The precious map in Dien Bien Phu Campaign

During the days of intense intellectual battles, we won a particularly important trophy – a 1/25,000 scale map of the Dien Bien Phu basin area along with many aerial photos, clearly capturing the defenses of the French expeditionary force bases from above.

In his memoir “Dien Bien Phu - Historical Rendezvous”, General Vo Nguyen Giap stated that the Dien Bien Phu stronghold was located in a basin, surrounded by mountains, about 1,000 m high. The large mountains that controlled Muong Thanh airport were all 10-12 km away. If we placed artillery on the mountainside outside the basin, the target would also be out of range. We were forced to place artillery on the mountainside inside the basin. But this was exactly what the enemy had calculated. The artillery commander in Muong Thanh had promised Navarre: after only 3 artillery shots from the Viet Minh, the firing point would be immediately extinguished.

The 1/25,000 scale map of Dien Bien Phu is kept and displayed at the Vietnam Military History Museum. Photo: People's Army Newspaper

However, our side only had a 1/100,000 map that lacked many details, so the artillery force had to use binoculars to observe the slopes while walking, and to supplement the mountains and streams that were not on the map. At this time, not only us but also the French General Staff were very worried because the old maps with many errors would greatly affect the use of air force firepower, especially artillery. Therefore, the French used airplanes to take pictures and systematize the Dien Bien Phu defense map.

Right from the beginning of the campaign, the military intelligence and reconnaissance units at the front were ordered to find every way to capture the enemy's map. In the bitterly cold winter, the military intelligence soldiers of Company 62, Battalion 426 patiently hid in the bushes next to the Nam Rom River, observing during the day and going to the enemy's positions at night. When they discovered the enemy dropping red parachutes (officer parachutes), Platoon Leader Tran Van Phan consulted and decided to break into the Muong Thanh airport area with his teammates to search for the parachute. At around 6:00 p.m. that night, the reconnaissance team crawled nearly 6 km, went through 7 layers of barbed wire and brought the cargo back in the early morning of December 25, 1953. Discovering inside the cargo were rolls of maps and developed photos, the reconnaissance team immediately transferred the spoils to the campaign's military intelligence department. From here, the campaign staff immediately sent people to bring the precious 1/25,000 maps to the Map Department, General Staff in the rear. With extremely rudimentary means, we printed more than 3,000 copies of this 1/25,000 scale map, promptly delivering them to the front line at the right time when the troops deployed their preparations according to the new combat motto of "fighting firmly, advancing firmly".

President Ho Chi Minh , General Vo Nguyen Giap and other Party and State leaders discussed plans to launch the Dien Bien Phu Campaign in 1954. Photo: Archive

When recalling these memories, in his memoir “Dien Bien Phu - The Historical Campaign”, General Hoang Van Thai, Chief of Staff of the Dien Bien Phu Campaign Command, said that the most excited people when receiving the map still smelling of ink were the artillery officers. On that detailed map, the artillery formation and targets were precisely identified. We used that map to prepare the firing elements, as well as later used the 105mm howitzer shells captured from the enemy to fire on their heads. As the artillery brothers said, in this campaign, the artillery troops, on their first battle, twice “used the Western stick to beat the Western back”.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/chinh-tri/lich-su-truyen-thong/202505/tam-ban-do-quy-trong-chien-dich-dien-bien-phu-eff0212/