In his letter, General Vo Nguyen Giap held that:

General Vo Nguyen Giap and military units participating in the Dien Bien Phu Campaign on the battlefield (A filed photo: VNA)

“The French garrison came under direct fire from our forces. In order to further attrite the enemy’s strength and will, make them panicked to the point of not being able to eat and sleep well, and create favorable conditions for our troops to fight the enemy in Dien Bien Phu,

I call upon:

The whole gunners and combatants,

Let’s uphold your spirit of fighting the enemy, try your best on the battlefield.

One bullet to take an enemy out!...”

Our troops digging trenches and secretly approaching deep into the enemy's position (A filed photo: VNA)

It was clear that the presence of Viet Minh on several hills in the east of the Dien Bien Phu fortress group threatened some garrisoned positions of the enemy’s central area along the Nam Rom river.

The French colonialists knew that Viet Minh sooner or later would deploy artillery to Dominique outposts. However, the hotpot at that time was Eliane. Here Vietnamese soldiers occupied the whole Eliane 1 (or Hill C1 outpost) and a part of Eliane 2 (or Hill A1 outpost). The enemy’s troops became mobile targets of Viet Minh marksmen. Viet Minh’s grenade launchers set on top of hills threatened the enemy in trenches.

Within only 10 days of the second attack on the Dien Bien Phu fortress group, Viet Minh troops of Division 312 killed 110 enemy servicemen. Notably, it took soldier Luc Van Thong of the division’s Regiment 165 only one day to eliminate 10 enemy troops. Meanwhile, soldier Doan Tuong of the division’s Regiment 88 took the life nine enemy troops with the remaining nine bullets in his rifle.

Viet Minh’s tactics of attacking and encircling French soldiers and using snipers to attrite the enemy’s strength and confidence worked successfully. It helped reduce casualties and ammunition consumption for Viet Minh.

Source: People's Army Newspaper