April 10, 1954: The French army captured part of C1, and soldiers of the 98th Regiment had to use bayonets in close combat with the enemy.

- According to our request, both sides returned the wounded: Wounded French soldiers were returned south of Claudine, on Highway 41; our wounded were returned at Km 2 of Pavie Road (to Lai Chau ). To carry out the remaining tasks of Phase 2, according to the determination of the Campaign Command at the Conference of campaign cadres summarizing the second phase (held on April 8), on April 10, 1954, the General Command issued Order No. 95/B1 to Divisions 308, 312, 316, 304, 351, assigning tasks to the units as follows: (See full text of the Order in Appendix 1) ( See full text of the Order in Appendix 1 ) + Division 308 was deployed in the west, from Nam Rom River to Ban Keo, with the task of creating a battlefield to attack strongholds 206, 311A, 311B, 310, deploying forces to block reinforcements between strongholds 105, 206, 208, coordinating with Division 312 to dig trenches across the airport in the southern section of stronghold 206. + Division 312 was deployed in the north, from Ban Keo to the eastern section of Muong Thanh airport, with the task of consolidating the defensive positions at bases 201 and 202; building attack positions at bases 105 and 203 in the area of the Thai puppet battalion No. 2; coordinating with Division 308 to dig trenches across the airport. + Division 316 built an attack position in the east of Muong Thanh, on the left bordering Division 312, on the right bordering Division 308, building attack positions at bases A1 and C2, consolidating the defensive positions at hills C1 and A1. + Regiment 57 (Division 304) continued to operate to encircle and block reinforcements in the Hong Cum sub-region. + Division 351 built additional artillery positions in the northwest of Muong Thanh, bringing artillery close to the basin area; organize air defense, closely coordinate artillery to support infantry and restrain enemy artillery. Also on April 10, 1954, the General Department of Politics issued Directive No. 88-CTH, signed by Comrade Nguyen Chi Thanh, Director of the General Department of Politics, on ideological leadership to complete the tasks of the Dong Xuan Campaign. The directive was sent to the divisions, command areas and subordinate regiments. ( See full text in Appendix 2 )

Our artillery units continued to shell enemy positions. Enemy positions hit by artillery shells are on fire. (Photo: VNA)

The directive commended the officers and soldiers for their spirit of enduring hardships, overcoming difficulties, fighting bravely and achieving many great achievements, especially in the battles at Gia Lam airport, Cat Bi, Highway 5 and the Central Highlands. Our troops met the requirements of the mission and could continue to fight for a longer period, but there also arose thoughts of fatigue, subjectivity, underestimating the enemy, some were not proactive in attacking and destroying and were afraid of the enemy. Comrade Nguyen Chi Thanh proposed the ideological leadership motto: to step up propaganda, encourage the fighting spirit of the troops, raise the determination to destroy the enemy to a new level; overcome the subjective thoughts of fearing the enemy, being afraid of fatigue and wanting to rest; actively coordinate with Dien Bien Phu, destroy more enemy forces, and achieve complete victory for the Winter-Spring Campaign.

Map of the Dien Bien Phu stronghold. Source: Erwan Bergot, Dien Bien Phu: 170 days and nights of siege, translated by Le Kim, CAND Publishing House and Phuong Nam Cultural Company, Hanoi, 2003

In the Dien Bien Phu Campaign, for the first time, we mobilized and used a large number of motor vehicles, mainly automobiles, to transport mainly the volume of logistics and technical materials for the campaign. In the article "Lessons on promoting the spirit of creativity in ensuring the technical support for the Dien Bien Phu Campaign" (Proceedings of the Scientific Conference "Dien Bien Phu Victory - Historical and Realistic Values (May 7, 1954 - May 7, 2019) , Lieutenant General Le Quy Dam, Director of the General Department of Engineering, wrote: "The Department of Transport launched an emulation movement in units to focus on repairing damaged automobiles to quickly put them into service for the campaign. Company 202 repaired 12 vehicles on its own, of which 9 were seriously damaged, and Company 206 repaired 4 vehicles on its own and put them into use immediately.

In addition to the movement of self-repairing and upgrading vehicles in units, the Military Vehicle Industry has creatively organized a technical guarantee system to serve motor vehicles transporting from the rear to the front line.

On the way to the front, there is the AZ11 repair workshop at Dong Ly intersection ( Yen Bai ) which has been equipped with many new equipments, regularly repairing vehicles operating to transport goods from the rear to the central warehouses. The repair team in Tuan Giao - Dien Bien Phu (Km70) ensures priority repairs for vehicles operating in the central and front lines. ... With the spirit of "Love your vehicle like a child, cherish gasoline like blood" , during the campaign, the drivers and repairmen took care of it day and night to ensure that the vehicles and machines were always of good quality, ready to receive tasks, increase the mobility of the vehicles, increase the weight of carrying rice, ammunition and pulling artillery into the battlefield according to the plan and time specified; broken vehicles were quickly repaired by the technical force right on the march to reduce downtime. To ensure the best technical equipment for vehicles, more than 800 drivers and 300 repairmen from the vehicle and transport industry and the public works industry were also mobilized to join the campaign in time.

Nhandan.vn

Source