Our army successfully applied the tactic of "sneaking in", digging trenches, secretly approaching deep into the enemy's fort, so much so that the French army felt like our troops were "coming out of the ground" right in the middle of the enemy's fort. Photo: VNA file

The Campaign Command issued instructions on small unit encroachment tactics.

Previously, at the Conference of the Chiefs of Staff of the divisions and regiments, everyone “paid close attention to the experience of the 36th Regiment using the method of encroaching with small units to destroy position 106. The soldiers placed mountain artillery in Ban Keo, gradually destroying each gun emplacement and each enemy bunker on the outer perimeter of base 106, then suddenly charged into the post. More than a hundred enemy soldiers were caught off guard. Our troops quickly took control of the position”. (1)

Through exchanges and from the actual experience of the battle to destroy position 106 of the 36th Regiment as well as the operational experience of the troops in the recent days of building access fortifications, destroying some fences and destroying enemy bunkers at positions 105 and 206, the concept of using small units to "encroach" in field-based fortifications became increasingly clear and had a theoretical basis.

Accordingly, on April 13, 1954, the Campaign Command issued a Directive to the divisions on the tactics of encroachment by small units.

Anti-aircraft artillery soldiers coordinated closely with assault units to fiercely fight back enemy aircraft. Photo: VNA

In the book “General Hoang Van Thai and the Dien Bien Phu Campaign” it is clearly stated: “With the results of the discussion in the staff conference and the approval of the Campaign Command, on April 13 we issued instructions to the divisions on the tactics of encroaching by small units. When the Party Committee of the Front decided to assign the 88th Regiment to replace the 165th Regiment to attack position 105 and the 36th Regiment to attack position 206, we discussed with the 308th and 312th divisions on the application of the “encroaching” tactics for the above targets. (2)

The word “encroachment” became an official word used to define a form of tactics in the Dien Bien Phu Campaign.

In the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, implementing the motto "fight firmly, advance firmly", our troops created the encirclement method - a tactical form of attacking the enemy defending in solid fortifications by encircling, encroaching step by step, wearing down, destroying and encroaching from the outer perimeter to the inner perimeter, gradually weakening the enemy, and then completely destroying them.

Enemy planes did not dare fly low to drop parachutes for fear of being destroyed by our anti-aircraft units.

Under attack, the enemy in the positions of Hill C ran in disarray, our shock troops in the trenches used sniper rifles to shoot the enemy. Photo: VNA file

On the same day, April 13, 1954, at 3:00 p.m., an enemy B.26 bomber mistakenly dropped bombs on the French position, right near De Castries' command post, blowing up an ammunition depot and killing many soldiers.

After two attacks by us, the French Command saw that the Dien Bien Phu stronghold was in danger of being destroyed. All efforts by France and the US afterwards could not save the critical situation. Being tightly controlled by our artillery and anti-aircraft guns, not a single enemy plane could land at Muong Thanh.

The enemy had only one way left, which was to parachute troops and goods into Dien Bien Phu. But this method was extremely costly and ineffective because it encountered our anti-aircraft fire. Enemy planes did not dare to fly low to drop parachutes because they were easily destroyed by our anti-aircraft units. They were forced to drop parachutes from high above. Flying high was safer, but most of the parachutes dropped fell into our encirclement areas. For example, on April 13, the enemy's B.26 planes dropped bombs on their own positions. In the memoir "Dien Bien Phu, the historic rendezvous" by General Vo Nguyen Giap, it was clearly stated: "The difficulty for the pilots was not only in the increasingly concentrated anti-aircraft fire, but also in the fact that the two opposing sides were too close together."

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[Source: VNA;
(1), (2): General Hoang Van Thai and the Dien Bien Phu campaign, People's Army Publishing House, Hanoi , 2024, pp. 297, 298]

According to VNA