Word: giap
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...General Giap last week concentrated eight regular Viet Minh divisions against the 300-mile edge of the Red River Delta. The French, anxiously awaiting reinforcements from Europe and North Africa, still believed they could hold. The position on the eve of the Delta battle: Communists: Giap has deployed two infantry divisions and one heavy-weapons division against the Delta's northern rim; he has two divisions ready in the south...
General Paul Ely, French chief of staff, flew to Hanoi last week to determine whether he could save the rice-rich Red River Delta. He came upon a darkening battleground. Red General Giap's advance guards were streaming through Mocchau (see map), less than 80 miles from Hanoi; Giap's 90,000 irregulars inside the delta were taking Vietnamese company outposts at the tumble-down rate of five or six a week; and a special Red task force, some ten battalions strong, was pressing a tight, coordinated attack against the three French positions around Phuly, the logical start...
There was yet no certainty that Giap would move his 40,000-man regular striking force against the delta before or during the summer rains: he had taken bitter losses at Dienbienphu and might need more time to recover. But the French generals knew Giap and feared that he would exploit the stalemate at Geneva by grabbing fast, even with weakened forces, for all of Indo-China...
...days last week, Red General Giap was able to move his infantry, his field artillery and his rocket-launchers down unobstructed roads toward the greatest single objective in all IndoChina: the teeming, rice-rich Red River Delta and its center, Hanoi...
...Giap clearly intended to keep the delta Frenchmen off balance while he rested his 40,000 regulars from their pummeling at Dienbienphu and redeployed them from the malarial jungles before the monsoon set in. Giap's likely next moves: first, break Route Coloniale 5 and isolate Hanoi ; second, storm Hanoi...