Word: strongpoints
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...must be convinced that with his help they would find the "New Jerusalem" in France-despite his convictions, expressed in another letter, that they were "the most despicable race in the world." The same "practical" approach appeared in his fondness for fabricated "accidents," e.g., the destruction of an enemy strongpoint during a ceasefire period. "You can say if you like," he told the marshal who was to do the dirty work, "that a magazine blew up, or that the explosion was due to powder stored in the cellars...
...battle citations and the mystique of a great tradition: "The Legion is Our Country." Many times the Legion had fought for honor in a losing cause, for Gambetta at Orleans, for Maximilian in Mexico. Now there were 1,500 Legionnaires in Indo-China ready to die for Strongpoint Isabelle. They were commanded by Colonel André Lalande from St. Cyr Military Academy, veteran of Narvik, El Alamein, Italy and the Vosges. Lalande was a tough customer: his Legionnaires called him "baroudeur," a brawler. Lalande did not wait for the Communists to come...
Failure in Battle. At 2100 hours there was a muffled stirring within the enemy lines. Mortars opened up, thump and rustle, against six French strongpoints. Communist 1055 and 755 put down harassing fire-nothing more-upon the isolated strongpoint of Isabelle, three miles to the south. At 2 200, high explosives cracked sharply from the edge of the French barbed wire. Then four Red regiments drove in relentlessly. They achieved tactical surprise...
...divisions crack the northeast strongpoint, overrun three of its five or six outposts. Then the Communists take Bald Head. At 2200, French Commanding Colonel Christian de Castries calls for air support. Privateers, B-26s, Bearcats, even DC-3 transports sprinkle high explosive and napalm into Red infantry support zones, but the enemy holds its gains. French HQ later admits: "The first news...
...Plus-Three: The day of climax. At 0100, Giap hurls part of his third and only fresh division against Dienbienphu's untouched northwest strongpoint. Its code name: Huguette. The French here are outnumbered six or eight to one. The defenses crumble. By 0400, the Communists locust-swarm over two of Huguette's five or six outposts. One 50-man suicide squad infiltrates the French center, gets within 200 yards of De Castries' command post before it is wiped out. De Castries calls out staff officers, cooks, orderlies, switchboard operators for the infantry fight. Reports sift out that...