May 3, 1954: The French army stepped up reinforcements to rescue Dien Bien Phu

ABO/NDO- On May 3, 1954, the French army reinforced Company 2 of Colonial Parachute Battalion No.1 with 1,100 57mm guns and about 400 heavy machine guns, which were dropped at Dien Bien Phu. In Hai Phong, the aircraft carrier Bois Belleau docked at the port.

* In the article “Viet Bac inter-region coordinated with the Dien Bien Phu front” (Proceedings of the Scientific Conference entitled “Dien Bien Phu Victory with the cause of building and protecting the socialist Fatherland of Vietnam”), People’s Army Publishing House, Hanoi, 2024, Lieutenant General Nguyen Hong Thai wrote:

A group of frontline workers serving Dien Bien Phu Campaign. (Photo: VNA).

“Faced with the urgent requirements of the mission to support the battlefield, the Viet Bac Inter-Region Party Committee issued a Directive on “actively protecting national defence roads”, encouraging the military and people to promote their role as rearguards in coordination with the main front of Dien Bien Phu. The Viet Bac Inter-Regional Command assigned the task of preserving and repairing intra-provincial roads to each locality in charge of protection. With constant efforts, the army and people of the Viet Bac Inter-Region mobilised 2,368,876 labour days to renew more than 1,600km of roads and built 214 bridges with a total length of 2,482m. The entire Inter-region had up to 36,519 people going to work on the fire line; in particular, there are many families with three generations going to the front together. People from Viet Bac ethnic groups donated money to buy more than 6,000 bicycles, forming the “Throne Hand Army” to participate in transporting goods to serve the Dien Bien Phu front. Furthermore, people mobilised to support the front with 4,680 tonnes of rice, 454 tonnes of meat, 113 tonnes of beans, and 800 tonnes of vegetables. The group of citizens including old and young people, girls and boys rushed day and night to gathering points on Road No.1 and Road No.3 to receive aid goods from brotherly countries and transport them to the Dien Bien Phu battlefield”.

* In the book named Late Confession, Hanoi Publishing House, 2004, p.78, Marcel Bigeard (later General, Minister of Defence of France) wrote: “The people trained by General Giap were truly wonderful warriors! Vietnamese counterattacks blocked our artillery, and our mortars could not fire”.

(Source: NDO)