Special For Battle of Dien Bien Phu Students

[John Kettler]

While visiting brother George and family in Tacoma WA area, got to go to a killer bookstore in Tacoma and got a great deal on a stack of MHQ (Military History Quarterly) which were shipped home with other books I got there and other places. Haven't read the MHQ article, yet, but one of the Table of Contents entries talked about an opium connection to French fortress of Dien Bien Phu. News to me, so it went on my Let Long Left Flank Know List, in case he didn't know this already. Did a quick online search to see what else I might be able to turn up without going through a pile of MHQ, and found this, which not only confirms an opium connection but describes decades of the opium history of Indochina and, later, Vietnam. Massively documented article!


https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/cultivating-subjects-opium-and-rule-in-postcolonial-vietnam/6179DD3E7F977B76868617CBB2155984

Regards,

John Kettler

[John Kettler]

The MHQ article is in Volume 7, Number 4, on Page 100. It's titled Dien Bien Phu And The Opium Connection and is by Douglas Porch.

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited September 7, 2021 by John Kettler

[John Kettler]

As part of a doc on military blunders, there is a long segment (starting at ~30:30) on the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. The doc includes interviews with such key participants as General Giap, who produced an astounding statistic on the logistics of the battle from the Viet Minh side. To get 1 kg of supplies from the main supply base 700 km away took 24 kgs of food. And it was Giap who designed and implemented this war-winning logistics network that did the "impossible" and on a huge scale at that. One of the French regimental commanders is interviewed, as is the soldier who captured General De Castries. The ground truth footage is extremely revelatory, in ways no written account can quite convey, and a fascinating large diorama the Vietnamese have today of the battle showing its key terrain, attacks, process of siege and much more bring the battle to life in ways that the written record can't. It's hard to overstate just how dominating the heights over the main part of the fortress were. There is also footage from the Viet Minh side, but I think much of it is a reconstruction rather than a live record of the climactic stages of the battle and immediate aftermath. 
 

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited September 10, 2021 by John Kettler

[John Kettler]

Bet this mission had plenty of volunteers, Mini-scenario possibility, LongLeftFlank? For those who never heard of vinogel (I sure hadn't until someone mentioned it on the CoC FB page), here's the story.

 

"As well as beer and choum, French troops were still issued with a wine ration, even in the field. When out on operations carrying around bottles of wine in large quantities was impractical so in their combat ration kits soldiers were issued with a dehydrated wine concentrate called ‘Vinogel’, sometimes nicknamed ‘Tiger blood’.

The idea was to mix the vinogel with two parts water to one part wine (many preferred one to one of course) but there were some who simply ate it in its dehydrated state.

In 1947 the French war minister, Paul Coste-Floret, had visited Indochina and became somewhat distressed at the idea of vinogel.

‘You see’, he lectured the French commander in chief, General Raoul Salan: ‘It’s not something you drink, it’s something you eat. I’m going to send you some decent wine.’

‘You might send a few battalions as well,’ Salan suggested. His own practical anxieties, juxtaposed against the often frivolous and muddled concerns of successive French politicians, would prove well founded.[3]"

And now to perhaps the most unusual reason for a raid ever!
 

"On 30 April, as the historian Bernard Fall[5]relates, the legionnaires of the 13eme demi-brigade were faced with the prospect of celebrating Camerone with just one miserable bottle of wine per platoon. Then word came through that two crates of vinogel were among the para-drop that had fallen into no man’s land opposite them that day. A recovery party was put together (everyone volunteered one veteran remembered) led by a Major Coutant.

To ensure the safe retrieval of the crates, the legionnaires first had to head over to the enemy lines and destroy several bunkers, a task that was completed with plastic explosives and 10 enemy killed and many wounded for no loss of their own. The vinogel was recovered and day’s celebrations were saved.

The French commander, General Christian de Castries, radioed his superiors in Hanoi that evening detailing the raid’s success – though omitting the actual purposes for which it had been staged."

Regards,

John Kettler

 

[John Kettler]

The history of vinogel in the legion is in the front of the article on page 14 in this French (English language) magazine. It's nothing new, having first joined the Legion in 1850! Recaps the vinogel raid and even has a sketch map.

https://issuu.com/thedsm/docs/dsm-may15-online

Regards,

John Kettler

[Combatintman]

John - if you recall LLF made it quite clear that his DBP project - which is deader than a dead thing due to how the game handles fortification and indirect fire - had all of the research banked.  While your findings may be of interest and welcome to other people here, I would suggest it is pointless appealing to LLF in this thread.

[John Kettler]

Combatintman,

Didn't recall much other than that he worked like crazy on the project and had already ead everything I dug up. Had the project succeeded, I think the vinogel recovery would've been a fun minigame. thanks for letting me know.

Regards,

John Kettler

[Combatintman]

No problem John.