Page 259 - Thorn In The Heart

Chinh Nguyên

the love for country in their souls as the weapon to fight with
any foreign force and always think of the spiritual sacrifice.

Vietminh soldiers had guns on their hands with the fighting
spirit in their souls, and ready want to die for the country. They
made French troops sliming, and worse on the combat, while
Lieutenant Colonel Langlais inspired his men to hold their
ground whenever possible. However, his troops were unable to
be strong enough for his offense and defense his camps.

During the daytime of combat, Vietminh accurate anti-
aircraft guns forced French warplanes flying over the exploded
range. Therefore pilots were unable to strike at the targets; even
they tried to bomb many times. A lot of French warplanes broke
up in the air as the fireballs and dropped on the surrounding hills
with some pilots survived and were prisoners. The French air-
supply missions became more difficult to drop any supplies into
the camp, tie up and dangerous on the sky of Dien-Bien-Phu
valley.

French soldiers had risked their lives for the food,
ammunition and medical in daily and able to slim down at their
positions — these problems General Navarre was unable to
solve for balance his troops and keep his troop's inability to
fight.

Vietminh was oversupply that came from Soviet and China
through Lao-Cai city in Vietnam, where was closed to the border
South China. Vietminh convoys transported these supplies to
Tuan-Giao, and few thousand civilian volunteer porters carried
all necessary supplies on their back or their load bicycles. They
were moving at night about 70 miles from Tuan-Giao to the
surrounding hills of Dien-Bien-Phu valley. Vietminh got these
supplies and comfortable to fight with French troops until the
last day.

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