The Battle of Dien Bien Phu ended on the 8th of May, 1954

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu marked the end of the First Indochina War that was happening from 1946 between France and the Viet Minh (The League for the Independence of Vietnam). Initially, in November of 1953 French paratroopers were paradropped in the valley of Dien Bien Phu.<br><br>Dien Bien Phu itself was a valley, but the French occupied various hills surrounding the valley. In the valley itself the French occupied strong points such as standing positions and barbed wire. The French also put in place supply aircraft coming to the airport that was in the valley, and which the French heavily garrisoned to protect supply aircraft coming in.<br><br>The attacks on Dien Bien Phu began in march 1954 with the Viet Minh attacking the hills and the supply depots and supply huts that stood outside the valley. The French didn’t manage to win any of the battles that took place on the hills, and they soon lost access to the outside world after the airport was overrun by the Viet Minh. The Viet Minh had severely damaged the runway as well, which made the airport unusable to the French, so they had to rely on dropping supplies from the air. However, the Viet Minh had also overrun the supply huts, and had taken a lot of the supplies, so the French were low on supplies, especially due to the fact that they were constantly running low on supplies, and due to the fact that they were outnumbered, and outgunned, and surrounded.<br><br>So the French repeatedly tried to evacuate the valley, but they all failed. Many of them were captured by the Viet Minh and taken as prisoners of war, and others either surrendered or fled into the jungle. The Viet Minh didn’t let up though, and they started to attack the French inside the valley. At the end, the French tried to evacuate Dien Bien Phu with Operation Albatros which was a plan to evacuate the garrison using helicopters. However, the French were short of helicopters, and the Viet Minh had already started to overrun some of the strong points in the valley.<br><br>On the 7th of May, 1954 the Viet Minh breached the walls of the main headquarters of the garrison, and the French commander, Colonel de Castries sent a radio message to the French headquarters saying “The garrison is in the process of disappearing into the jungle. It is impossible to answer for the fate of the wounded…”<br><br>The Viet Minh had defeated the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu, and Colonel de Castries, along with the remnants of the French garrison surrendered. The Viet Minh now controlled the strategic valley of Dien Bien Phu. The battle was a decisive loss for France. After 56 days of fighting the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu had been defeated. Colonel de Castries, and the remnants of the French garrison were taken prisoner, and the Viet Minh had defeated the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu.<br><br>As the remnants of the French garrison were taken prisoner, and led away, the wounded, along with other French troops were left behind to die of their wounds, with no one to help them.<br><br>Colonel de Castries would remain a prisoner of the Viet Minh until 1954 when he was released back to France. The Viet Minh however, would be renamed to the North Vietnamese Army, and Colonel de Castries who had lost the garrison at Dien Bien Phu to the Viet Minh, would find himself on the opposite side of the war in 1959, when the war between North Vietnam, and South Vietnam would erupt, and when North Vietnam would begin to use tactics that the Viet Minh had used at Dien Bien Phu.<br><br>In 1960 Colonel de Castries would return to Indochina with the US army as a liaison officer to the US army and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). In 1963 he was placed in charge of a division of paratroopers in Algeria, but he was removed from command after the division defected to the FLN. He was then placed in charge of another division of paratroopers in 1961, but was again removed from command after the division defected, this time to the OAS. He would be removed from the army, and placed in retirement due to his defeats in Indochina, and Algeria. He died in 1995 at the age of 98.<br><br>The Battle of Dien Bien Phu marked the end of the First Indochina War, which had begun in 1946 between France, and the Viet Minh. The Viet Minh had won the war, and France was forced to withdraw its troops from Indochina. The Battle of Dien Bien Phu was also a decisive loss for France, and it marked the beginning of the end of the French colonial empire.