More than ten days of hard work and fighting after the first attack, our attack and siege were basically completed. Over one hundred kilometers of trenches along with tens of thousands of pits surrounded the enemy's central battlefield. We officially accept the enemy's long-standing challenge, accepting a "face to face" battle.
Our army successfully applied the tactic of "attacking the enemy", digging trenches, and secretly approaching deep into the enemy's post, so much so that the French army felt like our soldiers "came up from the ground" right in the middle of the enemy post. Photo: VNA files
To encourage our officers and soldiers before the second attack of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, on March 2, 29, General Vo Nguyen Giap, Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People's Army, sent a letter to the officers. infantry and soldiers before the attack on the Eastern area of Dien Bien Phu stronghold. The General affirmed: "Today our offensive and siege battlefield has been largely completed. It is truly a huge project. That project helped us tighten the siege, limiting reinforcements and supplies from the enemy. Not only that, our battlefield placed the enemy's entire area within range of our mortar fire, and at the same time helped our troops move closer to attack the enemy. The offensive and encircled battlefield made many of the enemy's intense bombings almost ineffective. The offensive and siege battlefield will bring us many new victories."
Our battlefield is not just a front line, providing a safe haven for our soldiers. It also allows us to easily approach enemy bases, launch surprise attacks, allowing us to effectively deal with counterattacks, as well as safely retreat when we need to end the battle. , helping officers and soldiers have unexpected creativity during combat.
Our trench battle has broken the basic structure of the stronghold group, completely separating the Hong Cum subdivision from the central area. From now on, De Cat could not expect relief from the battalions stationed south of Muong Thanh field.
In the book "Dien Bien Phu - Historical rendezvous", General Vo Nguyen Giap said that people can easily see the difference between our battlefield and the enemy's battlefield on the battlefield.
The enemy's battlefield was red trenches and pits, arranged very concentrated and closed, lying dead in the middle of a forest of lead-colored barbed wire and minefields, filled with colorful parachutes. Our battlefield is a trench running as far as the eye can see surrounding the enemy battlefield, with no obstacles, pure bright red soil, inside there are many branches reaching towards the enemy battlefield, in the process of developing itself. new branches grow again. This giant, rapidly growing wire loop is what will determine the fate of Dien Bien Phu's steel hedgehog.
The enemy reacted very strongly to the development of trenches, even more harshly when the resistance centers of the northern sector collapsed one after another. That proves we are moving forward on the path to victory.
The enemy clearly saw a new attack of ours targeting the eastern hills through the trenches.
We expect the second attack to be decisive for the campaign.
During the second attack, our troops used small forces to encircle and attack on the ground, while also shooting at aircraft, eliminating the enemy's supply and reinforcement sources. Photo: VNA files
In the second attack, our troops aimed at three purposes:
Also in the letter sent to officers and soldiers before the attack on the Eastern area of Dien Bien Phu stronghold on March 29, 3, General Vo Nguyen Giap clearly stated 1954 purposes of this attack:
First, destroy as many enemies as possible. To achieve that goal, not only must we attack many points at once, but we must also have extremely brave and heroic units, attacking deeply into the enemy's depths, causing confusion and destroying a lot of their vitality. them, destroy some of their command agencies;
Second, destroy and capture a part of the enemy's fire positions, making them lose their support, then immediately use their fire positions to shoot them in the head;
Third, capture terrain that is beneficial to us and use it as our battlefield to take a step forward to strongly threaten the remaining enemies.
Four conditions for our army to win:
The Commander-in-Chief assessed that our army has the following four conditions for victory:
– This time, we concentrated on absolute superiority in troops as well as firepower, especially because all of our mortars can shoot straight and right into the enemy's deep areas.
– We have a fairly solid attack and siege battlefield; Thus, in this battle, our troops still firmly grasp the motto "Fight firmly, advance firmly".
– Our soldiers have gone through successful battles in the past, have experienced successful battlefield construction, have more experience fighting group strongholds than before, believe that they can definitely fight and have the determination to fight for them. period okay.
- The enemy's morale inside the siege is getting worse and worse, there are many wounded soldiers, supplies are difficult, every day we hope that the aircraft will bombard our fire positions and kill our soldiers but it is ineffective. more worried and confused.
In the second attack, we concentrated on our superiority in troops and firepower to simultaneously capture the eastern high points. In the photo: The fighting for paralysis took place on hill C area. Photo: VNA file
Difficulties our troops encounter:
In a letter to officers and soldiers before the attack on the Eastern area of Dien Bien Phu stronghold on March 29, 3, General Vo Nguyen Giap pointed out the difficulties:
– The first difficulty is that some comrades do not clearly recognize the situation of the enemy and us, causing subjective disregard for the enemy, thus neglecting the organization of combat, easily leading to failure. Some comrades do not yet realize the importance of the upcoming battle, so they do not try their best and easily disregard the task.
– The second difficulty is, organizing combat. To score points, you must organize a breakthrough quickly, don't make the same mistakes as before. To attack deeply into the enemy's depths, we must organize our troops to be strong and compact, with enough explosive power, enough light weapons, and enough impulse.
– In addition, there are other difficulties in organizing combat such as advancing during the day, how to avoid congestion, mastering communication, etc. Those are specific difficulties, if officers and If all the soldiers pay attention to overcoming it, we will definitely win.
After analyzing the purpose of the second attack, the conditions for our army to win, and the difficulties our army will encounter, to ensure victory, the General said: "Just do one thing correctly. The demand is that all officers and soldiers must be imbued with the determination of above. When going into battle, they must be resolute and courageous, fight quickly, resolve quickly, fight like a storm, and not lose a single opportunity to fight. destroy the enemy. The first one falls, the next one rises, cadres and party members set an example for the entire army, each soldier sets an example while volunteering to kill the enemy, everyone has a great spirit, not afraid of difficulties, not afraid casualties, causing the enemy to see the shadow of our army in fear. All must have such determination, must emulate and raise high the flag of "Determining to fight, determined to win" of President Ho Chi Minh.
*Also on March 29, 3, before the second offensive began on March 1954, 2, the General Military Commission sent a letter to all party comrades at the front, writing: "The battle The upcoming battle is a very large battle of decisive nature, leading to a general attack to destroy all enemy troops at Dien Bien Phu. Comrades, let's further uphold the exemplary courageous fighting spirit of Labor Party members, especially in these difficult and decisive moments. All of our comrades in the upcoming battle must be resolute and courageous, strike quickly and resolve quickly, strike as hard as a storm, not missing a single opportunity to destroy the enemy, and lead the entire army. The officers and soldiers completed the glorious tasks assigned to them by the Party."
