Operation Ceinture
| Operation Ceinture | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the First Indochina War | |||||||||
 The region of Dong Bac, encompassing much of the Hanoi, Thai Nguyen and Tuyen Quang area. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
.svg.png){kind=small} Viet Minh | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| General Valluy[1] | Unknown | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 18 battalions[2] |
Regiment 112 Doc Lap Brigade | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown | 9,500[2] | ||||||||
Operation Ceinture was a late 1947 military endeavour by the French Far East Expeditionary Corps against the Viet-Minh during the First Indochina War. A month-long effort that commenced on 20 November following the cessation of Operation Lea, Ceinture (French: belt) intended to rid the region between Hanoi, Thai Nguyen and Tuyen Quang of Viet-Minh infiltration.[1] The French utilised 18 paratroop battalions and naval landing craft to engage the Viet-Minh's 112 Regiment, however the latter were able to for the most part slip through French cordons, abandoning weapon caches. Dead and wounded totals given by Bernard Fall for the Viet-Minh reach 9,500, however he suggests that a portion were non-combatants.[2]
The French did succeed in securing the region, and they withdrew their forces on 22 December, leaving a scattering of jungle fortifications to hold the region.[2]
Notes
References
Printed
- Hammer, Ellen Joy (1954). The struggle for Indochina. Stanford University Press.
- Buttinger, Joseph (1972). A dragon defiant: a short history of Vietnam. Praeger.
- Fall, Bernard B. (1967). Hell in a very small place: the siege of Dien Bien Phu. Lippincott.
- Kedward, Rod (2006). La vie en bleu: France and the French since 1900. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-013095-9.
- Roy, Jules (1963). The battle of Dienbienphu. Pyramid Books.
- Windrow, Martin (2005-12-26). The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam. Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81443-3.
- Fall, Bernard B. (1994). Street without joy. Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-1700-7.
- Devillers, Philippe; Lacouture, Jean (1969). End of a war; Indochina, 1954. Praeger.
- Fall, Bernard B. (1963). The two Viet-Nams: a political and military analysis. Praeger.