Dien Bien Phu

>>2500189
Dunno but those rice farmers are hardcore. I mean they wrecked United States too.

>>2500189
>French
something like only 1 bataillion of paratrooper were French, the rest were Germans and colonials

>>2500189
>rice farmers?
>people that have heavier artillery than you, and almost even better weapons are rice farmers

>>2500189
Mostly the terrain. Dien Bien Phu was a very isolated military post hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest French positions. the area is almost entirely mountainous and thought to be impossible for the Viet Minh to tow large amounts of artillery with them.

The opening bombardment shocked the French as they had no idea they were completely surrounded until the battle started, from that point it was just the Viet Minh tightening the noose around the base until the French surrendered.

as for being rice farmers, the North Vietnamese were well trained in hit-and-run tactics and general guerrilla warfare, but most importantly, they were highly mobile and were able to move equipment and soldiers over 80 kilometers a day at times on land in jungle/forest terrain, which is nothing short of amazing given the logistics they had to work with.

>>2500189
Real question is how the superpower got raped by a half a nation of already-bombed jungle monkeys

>>2500189
>get surrounded
>miles and miles away from your nearest position
>heavily outnumbered (almost 5 to 1)
>by an army of fucking fanatics
>an army of fanatics that dissasembled their heavy artillery into bits and pieces to carry part of it BY HAND through mountainous jungle terrain
>fanatics trained in hit-and-run tactis
>armed with decent sovjet artillery
>get bombed for days on end while fighting wave after wave of NV's, who as said above use hit and run tactis, hitting different parts of your already thin spread perimeter at the same time.
>NV's have enough anti air to threaten air support and resupplies.
>stil hold out almost 2 months.
>after the CP gets torn down one post fights on
>fuckers on that post decide to try and push for it
>almost everyone gets shot.
>some french fuck breaks through vietnamese lines almost on his one, manages to sneak through.
>frenchie shows up weeks later, after having crossed an entire fucking jungle escaping the vietnamese.

Dien Bien Phu is one of those battles where i'm actually impressed with both sides. Allthough the French should have made sure they didn't get surrounded in the first place.

>>2500197
>I mean they wrecked United States too
The U.S. never lost a pitched battle like Dien Bien Phu or 18% of it's stationed forces in a single battle. False equivalence.

I think the real question is what could the French have done to win that battle.

>>2501472
Iirc, American advisors told them not to reinforce the valley because it was surrounded. They did it anyways. Start there.

>>2500197
>>2501430
Also, both wars were extremely different

Americans had helicopters, which mean that they could move all over the country to conduce operations easily, and the wounded could be in a hospital less than an hour after getting injured
Meanwhile, the French moved around on foot or with jeeps, so their mobility was pretty shit and they often fell into ambush or got encircled like at Dien Bien Phu
It also meant that the wounded would have to stay in the jungle without care for weeks, which could often be a death sentence

Americans seldom realise how easy they had it in Vietnam thank to helicopters compared to the French who basically fought jungle waffare like it was fought during WW2

>>2501648
>the entire war was fought by Air Cav
"No." The French war may have been uniform, but the American one wasn't.

>>2500189
Come on, it's the French.

Remember kids, don't put your forts on the low ground.

It doesn't matter if nuclear weapons and tanks have been invented, it is never a good idea to put your forts in the low ground.

Also, shovels are an extremely powerful tool.

>>2500189
Straight Outta WW2: The War

>>2503636
#2 rule of warfare. 1st is never attack in disadvantageous conditions (Depends on how severe tho)