night he while hunting for food he his rejected by the Morrocans and is finally hit by a Viet Minh artillery salvo. Coolies finds him and transports him to the ACP (Surgical Unit). There he met his friend Sergeant and confess he was a rat to the Priest Wamberger. He ends up prisoner of the Viet Minh.
- Maréchal des Logis / Maréchal des Logis-chef Thade Korzeniowski (Hanoi/Dien Bien Phu)
- 1e Régiment de Chasseur à Cheval (1st Regiment of Chasing Cavalry)
- A Polish young man who saved Captain de Kerveguen's life few days before the Dien Bien Phu siege. He has a child, François and planned to marry his Vietnamese fiancee but instead he will end as a Viet Minh prisoner.
- Private Mamadou Koulibali (Dien Bien Phu)
- Colonial Artillery Regiment
- A Gabonese soldier, who considered his Lieutenant (Maxime Leroux) as his father. He will be injured at Dien Bien Phu.
- Nurse Geneviève de Galard (Dien Bien Phu)
- The Corporal asks who is the woman pictured in the infirmery and a doctor answers "it's Geneviève". Later in the movie, when PVT Mamadou (Colonial Artillery) dies in the infirmery, we heard a female voice reporting "he's dead" and we know that Geneviève de Malard was the only woman in Dien Bien Phu. As a French Airforce nurse she had join the camp few weeks before the siege. She was supposed to be evacuated by Dakota on late March but as the airstrip was damaged, no aircraft was able to take off from Dien Bien Phu and she was forced to remain there. She was captured by the Viet Minh and sent in a concentration camp.
[edit] Military men (off screen)
The following characters are referred to, or quoted by on screen characters.
- General Henri Navarre (Hanoi)
- Général de Corps d'Armée & Chief-Commander in Indochina
- General René Cogny (Hanoi) aka "le Grand Patron" (the Big Boss)
- Général de Division & Commander of the FTNV Forces Terrestres du Nord Viêtnam (North Vietnam Ground Forces)
- Colonel Christian de la Croix de Castries (Dien Bien Phu)
- GONO Groupement Opérationnel du Nord-Ouest (Operational North-West Group)
- Colonel Piroth (Dien Bien Phu)
- Commander of the Fortified Camp Artillery
- He has promised he will be able to destroy the Viet Minh artillery but failed. He committed suicide by throwing a grenade in his bunker in the night of 14/15 March 1954.
- Lieutenant-Colonel Pierre Langlais (Dien Bien Phu)
- 2e GAP Groupement Aéroporté (2nd Airborne Group)
- Lieutenant-Colonel Jules Gaucher (Dien Bien Phu)
- GM 9 Groupement Mobile n°9 (9th Mobile Group)
- He is killed 13 March at Dien Bien Phu, on the PA Béatrice, by a Viet Minh artillery salvo during the siege's first attack.
- Commandant Marcel Bigeard (Dien Bien Phu)
- 6e BPC: Bataillon de Parachutistes Coloniaux (6th Colonial Parachute Battalion)
- His 6th BPC took Dien Bien Phu to the Viet Minhs in 1953 (Operation Beaver). During the 1954 siege he launched victorious counterattacks at one versus ten, but because of a lack of backup, these positions were finally evacuated. He was made prisoner by the Viet Minh.
- Marshall Tassigny
- Marshall Joffre
[edit] Auxiliaries
- Sergeant cameraman (Hanoi / Dien Bien Phu)
- Service Cinématographique des Armées (Cinematographic Service of the French Army)
- Corporal-Chef photograph (Hanoi / Dien Bien Phu)
- Service de Presse et d'Information (Press & Information Service of the French Army)
- Padre Wamberger (Hanoi / Dien Bien Phu)
[edit] "Nám Yum rats"
During the Dien Bien Phu battle, some units lost their officers and soon deserted their attacked Resistance Centers. Instead of fighting and waiting for paratroopers backup, or to join a composite CM Compagnie de Marche (March Company) in order to continue the battle with new camarads, many men, lost, abandoned, ran away and took shelter in trench holes located across the Nam Yum river. These deserters remained hidden inside bunkers during daytime, only going out at night, hunting for food supply dropped in the camp by supporting Dakotas.
When Dien Bien Phu fortified camp's Commanding Officer, Colonel de Castries, learned that forbidden acts were practiced in his own ranks, he called "les rats de la Nam-Youm" (Nam Yum rats).
After the death of the African Artillery Regiment Lieutenant (Maxime Leroux), the young unaffected Corporal (previously affacted to the Train Detachment) joins some Moroccan deserters and become a Nam Yum rat himself.
[edit] Coolies
Autochthon personnel was used in both armies to accomplish ungrateful tasks when regular soldiers weren't sufficient.
In the French army they were mainly deployed to remove the deads from the trenches and to bury them in ravines. They were also in charge of the dropped supply's secure and transport. This task became increasingly perillous day after day, as the drop zones perimeters were shrinkened by the Viet Minh's heavy artillery, forcing the Dakota pilots to drop the cargo directly over the Resistance Points, and risking the lives of their ground camarades, specially on night ops.
Coolies were used in mass by the Viet Minh to transport heavy artillery pieces and shells. The Viet Minh propaganda has insited on the use of upgraded Peugeot bicycles by barefoot coolies, to valorize the popular effort -a central theme in the Communist propaganda- however a lesser-known fact by that time was the Viet Minh also used hundreds of Soviet-built Molotova truck -offered to Ho Chi Minh by the Mao Zedong- as stated by Schoendoerffer in a 1999 interview with Claude Grunspan ¹ and reported by survivors of the POW camps ².
Coolies were not military men, they didn't have any weapon, nor uniform or helmet. Instead the coolies were dressed with peasant clothes and the traditional conical leaf hat, some of them serving the French, used the colonial hat though.
[edit] Viet Minh
[edit] Military men (on screen)
- 316th Division
[edit] Military men (off screen)
- General Võ Nguyên Giáp (Muong Thanh forest)
[edit] Battle warfare
[edit] Dien Bien Phu force
 Light tank M24 Chaffee "Mulhouse" |
 One of the three remaining F8F-1 fighter dropping bombs on Éliane 1 |
By the beginning of the battle, the Dien Bien Phu force was:
- Troops: 12,000
- Artillery pieces:
- Cannons: 50 (HM1 155mm, HM2 105mm, 75mm SR w/o recoil)
- Heavy mortars: 100 (120mm/4.72i)
- Light Tanks: 10 M24 Chaffee (1st RCC Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval)
- Offensive aircraft:
- Fighter: +3 Grumman F8F-1 Bearcat (GC Groupe de Chasse 1/22 "Saintonge")
- Bomber: 10 Douglas B-26C Invader (GB Groupe de Bombardment 1/25 "Tunisie" & GB 1/19 "Gascogne")
- Personnel: 200 USAF airmen (maintenance at Tourane)
- Transport aircraft:
- Douglas C-47B Dakota : 3 destroyed the 13.03.1954 (Dien Bien Phu-Gia Liam airport)
- Bristol 170 Freighter
- Junker JU52
- Fairchild C-119 Flying Boxcar: 12 (parked at Haiphong and piloted by CIA crews)
- Curtiss C-46E: 1 destroyed on ground by mortar the 13.03.1954 (civilian plane owned by Aigle Azur Maroc)
- Transport Helicopters:
- Heavy tranports:
- Truck GMC CCKW-352/353 (US-built, 6x6 truck TM 9-801)
- Light transports:
- Jeep Willys MB
- Motorbike (Aeronaval transportable)
- Small arms:
- Pistol Luger P08 (German-built, 7.65mm parabellum)
- Sub machinegun Manufacture d'Armes de Tulle MAT-49 (9 mm Luger)
- Light machinegun Manufacture d'Armes de Chatellerault MAC FM-24/29 (7.5 mm)
- Machinegun Browning M1919 (.30, 7.62/8 mm)
- Semi-automatic rifle Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne MAS-49 (7.8 mm, equipped w/48mm grenade launcher)
- Rifle Manufacture d'Armes de Saint-Étienne MAS-36/CR 39 (w/metallic retractable butt, 7.35mm)
- Carbine US M1A1 (US-built, w/metallic retractable butt, .30)
- Carbine US M2 (US-built, full-auto .30)
- Explosives
- Grenade launcher
- Grenade DF 37 (French-built, defensive grenade)
- Grenade MK 2 (US-built)
- Land mines
- Flamethrower
- Blades
- Machete Collins M-1942 (US-built, 18-inch edge)
- Bayonet M4
- Communication devices:
- Transceiver Galvin TM-11235 SCR536-A-F BC611 (US-built, radio TSF)
- Radio PRC 10
- Camera Bell & Howell (35mm, B&W)
- Defensive artefacts
- Barbwire: tons
- Chirurgical unit:
- up to 300 person (ACP)
[edit] Viet Minh force
 Soviet Lend-Lease Stalin organs were used the latest days, as heard in the movie. |
 Viet Minh propaganda leaflet found on a French trench at Dien Bien Phu. |
- Artillery pieces:
- Cannons: 105mm (US-built captured to Chiang Kai-shek troops and offered by Mao Zedong)
- Katyusha (Soviet-built, only operative the latest days, probably mounted on GAZ trucks)
- Heavy mortars: 120mm (used the latest days)
- Anti-aerial battery
- Heavy transports:
- Truck GAZ imeni Molotova: +100 (Soviet-built)
- Light transports:
- Bicycle Peugeot +1000 (French-built, upgraded to support heavy charge)
- Psychological pression:
- Propaganda leaflets (written in French, Thai dialects and Vietnamese)
- Pacifist messages looped through loudspeakers (naming the French officers by their actual names in their native language)
[edit] Viet Minh propaganda leaflet translation
|
Legionaries★Comrads! The letter, on the backside, asks you to think and to decide. Refuse to serve the colonialist predatories. Join our ranks and go join your comrades already waiting for you in the Foster Home. TO JOIN OUR RANKS: Set your rifle in shoulder-belt with its butt in the air; Use a white rag at the end of your cannon; Cross your arms on the chest; Stop walking as you heard us shouting: freeze. |
- (a Vietnamese written message dedicated to the loyalists follows the French one)
[edit] Battle timeline
(Dien Bien Phu, 31.03.1954)
[edit] Geopolitical background
- 05.03.1953: Soviet Union leader Josef Stalin dies in Moscow and is replaced by Georgy Malenkov.
- 27.07.1953: US-backed South Korea signs a peace treaty with Soviet Union/Communist China-b
backed North Korea, ending the Korean War.
- In order to defend the French Union Laos from an invasion of Communist Viet Minh General Giap, French General Navarre choose the Dien Bien Phu bowl-shaped valley to become a major strategical stronghold. Dien Bien Phu is located in northern Vietnam near both the Laotian and Chinese boarders.
[edit] Dien Bien Phu take (1953)
November 20, 1953, a fleet of eighty French Dakota and ten C-199 Fairchild crewed by CIA covert pilots were gathered at Hanoi's aerodrome in northern Vietnam. General Gilles (1st RCP Parachute Chaser Regiment) launched the large scale aeronaval Operation Castor (Beaver Ops) planned by, French Expeditionary Corps Commander, General Navarre and involving almost three thousand paratroopers. Six parachute battalions, including Commandant Bigeard's famous 6th BPC, were dropped with the objectives to take the Dien Bien Phu 25,000 inhabitants village, the Viet Minh-occupied former post and to secure the airstrip. Dien Bien Phu is 16km long out of 9km large crossing two ways, one leading to Lai Chau and the other leading to the North and Middle-Laos.
More paratroopers and additional units consisting of Tirailleurs (sharpshooters), Light Artillery and Foreign Legion troopers will join one unit after the other. Dien Bien Phu was meant with two purposes, gathering mobile units able to engage Viet Minh divisions in North Vienam and to prevent an invasion of Laos. The camp was fortificated and quickly became one of the major French fortress in the whole Indochina, consisting of Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia.
Since 8 December 1953, Colonel Christian de Castries commands the Dien Bien Phu garrison under the high commandment of General Cogny commandant les Forces terrestres du Nord-Vietnam (in command of the North Vietnamese Ground Forces) based at Hanoi.
[edit] Dien Bien Phu siege (1954)
End of January 1954, more than a hundred thousand Viet Minhs troops are secretly gathered near the fortified camp using a network made of four hundred kilometers camouflaged trenches dug in fifty days.
The movie starts with the very first skirmiches and ends on the cease fire and the prisoner columns leaving the camp:
- Saturday 13 March, 1954 05:00 PM (Dien Bien Phu camp's outskirts) - 1st ASSAULT
- "Airborne Corporal and Thai platoon Sergeant are meeting each other on a surrounding hill.
- Saturday 13 March, 1954 05:00 PM (Hanoi)
- Saturday 13 March, 1954 05:15 PM (Dien Bien Phu camp's outskirts)
- "The brigadier's three hits", the Viet Minh artillery division #251 is adjusting its strike.
- Saturday 13 March, 1954 05:30 PM (Dien Bien Phu's outskirts)
- Viet Minhs artillery fires on the air strip, ground planes are destroyed, those landing are attacked. 1,300 French are killed and there are so many injured that the Surgery Units are already surcharged.
- 30 March, 1954 - 2nd ASSAULT
- 2nd attack lasting until April 5.
- 31 March, 1954 10:30AM
- Lieutenant-Colonel Bigeard's 6th BPC Colonial Parachute Bataillon supported by two F8F Bearcat and Lieutenant Ty's 5th BPVN (Bawouan) (Vietnamese Parachute Battalion) launches a counterattack on Éliane 1. Since few days, supply aircraft are only landing by night.
- End April, 1954
- No aircraft can land anymore, parachute drop is the only remaining way of supply.
- Wednesday 5 May, 1954
- Seven hundreds unexperienced non-paratroopers are volunteers to jump over Dien Bien Phu by night in order to help the garrison. The aircraft flies higher than usual, above three kilometers, to avoid anti-aircraft batteries and suddenly dive at the very last moment while artillery tracers are aiming at it.
- Thursday 6 May, 1954
- The besieged garrison runs out of ammo, and from now totally depends on air supply packets, which sometimes drops behind the enemy line. The paratroopers no longer jump over the Drop Zones (Natasha, Octavie and Simone), nor airstrips but directly on the camp which is surrounded by barbwire and land mines. At seven PM, the enemy artillery was more intense then before as it was backuped with Stalin organs and 120mm heavy mortars. Some Dakotas carrying the last paratroopers reserve are flying over the camp but are not allowed to jump.
- Friday 7 May, 1954
- As the sun rise, almost all strongpoints have fallen one one by one and but the French heavy artillery has ran out of shells. Schoendoerffer still heard firing in the last strongpoints Éliane 6 and Éliane 1, so the Parachute Chief-Staff Langlais and Bigeard decided a counter-attack to free Éliane 1. They found sixty survivors from the 1st and 2nd BEP and sended all of them to an ultimate assault which was really short as they were engulfed into mud and casualties and ended slaughtered by thousands of Viet Minhs waiting for them.
- Friday 7 May, 1954 17:30 PM
- All remaining Dien Bien Phu fighters are ordered to cease fire and to destruct their own weapons. Radiomen have to shut all communications. Photographers and cameramen must destruct their cameras and films. Most of the troops removes their helmet too, as a such device is no use for an unarmed soldier. The surrendering white flag will not be used at Dien Bien Phu.
- Friday 7 May, 1954 past 18:00 PM
- Giap wanted to launch another assault and sended sentinels, as they were walking by, the Viet Minhs launched grenades in the blockhaus. Since there were no one inside, the entire Viet Minh division engulfed in the camp heading to de Castries' Command Post. They shouted to the few unarmed survivors, remainig in the trenches, to rise their hands. Schoendoerffer was still with Bigeard and Langlais, when he saw a Vietnamese Sergeant, from the Bawouan, destroying his own beret, with his knife, so the Viet Minh happy cannot boast to have captured a "Red Beret" (Béret Rouge). General de Castries in his Command Post was taken prisoner, then Viet Minhs soldiers entered Schoendoerffer's blockhaus shouting to rise the hand up, so the Vietnamese Sergeant went out, followed by Langlais and Bigeard but the two of them refused to rise the hand and walked as if there were not hearing the order. Then Schoendoerffer left the blockhaus and was taken prisoner too, there were Dakotas flying by and dropping medics as they were ordered by Hanoi.
[edit] Dien Bien Phu positions
The Colonel de Castries' Head Quarter was defended by PR Points de Résistance located on hills and divided into PA Point d'Appuis (strongpoint), all positions were named after a woman name. General Giap's Viet Minh artillery first attacked Béatrice, on 13 march 1954 around 17:30, then during a fifty seven days battle siege, the remaining PR have fallen one after another. After Béatrice it was Gabrielle's turn, next Isabelle, finally Dominique and then it was the end.
[edit] Peripheral Resistance Centers (northern)
- NORTH
- Gabrielle (Doc Lap hill)
- ATK: attacked by the 312th Dai Doan (Viet Minh Divisions - 9 battalions)
- WEST
- Anne-Marie (Ban Keo)
- 16/17.03 DST: deserted by the BT Bataillon Thai (Battalion Thai)
- EAST
- Béatrice (Him Lam hill)
- 13/14.03 ATK: attacked by the 351th Dai Doan (Viet Minh Division - artillery)
- 13/14.03 ATK: attacked by the 128th Dai Doan (Viet Minh Division)
- DFN: defended by the 9/10/11/12th Company & P.C.
[edit] Central Resistance Centers
- NORTH WEST
- Huguette 1
- Huguette 2
- Huguette 3
- Huguette 4
- Huguette 5
- Huguette 6
- Huguette 7
- ATK: attacked by the 308th Dai Doan (Viet Minh Division - 9 battalions)
- DFN: Defended by Commandant Guiraud
- DFN: Defended by 500 légionnaires BMEP (made from remaining 2nd BEP & 1st BEP)
- DFN: Defended by 140 Marocains (from Capitaine Nicod).
- NORTH EAST
- Épervier
- Opéra
- DFN: Defended by Capitaine Pierre Tourret's 8e BPC Bataillon de Parachutistes de Choc (Shock Parachute Battalion)
- WEST
- Françoise
- Lily 1 (aka Liliane)
- Lily 2
- DFN: Defended by 250 Marocains (Moroccan)
- EAST
- Dominique 1
- Dominique 2
- Dominique 3
- CENTER
- PC: Poste de Commandement (Command Post) HQ: Colonel de Castries' bunker
- Le Drain: (piste d'envol principale, main air strip)
- ACP: Antenne Chirurgicale Parachutiste (Parachute Surgical Unit)
- SOUTH
- Junon
- SOUTH WEST
- Les Claudines
- ATK: attacked by the 308th Dai Doan (Viet Minh Division)
- SOUTH EAST
- Éliane 10
- Éliane 1
- Éliane 2
- Éliane 3
- Éliane 4
- ATK: attacked by the 316th Dai Doan (Viet Minh Divisions - 6 battalions)
[edit] Peripheral Resistance Centers (southern)
- SOUTH
- Isabelle (Hang Cum)
- contains some artillery pieces and four light tanks in order to cover the CRC.
- ATK: attacked by the 51st Trung Doan (Viet Minh Regiment)
- ATK: attacked by the 304th Dai Doan (Viet Minh Divisions - 3 battalions)
[edit] Fighting units
[edit] French Union
- Airforce
| Group/Squadron | Company | Aircraft | Base |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chase Group | 1/22 Saintonge | F8F-1 Bearcat | Dien Bien Phu |
| Bombing Group | 1/19 Gascogne | B-26C Invader | Dien Bien Phu |
| Bombing Group | 1/25 Tunisie | B-26C Invader | Dien Bien Phu |
| Transport Group | Anjou | Dakota DC-3 | - |
| Transport Group | Béarn | Dakota DC-3 | - |
| Transport Group | Franche-Comté | Dakota DC-3 | - |
| Transport Group | Sénégal | Dakota DC-3 | - |
| Sub-Group MMTA (Military Means Aerial Transport) |
- | - | - |
| ELA (Aerial Links Squadron) |
52th | Sikorsky H-19 S-55 | Bien Hoa |
| ELA (Aerial Links Squadron) |
53th | Sikorsky H-19 S-55 | Hanoi |
| EROM (Overseas Reconnaissance Squadron) |
80th | RF-8F Bearcat (reco), B-26C Invader (reco) | Hanoi (Bac Mai) |
- Aeronaval
| Group | Flotilla | Aircraft | Carrier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aerial Group | 3.F | SB2C-5 Helldiver | Arromanches (Tourane) |
| Aerial Group | 11.F | F6F-5 Hellcat | Arromanches (Tourane) |
| Aerial Group | 14.F | F4U-7 Corsair, AU-1 Corsair | Arromanches (Tourane) |
| Aerial Group | 28.F | PB4Y Privateer | Arromanches (Tourane) |
- Airborne
| Battalion | Commander | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1st BEP (Foreign Parachute Battalion) |
Cdt. Guiraud | - |
| 2nd BEP (Foreign Parachute Battalion) |
Cdt. Liesenfelt | - |
| 5th BPVN (Vietnamese Parachute Battalion) |
Cdt. Botella | - |
| 1st BPC (Colonial Parachute Battalion) |
Cdt. Bazin de Bezon | - |
| 6th BPC (Colonial Parachute Battalion) |
Cdt. Bigeard | - |
| 8th BPC (Shock Parachute Battalion) |
Cdt. Tourret | - |
| 2nd/1st RCP (Chaser Parachute Regiment) |
Cdt. Bréchignac | - |
- Armoured Cavalry
| Regiment | Squadron | Tank | Commander |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st RCC (Horse Chaser Regiment) |
3rd | M-24 Chaffee | Cpt. Hervouët |
- Artillery
- Infantry
[edit] US Central Intelligence Agency
- Airforce
| Squadron | Pilots/Co-Pilots | Aircraft | Base |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAT (Civil Air Transport) |
27 | Dakota DC-3, C-119 Flying Boxcar | Hai Phong (Cat Bi) |
[edit] Viet Minh
- Infantry
| Division/Regiment | Dai Doan | Commander | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Division | 304th | Gen. Hoang Minh Thao | - |
| Division | 308th | Gen. Vuong Thua Vu | - |
| Division | 312th | Gen. Le Trong Tan | - |
| Division | 316th | - | - |
| Regiment | 57th | - | - |
- Artillery
| Division | Dai Doan | Commander | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Division | 351th | Gen. Vu Hien | - |
[edit] Casualties
[edit] Chart
- tbc
[edit] Extermination camps
- tbc
[edit] International release
- THEATER
- VHS
France Diên Biên Phu
Germany Die Schlacht von Dien Bien Phu (The Battle of Dien Bien Phu), United Video (1993)
Italy Die Bien Phu
Japan スカイミッション 空挺要塞DC-3/Skymission Koutei Yousai DC-3 (Sky Mission: Airborne Fortified Camp DC-3), Albatross & Nippon Columbia (1996)
- DVD
- France Diên Biên Phu, TF1 Vidéo (2004)
- Germany Die Hōlle von Dien Bien Phu (The hell of Dien Bien Phu), Laser Paradise (2004)
Vietnam Điện Biên Phủ, SecoFilm & Modfilm (2005)
[edit] Movie quotes
- French Foreign Legion Para Captain de Kerveguen to his friend, American writer, reporter, Howard Simpson (Hanoi aerodrome, in the latest days of the battle)
Cpt. de Kerveguen: - Look, those are the very bottom of the barrel, the rapatriables and all the convalescents of the para units already at Dien Bien Phu. Pieces of bread for the ducks!
|
- Padre Wamberger (French military chaplain) to Howard Simpson (Betty's French bar, last night in Hanoi before jumping over Dien Bien Phu)
Howard Simpson: - So, you gonna leave outhere you too? To parachute jump? At your age? This is stupid! In any case, it's already too late.
|
[edit] Historical quotes
- Comandant Bigeard's cease fire written order to Lieutenant Allaire, 7 May, 1954, Éliane 3. (source)
| Cdt. Bigeard: - Cease fire at 5:30PM. Stop shooting. No white flag. See you in a little while. Poor 6[th BPC]. Poor paras. |
- General Cogny (Saigon)'s cease fire -"let die the affair by itself"- radio message to, air-mail-General-upranked, Colonel de Castries (Dien Bien Phu), 7 May, 1954. Note: "my ol'" for mon vieux is a common affectious militar slang used only by high rank officers talking to another officer in the French Army. source: audio message archive
Gen. Cogny: - Hello, Hello Castries? Hello Castries?
|
- May 7, early in the morning, there were only a few thousands French alive, when the camp commander de Castries was contacted by General Cogny, based in the Hanoi Head Quarters and asking for a report about the remaining troops. source: audio message archive
Gen. de Castries: - It approximatively remains two companies from the 1st and 2nd BEP (Foreign Legion Paratrooper Battalions) altogether...
|
- May 7, around 9 o'clock AM, the French survivors have destroyed the remaining weapons, radio, cameras and important documents, when General de Castries made his very last reports to General Cogny. source: audio message archive
Gen. de Castries: - I will hang on as long as possible with what will remain my General.
|
- May 7, around 5 o'clock PM, order is given to stop firing and to destroy what remains so the Viet Minh cannot use captured material nor confidential information. This is the last communication between General de Castries and Dien Bien Phu. source: audio message archive
Gen. de Castries: - Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello?
|
- Schoendoerffer interview about the surrender: source: audio interview
| We had heavy heart. I know I was crying, I mean we were not the only ones. We were all in a such physical and nervous condition... we were down, but on top of all, we all had a kind of pang, which was something... something I don't like to remember even today, if you know what I mean. It is something really unpleasant. It is never a beautiful thing that to be defeated. |
[edit] Miscellaneous
- Hollywood director Francis Ford Coppola's famed Apocalypse Now Redux (1979/2001) includes a reference to Schoendoerffer's The 317th Platoon (and de facto to the Battle of Dien Bien Phu) in the French Plantation chapter. Apocalypse Now's egg scene: "the white leaves but the yellow stays" originally appeared in The 317th Platoon.
- French actress Aurore Clément plays a role in both Apocalypse Now (1979) and in Schoendoerffer's 1975 The Drum Crab (Le Crabe Tambour) movies.
- The Japanese theater version runs 140 minutes, and the VHS version 132 minutes. The Italian VHS version and Getman DVD are 115 minutes long. The French DVD version is 146 minutes.
- On May 7, 1954, the French officers, Lieutenant-Colonel Langlais and Commandant Bigeard, refused to rise their hands and did as they haven't heard the Viet Minh soldier shouting them - in both Vietnamese and French - to hold up. It was reported by Pierre Schoendoerffer, who was with them ¹.
- No white flag was used by the French as ordered by officers, however some Viet Minh have reported to have seen white flags. Schoendoerffer, among others witnesses, claims that what the Viet Minh propaganda movie shows as a white flag is actually a parachute.
- The Dien Bien Phu strongpoints are named after de Castries' former lovers, while the trench network is called "the subway" (Le Métro) by the soldiers who use Paris metro station names like Opera (Opéra), Elysian Fields (Les Champs-Élysées), Star (Étoile) for the trenches.
- Witnesses have reported that the trenches were falling down in late March because of the monsoon rain. There were three levels of corpses in Éliane 1, Foreign Legionaries, Viet Minhs and Paratroopers cadavers were all upside down, making a terrible smell.
- The Viet Minh trenches were so closed to the fortified camp that their artillery precisely attacked during the takeovers and forced some French to give orders in Briton instead, which was an efficient ruse when made possible.
[edit] Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role | Nationality |
|---|---|---|
| Donald Pleasence | Howard Simpson (writer, journalist) | British, American |
| Patrick Catalifo | Captain Victorien Jégu de Kerveguen (Foreign Legion) | French (Briton) |
| Jean-François Balmer | AFP employee (Agence France Presse) | French |
| Ludmila Mikaël | Béatrice Vergnes (violinist, Cpt. de Kerveguen's cousin) | French (Briton) |
| François Négret | Corporal (Train Detachment, temporary affectation) | French |
| Maxime Leroux | Artillery Lieutenant (African regiment) | French |
| Raoul Billerey | Father Wamberger (priest) | French (Alsatian) |
| Thé Anh | Ong Cop aka Mr. Tiger (gambler) | Chinese (Hong Kong) |
| Christopher Buchholz | Captain Morvan (3rd Bureau Chief-Staff) | French |
| Patrick Chauvel | Lieutenant Duroc (DC-3 pilot, French Air Force) | French |
| Eric Do | Lieutenant Ky (5th Vietnamese Parachute Battalion "Bawouan") | Vietnamese |
| Igor Hossein | Caporal-Chief photograph (Service Cinématographique des Armées) | French |
| Luc Lavandier | Sergeant (Thai unit) | French |
| Joseph Momo | Koulibali (African Artillery Regiment) | Gabonese |
| Lê Vân Nghia | Simpson's cycloman | Vietnamese |
| Sava Lolov | Thade Korzeniowski (Foreign Legion, Tank Chief) | Polish |
| Thu Ha | Cuc (Thade Korzeniowski's fiancee) | Vietnamese |
| Long Nguyen-Khac | Mr. Vinh (printer, nationalist) | Vietnamese |
| Maïté Nahyr | The Eurasian (opium dealer) | French-Vietnamese |
| André Peron | Lt. Ky's adjoint (5th Vietnamese Parachute Battalion "Bawouan") | French |
| Ludovic Schoendoerffer | Sergeant cameraman (Service Cinématographique des Armées) | French |
| Hoa Debris | Betty ("Normandie Chez Betty" bar's patron) | Vietnamese |
| "Charles" Fathy Abdi | Nam Yum rat (infantry deserter) | Morrocan |
| Pierre Schoendoerffer | Narrator (voice) | n/a |
[edit] See also
[edit] Media Links
- rare Operation Beaver/Dien Bien Phu siege 1953/1954 archive footage (WindowsMedia) "The Sacrifice" by Bernard Orcel, 35mm Service Cinématographique des Armées (ECPA) - archive footages (mms protocol not http)
- Gao Rang (aka Grilled Rice) - Documentary teaser directed by Claude Grunspan, 2001
[edit] Source links
- DienBienPhu.org
- DienBienPhu.info
- Report - some manipulated images - (fr)
- Accounts - handled images - (systran en)
- Air Force Magazine US involvement in the 1st Indochina War
- Diên Biên Phu 1954 par Dr. Jean-Philippe Liardet
- Dien Bien Phu, le Verdun indochinois Frère Michel de l’Immaculée triomphante
- Source for Airplane crash at Dien Bien Phu Aviation-Safety.net
- 2e Régiment Étranger de Parachutistes Foreign Legion Paratrooper 2th REP website
- French National Assembly Law N°1443 National Homage Day for the French Dead in Indochina proposition
- CAT pilots remaining found in Laos US secret involvement, AP
- Knights of the Legion of Honor to seven CAT pilots at Dien Bien Phu US secret involvement made official (French ambassy in USA)
- Bataillon Bigeard à Tu Lê 1952 by Alain Candy ISBN 2-258-04033-7
- CNN Cold War
- TroupesDeMarine.org
- 45 years later, defeat of French still resonates in Vietnam CNN
- Dien Bien Phu 1954-2004 50 years in Vietnamese (VietNamNet.vn)
- Commentary: Dienbienphu's historic battle Washington Times
- Triumphal Return to Hanoi (Vietnam)
- US Army in Vietnam Introduction commenting on Dien Bien Phu
- CAT pilots to be honored by France
