Word: giap
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Chill mists hung low over besieged Dienbienphu, and gecko lizards croaked in the night. From the hills, Communist General Giap's loudspeaker blared at the defenders in Vietnamese, French, Arabic and German: "Surrender or die." The 15,000 French Union defenders did not bother to reply. But back at headquarters in Hanoi there was less of an air of silent defiance. "If Giap will pay the price of at least 15,000 dead," said a top Vietnamese official, "he can probably have Dienbienphu." Said a Frenchman: "Before the battle I gave Giap a 20% chance to take the place...
DDay: Communist Commanding General Vo Nguyen Giap opens fire against Dienbienphu's two airstrips, supply dumps, parked aircraft and battalion-command posts. At 1700 hours, he concentrates 105-mm. fire-one shell every six seconds-against two French battalions on top of two 1,500-ft. hills to the northeast and the north of Dienbienphu. The French call these hill positions Beatrice and Gabrielle. A direct hit knocks out the For eign Legion command post on Beatrice. De Castries radios Indo-China command in far-off (180 miles) Hanoi: "The attack has begun...
Phase Two. At last, the weather clears. French tactical air flies 1,000 sorties in six days against the bleeding Communist army. General Giap pulls back into the jungle to re-form and count the cost. It is very high: about 3,500 killed, between 4,000 and 9,000-wounded. They have cracked the northern rim, but have not broken the main defenses of Dienbienphu. They have knocked out Dienbienphu's two airstrips, but supplies pour in and wounded move out in a motley armada of helicopters and transports that parachute their cargoes. For the French, the cost...
Each shell tells the defenders that Gen eral Giap is not through. Day & night, Communist soldiers squirm out of the jungle across the ground before the fortress to dig foxholes and assault trenches. Each time a sentry gazes out beneath a star shell, the Red shadows and the chink chink of digging seems to come closer. Outnumbered three to one, the defenders of Dienbienphu wait calmly this week for the assault they believe is sure to come...
...weeks Giap slowly edged three crack divisions, perhaps 36,000 men, around the periphery of Dienbienphu. Last week he was ready. Artillery fire poured in. Early one morning the radiotelephone crackled in Hanoi H.Q. of General Rene Cogny, the three-star commander of French Union forces in north Viet Nam. The voice of the garrison commander at Dienbienphu told Cogny the news: Giap was attacking at last...