Comments on: Chaffees at Dien Bien Phu – Part II

By: nguyen duc Trung

nguyen duc Trung — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 08:39:56 +0000

yeah sure, the chinese government came in power in 1949 had so many refined soviet – licensed weapons, like their industrial strength at the time allowed them to build big and heavy weapons right off the start, and did you read my post? I wrote that vietnam had ww1 and ww2 equipment, no post war like sks or ak 47.
And those RPG they mentioned are not RPG soviet or chinese made whatsoever, those were recoiless rifle under the name DKZ (Đạn không zật), made in vietnam under Trần Đại Ngĩa design:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recoiless_rifle
“The Viet Minh also developed their own recoilless rifle under the direction of Tran Dai Nghia. The Vietnamese version was named SKZ or Sung khong giat (a Vietnamese translation of “recoilless rifle”) and was used intensively in assaulting the French bunkers and fortified positions.”
About BM-13 sure vietnam had them in dbp, but do you know what day they took part in? 6/5/1954, 1 day before dbp fell with only 12 BM-13, the soviet did not decide to deliver BM-13 to vietnam until the later part of the operation when the victory was certain.
The only slight advantage you mentioned were:
air support, viet minh: none
armored vehicle, vietminh: none
well fed, well equiped, trained solders, vietnam lost about 400.000 to 2 millions people in 1945 because of famine, the army itself form in 1944, using sharpen bamboo as one of the main weapon until 1952, each village’s militia had only 1 french hand gun with 6 bullets. Want to shoot more than 5 105mm shells? have to ask permission from commander in chief, the french chaffee shot more than 15000 shells.
slight advantage indeed.

By: exocet6951

exocet6951 — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 06:52:01 +0000

“Giap was continuously strenghtening his units, he also started using the BM-13 rocket launchers (the famous “Katyushas”).”
” Posen was hit by an RPG”
“7 high caliber MG’s and two 37mm guns”

Please, tell us more, how in the early 50′s Chinese had their own equipment and not Soviet-licensed stuff.
How RPGs and BM-13s are WWI era.

If you want to act like that, the French were also using WWI and WWII equipment, seeing as their rifles were 30′s models, and tanks WWII era.
The west lost so many men in that region of the world because equipment-wise, they weren’t that much better off in the first place. And when that’s your only slight advantage, you get your ass kicked.

By: GhostofChristmasPast

GhostofChristmasPast — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 05:36:06 +0000

Very interesting, thanks.

I do think that there is much too little cooperation between Western and Vietnamese historians (and Western and Chinese ones), which makes so much of ‘our’ history of the Indochina, Vietnam and Korean war so terrible.

I hope it’s merely a language barrier problem, and not because ‘we’ are still too butthurt to properly assess why ‘we’ were so roundly beaten.

By: Crate

Crate — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 04:43:20 +0000

A headlong attack into prepared positions is usually bad news for the attacker, siege or no siege.

By: nguyen duc Trung

nguyen duc Trung — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 20:04:37 +0000

Not soviet, chinese and no rpg, vietnam only has rpg 2 in late 50s and widely spread in the 60s, main armaments were still ww1 and ww2 stuff,no sks or ak 47, vietnam had artillery before dien bien phu, captured from french but had no use for them, limited shells and no training crew, dien bien phu was the first battle where vietnam had their first artillery trained units taking part in combat, but the shells were still scarce, if you wanted to fire more than 5 105mm shells, you have to ask commander in chief for permission. And last but not least, the main vehicle use for logistic was bicycle, not for transporting troops, like in ww1 but for everything else but troops like rice, ammunition etc, the troops either climbing mountains and hills on foot or climbing mountains and hills on foot while pulling tons of steel on wheels known as artillery through said mountains and hills.
And true about tactics, terrain and solders’ dedication, until 1952, i kid you not, sharpen bamboo (gậy tầm vông) was still one of the main armament

By: exocet6951

exocet6951 — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 18:55:01 +0000

Never forget Hong Kong was taken from the British by Japanese soldiers with bicycles.

Unless your enemy has weapons that are incapable of damaging you, tactics, terrain and the soldiers’ dedication trumps having only the technological advantage.
Even then, debatable as the Viet Minh had Soviet equipment. RPGs and 37mm automatic AA guns aren’t exactly WWI equipment.

By: Phan

Phan — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 16:57:15 +0000

Sr for double posts, first time reply here.

By: Phan

Phan — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 16:53:26 +0000

The army with well trained, well
armed, air support,…lost the
army with guns from WW1?
It’s like 1 tier 10 tank was killed
by 10 MS-1.
How’s terrible!

By: Phan

Phan — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 16:52:07 +0000

The army with well trained, well armed, air support,…lost the army with guns from WW1?
It’s like 1 tier 10 tank was killed by 10 MS-1.
How’s terrible!

By: Dr_Wycior

Dr_Wycior — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 16:24:44 +0000

Pls go trolling elsewhere.