1er février 1954 – Diên Biên Phu (Indochine française)
Le médecin lieutenant Patrice de Carfort du 8e bataillon de parachutistes de choc (BPC) soigne un blessé sur le terrain.
French POWs pass a destroyed M24 Chaffee after the surrender of Dien Bien Phu, 1954.
French POWs pass a destroyed M24 Chaffee after the surrender of Dien Bien Phu, 1954.
Paratroopers
of the French Army’s 35th Parachute Light Artillery Regiment (35e
régiment d’artillerie légère parachutiste) operate a 75mm recoilless
rifle during Operation Castor, at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam. Dec
1953.
Paratroopers
of the French Army’s 35th Parachute Light Artillery Regiment (35e
régiment d’artillerie légère parachutiste) operate a 75mm recoilless
rifle during Operation Castor, at Dien Bien Phu, Vietnam. Dec
1953.
Supply drop to Dien Bien Phu
(Joseph Scherschel. 1954)
The supply loads had to be small enough for a single porter to carry, since the French Union Forces lost control of the airstrip in the first days of the siege.
Generals Cogny and Gilles. Indochina, 1953
M-24 Chaffee Dien Bien Phu.
I’ve looked up american fragging incidents in Vietnam (800 in one year), a prison riot at Long Binh, men leaving to go on patrol only to turn around after like, twenty metres or refusing to go all together. I even heard of a firebase mutiny where soldiers actually put their officers under siege in their command bunker. How did the US military break down so badly?
> Draft
> Heavy counter-culture movements in the country
> A country no one knew existed until the army came
> Terrible humid climate that made everyone miserable
> Extreme use of drugs and alcohol.
> Pointless bloody battles fought in places that seemed random
> No clear goals, frontlines and even enemy formations
Way too much stuff got in the way to make it one hell of a war.
Failure to learn from he past.
The US was fighting a colonial resource war, the Vietnamese were fighting a war of national liberation.
A Dien Bien Phu, le SCH André Leguennec de la 2e Cie
distribue le courrier de sa section. Il sera tué sur Dominique II le 25
mars 1954.A soldier distributing mail for his section. He was killed the 25th of March 1954.